The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-06
A JOURNEY TO THE SUN.
BY JULES VERNE, JR.

bf JO LES NENNEf
 Sir Fillemup Frog was au English bar onet. He was cold, calm, passionless man-almost as cold, calm, and passion less as he was English, For years he had been a member of the London Beefsteak Club.
 Sir Fillemup had three friends at the club. They fnet every evening to bet They would bet on anything. One day they bet on the length of their respective feet. Sir Fillemup won by two laps.
 would be willing to bet that can climb up to the sum-" said he.
 His friends bet Tim twenty thousand pounds, and the money was staked
 will start in three days" he said, calmly.
 "And how long will you be gone2' they asked.
 "Ten days" was the cool response.
 From that moment Sir Elllemup Frog absented himself from the club. Hewas preparing for his flight.
 His preparations were simple. First he procured suit of Japan silk, light and flexible. Then he pulled on a pair of boots of his own invention. The legs reached to his armpits. The soles were of gun-barrels, arranged perpendicularly. From a belt at his waist depended two four-thousand-ton columbiads. The guns aud columbiads were so arranged as to load and fire themselves sixty times a minute. The process was SO simple as to make explanation unnecessary. With the recoil from the firing of these pieces, Sir Fillemup proposed to secure a veloc- ity of million miles an hour This would enable him to reach the sun in four days and twety-three hours. He calculated to remain there for two days Then reversing himself, he proposed to turn h;s guns loose again, and return to the earth in the same time occupied by his ascent
 He had fixed May 7h, at one o'clock in the morning. A framework had been built to suspend him until he could get his or 1nance in working order. At sig- nal the 2 uns opened and Sir Fillemup dashed into the air. He had not mis- calculated his velocity, though it seemed to him that he ought to have reached his destination in about ten minutes at the rate he was going. Still his pedometer showed only rate of a million miles an hour. He had no way of knowing when he left the earth's atmosphere, save by the impenetrable darkness by which he was surrounded. Light is the result of reflection. There was nothing upon which the sun could reflect, and Sir Fill emup was in darkness after leaving the earth's atmosphere, except when he looked straight at the sum- It was to him then perfectly round ball, afording neither light nor heat. His guns, and cannons did not produce any report. There being no atmosphere to echo their reverberations, they did not reverberate He did not feel that he was moving. He seemed suspended in space. Still he was nearing the sun. He could see it drawing closer.
 At the end of the second day he ap- peared to be surrounded by a yellow nebula. It was not dense, but series of not unpleasant shocks showed that he was passing through a magnetic influ- ence. The yellow belt appeared to be composed of sparks, that compelled him to cover his face and hands. They were apparently iron filings in state of fusion His dress was protected from danger of fire by preparation of alum.
 Toward the middle of the third day he emerged from this zone, and entered another of intense cold and feavfully dark. Beyond, he could see peculiar mass of m alter, brownish in color and oval in shape. Passing through the frigid belt the detonations ot his cannons almost deafened him. It was clear that he had again entered an atmosphere. The temperature was higher by several feet. During the afternoon he passed through the warmer zone, and at twelve o'clock, just ninety. five hours after leav- ing the earth, he stood on the dun. col ored mass. He had reached the sun.
 What struck him as most peculiar was the warn, even temperature. There was no intense heat. Everything around gave the impression of iron, not in state of fusion, as he expected to find it, but moderate.
 No sooner had he landed than his cannons and guns were torn from him. They stuck fast to the surface of the sun. He recognized the reason. He was on an immense magnet. How large he could not tell. He thought of the yellow zone and the cold belt through which he had passed, and saw the solar principle at a glance. The sun was but fountain of electricity, generating heat and light, and feeling but little of either.
 He had two days and two hours at his disposal He was alone. There was no sign of vegetation or animal life. There were no shadows. Even the inequality of the surface cast no shade. He walked lonely and shadowless on the barren creator of all life. Around him, like an aurora, gleamed the yellow mist of the outer circle. There were no stars. There were no worlds. He occupied the life giving essence, oblivious to every living thing save himself. He put in two days