Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-05-03

He w
gering race between the two, which end
ed by pitching me on the ground third
time.
Beyond measure astonished, and not
little frightened, / sat still and wondered
what the cause could be. In moment II
flashed upon me- Nothing could be SIM
pier. and the wonder is that mad not
Thought Of it at once The diameter of
Mars being, according to the usually &C.
cepted opinion about orty-one-seventy-
ninths that of the earth, and its density
about nineteen-twentieths, its attractive
force at its surface would be only about
one-half that of the earth at its surface
To verify this explanation, l tried how
far / could Jump, and found that | could
lump considerably more than double the
distance I could upon the earth; though
again my jump, from my mlscalculatl1on
of distance, sent me spraWllng on the
ground. | next tried running. My first
ATTEMPT at this was as unsuccessful as
that at walking, and ended IN a nasty
fall, which shook me not little. But
Dersevered, and in spite of two or three
more unpleasant falls, | at last mastered
the art. And most delighted was When
found that had done so; for this Mar
sian. long-striding style of running car
ried me at more than double the speed at
which | run on the earth.
Walking, strange to say, found more
difficult to learn than running, and when
learnt, less agreeable to practlce; SO Inat
finally gave it up as unsulted to TINS
planet When / did not want to go very
fast, preferred a slow, leisurely trot;;
[ had left the Shooting Star on the
right bank of the little river already
mentioned, near it's mouth, at about 100
yards from the sea, and had pursued my
course up the valleys jumping and gam
boiling just like schoolboy ID n, the very
exuberance of my spirits. The river,
which flowed over a rocky bottom and
was as clear as crystal, was in several
places so narrow that, with my newly
acquired agility, / could cross it at
bound. Seeing some trees on the other
side loaded with notwithstanding fruit,
[ bounded across, and climbed up the
nearest of them. The fruit was pear
shaped, and covered with soft down
like that on a peach or apricot. AS
saw squirrel-like animal RECALLING it.
self on the same fruit on nelghborlng
tree, reasoned that it could not be poi
sonous; so [ did not hesitate to follow
it's example / found the fruit delicious;
it's taste was somewhat like that of
peach, but with peculiar pleasant flavor
not unlike that of an orange.
| was now anxious to get back to the
safe shelter of my Shooting Star; SO
jumped down from my tree and sped
back as fast as | could to the place
where l had left it.
| met with nothing worth recording
till | arrived; but on my arrival did
see something that astOnlsned me. In
my eagerness to tread upon actual Mar
sian ground, [ had leapt out of my ma
chine and had gone jumping and rum
ming and wandering on and on without
having taken any precaution whatever to
secure the safety of the Shooting Star.
The excitement Of my novel position
seemed for the time to have bereft me
of the most ordinary common sense and
I OH how oil End no
whole machine in such way that no
animal could touch it with impunity;
but l neglected to do SO. / never even
thought of shutting and securing the
door behind me. The consequence was
that on my return | found the Shoot
which looked more like wolf than any
thing else | can think of, crouched in the
furtheSt end with its face turned to-
wards me. While | was standing and
celebrating what [ had better do, the
creature saw me, and setting up pite-
Gus howl, rose up very slowly and with
much seeming difficulty, and began with
the same slowness and apparent diff
Guilty to drag one leg after another to-
wards the door. 1t took it a minute or
two to reach it; and when it did, it fell
out of the machine on it's back. To nv
astonishment and bewilderment it was
on its legs again in an instant, and dart
ed off with the speed and vigor of a.
greyhound.
Here was a fresh puzzle for me.
Whence the apparent feebleness of the
animal when in my machine, and it's evil
dent~Vlgor the moment it got out of it?
l FASTENED into the Shooting Star, half
fearing that something had gone wrong
with it. ! had no sooner got inside than
the sensation of lightness and buoyancy
which | had felt before vanished. Ny
strength seemed to have forsaten me.
Ny legs, my arms, my head, my whole
body felt all at once as if weighted with
lead. 1 could walk, but the walking was
a WEAKNESS and trouble to me-
Thoroughly alarmed, [ dropped down
into my steering seat, and set my brain
to work to find out what all this could
mean. But l was soon treasured. The
sight Oh the regulator in front of me re-
called me to my proper senses, and at
once explained the mystery If my mind
had not been intoxicated and thrown off
its balance by the strange sensations
which l had experienced in my hopping
and jumping expedition up the valley, the
matter would not have presented itself to
me as mystery at all. 1t was per-
fectly natural, and hadsno, reasonswhat-
ever to alarm myself. The regulator,
as have said, explained it all. Ever
since | had left the earth [ had so regu-
lated the attracting and repelling forces
of my machine that their resultant in
whatever position the machine might be
placed, always drew me towards it's bot
tom, and with strength equal, or nearly
equal, to that of the earth's attraction at
the surface. My legs, arms, head and
body were not really heavier than they
had been when on the earth, nor was
my strength to support them diminished,
but the contrast between my Marsian
and terrestrial sensations was so great
that, in passing from the one to the 9TH
er, the new sensation was greatly in
tensifed. After few minutes, I found
that l could walk about the. Shooting
Star with perfect ease, and with no more
sensation of fatigue than was natural
after my unwonted exercise.
1t was now fifteen minutes past g.
local Marsian time, and the setting sun
was already sinking slowly in the ocean.
1t will be remembered that when / first
admitted Marsian air into the Shooting
Star l smeit a peculiar aromatic odor
somewhat resembling that of the honey
suckle. AS | proceeded up the valley
the odor grew fainter and fainter, till at
last it ceased altogether. Other odors
n1110 tod -