Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-01-05
CHAPTER XIV.

Among the lost were many men whose
names were famous upon the earth and
whose death would be widely deplored
when tho news of it was received upon
their native planet. Fortunately this
number did not include any of those
whom have had occasion especially to
mention in the course of this narrative.
The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, not
withstanding his age and his pacific dis
position, proper to man of science, had
behaved with the courage and GOODNESS
of veteran in every crisis; NJ. Mois-
san, the eminent chemist; Professor
| Sylvanus Z. Thompson, and the Heidel~
berg professor, to whom we all felt up-
der special obligations because he had
opened to our comprehension the charm
| ing lips of Aina--all these had survived
and were about to return with us to the
earth.
1t seemed to some of us almost heart
less to deprive the Martians who still
remained alive of any of the provisions
which they themselves would require to
tide them over the long period which
must elapse before the recession of the
| food should enable them to discover the
sites of their ruined homes and to find
the means Of sustenanoe. But necessity
was now our only law. We learned
from Alma that there must be stores of
provisions in the neighborhood of the
| palace, because it was the custom of the
Martians to lay up such stores during
the harvest time in each Marian year
in order to provide against the contin-
gency of an extraordinary drought.
1t was not with very good grace that
the Marian emperor acceded to our de-
mands that one of the storehouses should
be opened, but resistance was useless,
and of course we had our way.
The supplies of water which we
brought from the earth, owing to a pc
culiar process invented by M. Moissan,
had been kept in exceedingly good con-
dition, but they were now running low,
and it became necessary to replenish
them also. This was easily done from
the southern ocean, for on Mars since
the leveling Of the continental eleva-
tions, brought about many years ago,
there is comparatively little salinity in
the sea waters.
While these preparations were going
ON Lord Kelvin and the other men of
science entered with the utmost eager
ness upon those studies the prosecution
of which had been the principal induce
ment leading them to embark on the
expedition. But, almost all Of the face
of the planet being covered with the
flood, there was comparatively little
| 10 hox
could be learned with the aid of Alma
from the Martians now crowded on the
land about the palace.
The results of these discoveries will
in due time appear fully elaborated in
learned and authoritative treatises pre-
pared by these savants themselves. l
shall only call attention to one, which
seemed to me very remarkable. l have
already said that there were astonish-
ing differences in the personal appear
ance Of the Martians. evidently arising
from differences Of character and educa-
ton which had impressed themselves
in the physical aspect of the individuals.
We now learned that these differences
were more completely the result of edu-
cation than we had at first supposed
Looking about among the A<rtians
by whom we were surrounded, it soon
became easy for us to tell who were the
soldiers and who were the civilians
simply by the appearance of their bod.
les, and particularly of their heads
All members Of the military class re.
sembled, to greater or less extent, the
monarch himself in that those parts Of
their sknlls which our phrenologists hao
designated rs the bumps of destructive
: ness, colabativeness and so on were
enormously and disproportionately de
veloped.
And all this, rs we were assured
was completely under the control of the
Martians themselves, They had learned