The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-11
we can have as little conception as man
born blind has Of the color scarlet.

Of the most serviceable item in casual
conversation. They can never talk about
| the weather. They have got no weather
! there. They have no idea corresponding
| to the word weather.
Weather with us implies heat and cold,
clouds and Sunshine, wind and rain, mists
aid fogs, frost and thaw, snow and hail.
| But in Benthia there are no clouds, there
| is no sun, no wind and no rain, there is
neither mist nor fog; nor yet frost or snow.
| The temperature there is always the same,
10 that the sensations OF heat or cold as
We have them would not be Ineligible.
OF changes OF tho thermometer there
would be none. for the mercury would
never rise or fall from one end OF the year
| to the other. The barometer would stand
not at 30 inches as it does with US, but at
about $50 yards.
+! Artificial light they might have, as
| have already explained, but there is no
reason to think they have any artificial
heat. They do no cooking in Benthia, neither
do they wear any raiment.
| In this strange world of which we are
| speaking animals thrive most abundantly,
but there are no plants. The blessed beams
OF a sun are necessary to the life OF plants,
and as there are no sunbeams in Benthia
| vegetation Is unknown.
There is no tillipg OF the soil, no harvesting
OF crops, no trees, no grass, no ferns, no
fungi, no alg@, not a moss nor lichen.
| How then, you will ask, are the innumer-
able multitudes Of inhabitants of Benthia
fed and nourished? They are fed as the
Israelites OF old were fed by mama that
rains down on them from above.
On the mighty plains of Benthia the in
| hal ;topte toll MT nathan do fhav epip
But they watch for the dainty morsels
which are ever pouring down for their
support Food in pr2fusion is shed upon
| item.
The limitation At the population in this
| remarkable county seems to be caused
not by the limitation Of food; the lirnita-
ton OF numbers is rather due to the pres
sure on the space in which they live. There
are no vacant localities on the plains OF
Benthia; they are all thro nged with life,
all swarm with inhabitants.
The struggle for life in these regions
seems to depend not so much on the diff
ficulty OF getting food. it depends rather
on the difficulty OF finding a quiet place
| in which to consume it.
Those inhabitants who have been lucky
enough to succeed In securing a squatting
frequently attach themselves thereto so
that they shall under no circumstances be
hustled away. Others again are little
more enterprising, and to facilitate them
in sweeping round 80 as to insure a copious
share OF the delicate morsels forever
coming down from above they moor them
selves by a rope This fixes each one to
the particular plot he has appropriated,
and thus secures him from encroachment
| by his neighbors while yet enabling him to
forage we'll in the vicinity.
As might be expected, some of the animals
in Benthia prey upon each other. Fero-
cious monsters with jaws one-third as long
as their bodies, and armed with cruel teeth,
distlain to be fixed or to have their wander
ings circumscribed by tether. They pre-
fer to cruise freely about 80 that they may
capture and devour the creatures that have
fattened upon the food coming from above.
II Is these monsters which chiefly carry
those portable lights to which l have re-
ferred. 1t might almost be said that some
OF these lights are adapted like bulls eye
lanterns to peer into the dark corners and
thus disclose to the predatory eyes the
dainty mouthfuls that may there be lurking
in fancied security.
But we have not yet done with the Won
ders Of Benthia.
Inc terrestrial IuOuileT, lOOhlHR tHe
welfare Of her progeny, warns them of the
dangers of climbing and Of the terrible falls
that may ensue, which sometimes cause
such uproar. have no doubt that a care
full mother in Bentha would also warn her
young Of the dangers of climbing. but her
apprehensions on this score are based on
very different reasons from those of the
terrestrial mother.
Ia ~ re Col . hot
is not the danger which climbing presents
to the infant Benthite. The risk is not that
he should fall down, but that he should
20 to perdition the other way by unlimited
ascension.
In spite perhaps, OF excellent warning,
not a few such catastrophies do occur,
and indeed 1t was largely by such accident
that our first knowledge OF the existence of
Bentha was acquired.
Let me Just add few further particulars.
In our world we have air to breathe, and we
live under a pressure Of about fourteen or
fifteen pounds to each square inch. But
the inhabitants Of Bentha have no air to
breathe and they do not want any. while,
instead OF living under a pressure OF fifteen
pounds to the square inch, they live under
a pressure which Is hundred and fifty
times as great
Such Is in brief outline the nature Of the
life in q country which Is far larger than
what we ordinarily consider as the habit
able parts OF our globe.
Nor have / drawn here a sketch OF that
which is In dreamland and in dreamland
only, nor is 1t even a sketch OF the condition
OF life on some globe other than our own.
/ admit have given you sketch of very
strange world, but it Is not an imaginary
world.
Benthia, the place have sought to indi-
cate, is indeed a part OF our own globe.
The country in question is nothing but
the floor OF the deep ocean.
Everything that have stated has its par
allel in facts concerning the life at the bot
tom OF the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans
On these immense tracts life seems to
abound on every spot Incalculable myriads
Of creatures. many Of them Of a highly
organized character, are living In the depths
of ocean under the pressure OF ton on
the square inch, are living under that mid