第55章 BOOK II.(31)

"It is wonderful,"said Bearwarden,"how comparatively narrow a body of water can keep different species entirely separate.

The island of Sumatra,for instance,is inhabited by marsupials belonging to the distinct Australian type,in which the female,as in the kangaroo,carries the slightly developed young in a pouch;while the Malay peninsula,joined to the mainland,has all the highly developed animals of Asia and the connected land of the Eastern hemisphere,the narrow Malacca Strait being all that has kept marsupials and mammals apart,though the separating power has been increased by the rapid current setting through.

This has decreased the chance of creatures carried to sea on drift-wood or uprooted trees getting safely over to such a degree that apparently none have survived;for,had they done so,we may be certain that the mammals,with the advantage their young have over the marsupials,would soon have run them out,the marsupials being the older and the less perfect form of life of the two."Before leaving the beautiful sea-girt region beneath them,Cortlandt proposed that it be named after their host,which Bearwarden seconded,whereupon they entered it as Ayrault Island on the charts.After this they rose to a great height,and flew swiftly over three thousand miles of ocean till they came to another island not quite as large as the first.It was four thousand five hundred miles long by something less than three thousand wide,and was therefore about the size of Africa.It had several high ranges of mountains and a number of great rivers and fine harbours,while murmuring,bubbling brooks flowed through its forest glades.There were active volcanoes along the northern coast,and the blue,crimson,and purple lines in the luxuriant foliage were the most beautiful they had ever seen.

"I propose,"said Bearwarden,"that we christen this Sylvialand."This Cortlandt immediately seconded,and it was so entered on the charts.

"These two islands,"said Bearwarden,"may become the centres of civilization.With flying machines and cables to carry passengers and information,and ships of great displacement for the interchange of commodities,there is no limit to their possible development.The absence of large waves will also be very favourable to sea-spiders,which will be able to run at tremendous speeds.The constancy in the eruptions of the volcanoes will offer a great field to Jovian inventors,who will unquestionably be able to utilize their heat for the production of steam or electricity,to say nothing of an inexhaustible supply of valuable chemicals.They may contain the means of producing some force entirely different from apergy,and as superior to electricity as that is to steam.Our earthly volcanoes have been put to slight account because of the long intervals between eruptions."After leaving Sylvialand they went westward to the eastern of the two crescent continents.It was separated from the island by about six thousand miles of ocean,and had less width than the western,having about the proportions of a three-day crescent,while the western had the shape of the moon when four or five days old.They found the height of the mountains and plateaus somewhat less than on the eastern continent,but no great difference in other respects,except that,as they went towards the pole,the vegetation became more like that of Scotland or a north temperate region than any they had seen.On reaching latitude fifty they again came out over the ocean to investigate the speckled condition they had observed there.They found a vast archipelago covering as great an area as the whole Pacific Ocean.The islands varied from the size of Borneo and Madagascar to that of Sicily and Corsica,while some contained but a few square miles.The surface of the archipelago was about equally divided between land and water.

"It would take good navigation or an elaborate system of light-houses,"said Bearwarden,"for a captain to find the shortest course through these groups."The islands were covered with shade trees much resembling those on earth,and the leaves on many were turning yellow and red,for this hemisphere's autumn had already begun.

"The Jovian trees,"said Cortlandt,"can never cease to bear,though the change of seasons is evidently able to turn their colour,perhaps by merely ripening them.When a ripe leaf falls off,its place is doubtless soon taken by a bud,for germination and fructification go on side by side."Before leaving,they decided to name this Twentieth Century Archipelago,since so much of the knowledge appertaining to it had been acquired in their own day.At latitude sixty the northern arms of the two continents came within fifteen hundred miles of each other.The eastern extension was split like the tail of a fish,the great bay formed thereby being filled with islands,which also extended about half of the distance across.

The western extremity shelved very gradually,the sand-bars running out for miles just below the surface of the water.

After this the travellers flew northward at great speed in the upper regions of the air,for they were anxious to hasten their journey.They found nothing but unbroken sea,and not till they reached latitude eighty-seven was there a sign of ice.They then saw some small bergs and field ice,but in no great quantities.

As their outside thermometer,when just above the placid water--for there were no waves here--registered twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit,they accounted for this scarcity of ice by the absence of land on which fresh water could freeze,and by the fact that it was not cold enough to congeal the very salt sea-water.