"I think there can be no question,"said Cortlandt,"that,as a result of Jupiter's great flattening at the poles and the drawing of the crust,which moves faster in Jupiter's rotation than any other part,towards the equator,the crust must be particularly thin here;for,were it as thin all over,there would be no space for the coal-beds,which,judging from the purity of the atmosphere,must be very extensive.Further,we can recall that the water in the hot spring near which we alighted,which evidently came from a far greater depth than we have here,was not as hot as this.The conclusion is clear that elsewhere the internal heat is not as near the surface as here.""The more I see of Jupiter,"exclaimed Bearwarden enthusiastically,"the more charmed I become.It almost exactly supplies what I have been conjuring up as my idea of a perfect planet.Its compensations of high land near the equator,and low with effective internal heat at the poles,are ideal.The gradual slope of its continental elevations,on account of their extent,will ease the work of operating railways,and the atmosphere's density will be just the thing for our flying machines,while Nature has supplied all sources of power so lavishly that no undertaking will be too great.Though land as yet,to judge by our photographs,occupies only about one eighth of the surface,we know,from the experience of the other planets,that this is bound to increase;so that,if the human race can perpetuate itself on Jupiter long enough,it will undoubtedly have one fourth or a larger proportion for occupation,though the land already upheaved comprises fully forty times the area of our entire globe,which,as we know,is still three-fourths water.""Since we have reached what we might call the end of Jupiter,and still have time,continued Ayrault,"let us proceed to Saturn,where we may find even stranger things than here.I hoped we could investigate the great red spot,but am convinced we have seen the beginning of one in Twentieth Century Archipelago,and what,under favourable conditions,will be recognized as such on earth."It was just six terrestrial weeks since they had set out,and therefore February 2d on earth.
"It would be best,in any case,to start from Jupiter's equator,"said Cortlandt,"for the straight line we should make from the surface here would be at right angles to Saturn.We shall probably,in spite of ourselves,swing a few degrees beyond the line,and so can get a bird's-eye view of some portion of the southern hemisphere.""All aboard for Saturn!"cried Bearwarden enthusiastically,in his jovial way."This will be a journey."CHAPTER XIV.
THE SCENE SHIFTS.
Having returned the rugs to the Callisto,they applied the maximum power of the batteries to rising,closed all openings when the barometer registered thirty,and moved off into space.
When Several thousand miles above the pole,they diverted part of the power to attracting the nearest moon that was in the plane of Jupiter's equator,and by the time their upward motion had ceased were moving well in its direction.Their rapid motion aided the work of resisting gravity,since their car had in fact become a small moon,revolving,like those of Uranus or that of Neptune,in an orbit varying greatly from the plane of the ecliptic.As they flew south at a height ranging from two thousand to three thousand miles,the planet revolved before them,and they had a chance of obtaining a thorough view.There were but a few scattered islands on the side of the Northern hemisphere opposite to that over which they had reached the pole,and in the varying colours of the water,which they attributed to temperature or to some substance in solution,they recognized what they had always heard described on earth as the bands of Jupiter,encircling the planet with great belts,the colour varying with the latitude.
At about latitude forty-five these bands were purple,farther south light olive green,and at the equator a brown orange.
Shortly after they swung across the equator the ocean again became purple,and at the same time a well-defined and very brilliant white spot came into view.Its brightness showed slight variations in intensity,though its general shape remained unchanged.It had another peculiarity,in that it possessed a fairly rapid motion of its own,as it moved eastward across the surface of the ocean.It exhibited all the phenomena of the storm they had watched in crossing Secretary Deepwaters Bay,but covered a larger area,and was far more violent.Their glasses showed them vast sheets of spray driven along at tremendous speed,while the surface was milky white.
"This,"said Bearwarden,picking up a book,"solves to my mind the mystery of the white spot described by the English writer Chambers,in 1889,as follows:
"'During the last few years a brilliant white spot has been visible on the equatorial border of the great southern belt.Acurious fact in connection with this spot is,that it moves with a velocity of some two hundred and sixty miles per hour greater than the red spot.Denning obtained one hundred and sixty-nine observations of this bright marking during the years 1880-1883,and determined the period as nine hours,fifty minutes,eight and seven tenths seconds (five and a half minutes less than that of the red spot).Although the latter is now somewhat faint,the white spot gives promise of remaining visible for many years.
During the year 1886a large number of observations of Jupiter were made at the Dearborn Observatory,Chicago,U.S.,by Prof.
G.W.Hough,using the eighteen-and-a-half-inch refractor of the observatory.Inasmuch as these observations are not only of high intrinsic interest,but are in conflict,to some extent,with previous records,a somewhat full abstract of them will be useful:The object of general interest was the great red spot.
