During the daylight hours it is
always extremely hot; at night it is intensely cold. Nor does the
thin atmosphere refract the sun's rays or diffuse its light as upon
Earth. There is no twilight on Mars. When the great orb of day
disappears beneath the horizon the effect is precisely as that of
the extinguishing of a single lamp within a chamber. From brilliant
light you are plunged without warning into utter darkness. Then
the moons come; the mysterious, magic moons of Mars, hurtling like
monster meteors low across the face of the planet.
The declining sun lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus,
the crimson sward, the gorgeous forest. Beneath the trees we saw
feeding many herds of plant men. The adults stood aloft upon their
toes and their mighty tails, their talons pruning every available
leaf and twig. It was then that I understood the careful trimming
of the trees which had led me to form the mistaken idea when first
I opened my eyes upon the grove that it was the playground of a
civilized people.
As we watched, our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued
from the base of the cliffs beneath us. Presently there emerged
from the mountain a canoe laden with lost souls from the outer world.
There were a dozen of them. All were of the highly civilized and
cultured race of red men who are dominant on Mars.
The eyes of the herald upon the balcony beneath us fell upon the
doomed party as soon as did ours.
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