When two-thirds of the distance between Jupiter and Saturn had been
traversed, Ringed Orb lay beneath them like a vast globe surrounded by
an enormous circular ocean of many-coloured fire, divided, as it were,
by circular shores of shade and darkness. On the side opposite to them a
gigantic conical shadow extended beyond the confines of the ocean of
light. It was the shadow of half the globe of Saturn cast by the Sun
across his rings. Three little dark spots were also travelling across
the surface of the rings. They were the shadows of Mimas, Enceladus, and
Tethys, the three inner satellites. Japetus, the most distant, which
revolves at a distance ten times greater than that of the Moon from the
Earth, was rising to their left above the edge of the rings, a pale,
yellow, little disc shining feebly against the black background of
Space. The rest of the eight satellites were hidden behind the enormous
bulk of the planet and the infinitely vaster area of the rings.
Day after day Zaidie and her husband had been exhausting the
possibilities of the English language in attempting to describe to each
other the multiplying marvels of the wondrous scene which they were
approaching at a speed of more than a hundred miles a second, and at
length Zaidie, after nearly an hour's absolute silence, during which
they sat with eyes fastened to their telescopes, looked up and said:
"It's no use, Lenox, all the fine words that we've been trying to think
of have just been wasted.
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