It's not at all a nice
idea, is it? But look, Lenox," she went on, pointing downwards, "surely
this isn't air at all, or at least it's something between air and water.
Aren't those things swimming about in it--something like fish in the
sea? They can't be clouds, and they aren't either fish or birds. They
don't fly or float. Well, this is certainly more wonderful than anything
else we've seen, though it doesn't look very pleasant. They're not
nice-looking, are they? I wonder if they are at all dangerous!"
While she was saying this Zaidie had gone to her telescope, and was
sweeping the surface of Saturn, which was now about a hundred miles
distant. Her husband was doing the same. In fact, for the time being
they were all eyes, for they were looking on a stranger sight than man
or woman had ever seen before.
Underneath the inner cloud-veil the atmosphere of Saturn appeared to
them somewhat as the lower depths of the ocean would appear to a diver,
granted that he was able to see for hundreds of miles about him. Its
colour was a pale greenish yellow. The outside thermometers showed that
the temperature was a hundred and seventy-five Fahrenheit. In fact, the
interior of the _Astronef_ was getting uncomfortably like a Turkish
bath, and Redgrave took the opportunity of at once freshening and
cooling the air by releasing a little oxygen from the cylinders.
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