beautiful to pass by with a mere glance. Half illuminated, owing to the
greater distance of Mars from the sun and the position of the planets at
that time, Earth appeared about the size the moon looks to the naked
eye. But what a wonderful sight! Bathed in sunlight lay the eastern half
of the continents of North and South America, faintly outlined by the
pale blue of the western portion of the Atlantic Ocean. So familiar was
I with the appearance of these two great continents as drawn in an
atlas, that I had difficulty in recognizing them as they now appeared.
Mexico and Central America seemed almost as broad as that part of the
United States from San Francisco to Washington; the whole tapering down
from Canada to Cape Horn almost in the shape of a cone.

Aeronauts passing over a lake or river are able to see the bottom, owing
to their altitude; this was undoubtedly the explanation of the strange
appearance of the continents of North and South America. On account of
the enormous distance I was away from Earth, the shallow waters appeared
as land, obliterating completely the familiar coast line, and only the
extreme depth of an ocean showed a pale blue.

Night covered Europe and Africa, which would otherwise have been visible
to me, and the shadow of darkness was steadily creeping across the
Atlantic Ocean, as the Earth revolved upon its axis. I could not
suppress a shudder at the thought that I must cover that enormous
distance ere it revolved too far.

I now moved the lever that controlled the current, and at once the lens
in the receiving apparatus shone with a brilliant dark blue color. The
current of super-radium had reached Earth and returned in less than a
second, and I saw, beautifully pictured before me, an expanse of ocean
with waves tumbling and tossing so near me that it seemed as if I were