A JOURNEY TO THE SUN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 176, 26 July 1880, Page 4

A JOURNEY TO THE SUN.

Sir Fillemup Frog was an Eoglish Baronet. He was a cold, calm, passionless men— almoßt as cold, cslm, and passionless as be was English. For years he bad been a member of the London Beefsteak Club. Kegularly every morning he took his breakfast. He was a man of methodical habit. Nothing was allowed to interfere with his breakfasting in the morning. During the day he ate two other meals. At night he took bis supper. Early in life he had contracted the habit of eating. ■ In his old age the bnblt was bis master. Sir Filleraup had three friends at the club. They met every evening to bet. Tbey would bet on anything. One day tbey bet on the length of their respective h&t. Sir Fillemup wen by two laps. "'I would be willing to bet that I could climb np to the Bun," eaid be. His friends bet him twenty thousand pounds, and tbe money was Btnked. ' "I will start in tbree days," be eaid, calmly. " And how long will you be gone," tbey asked. "Ten days," was the cool response. From that moment Sir Fillemup Frog^absented himself from tbe Club. He was preparing for his flight. His preparations were simple. First ba procured a suit of Japan silk, light | and flexible. Tben he pulled on a y pair of boots of bis own invention. Tho legs reached to the^crropUs. Tbe soles were of gunbatrels, 'arranged perpenoicolarly. From a belt at bis waist depended two four thousand ton columhiads. The gun and columbiads were so arranged es to load nnd fire themselves sixty times a minute. Tbe process was fo simple as to make explanation unnecessary. Witb the recoil from the firing of these pieces Sir Fillemup proposed to secure a velocity of a million miles an hour. This would enable him to reach the sun in ' four days and twenty-three houre. He calculated to remain there for two days. Then reversing himself he proposed to turn his guns loose again and return to the earth in the same time occupied by bio ascent. * He bad fixed the 7th of May, at 1 o'clock ih tbe morning. A framework bad been built to suspend him until be could get his ordnance in working order. At a sip-oft! tbe guns opened fire and Sir dashed into tbe air. He !od not miscalculated his velocity, though v it seemed to bim tbat be ought to bave reached his destination in about ten minutes at the rate he was going. Still hio pedometer showed only a rate of a million miles an hour. Be had uo way of knowing when he left the earth's atmosphere save by the impenetrable darkness by which bo wes surrounded. Light is the result, of rfflection. There I

was nothing npon which the sun could reflect, and Sir FiUetnup was in darktsoss after leaving the earth's atmosphere, except when be looked straight at the sun. It was to him then a perfeci ly round ball, affording neither light nor heat. His guns and cannons did not produce any report. There being no atmosphere to echo tbeir reverberations, tbey did not reverberate. He did not feel (hat he was moving. He seemed suspended in space. Still he was nearing the sun. He could see it drawing closer. At the end of the second dey he ap* peered to be surrounded by a yellow nebula. It was not denee, but a series of oot unpleasant shocks showed that be was passing through a magnetic influnnce. The yellow belt appeared to be composed of sparks thafc compelled him to cover his face and hands. Tbey were apparently iron filings iv a state of fusion. His dress wos protected ' from danger of fire by a preparation of alum. Towards the middle of tbe third day ho emerged from this zone ond entered another of intense cold and fearfully dark. Beyond he could see a peculiar mass of matter, brownish in colour and oval in shape. Passing through the frigid belt the detonations of his cannons almost deafened hira. It was clear that he had again entered an atmosphere. Tho temperature was higher by several feet. During tbe afternoon he parsed through the warmer zone, and at twelve o'clock, just ninft/-five hours after leaving the earth, he stood on the duu-coloured mass. He had reached the sun. What struck hira as most peculiar was the warm, even temperature, There waa no intense h:»at. Everything around bim gave the impression of iron, not in a 6tate of fußioD, as he expected to find it, but moderate. No sooner bad be landed than his cannons and guns were torn from him. They stuck fest to the surface of the euu. He recognised the reason. He wos on on immense magnet. How, large, he could not tell. He thought of the yellow zone and the cold belt through which he had passed, and saw the solar principle at a glance. Tho sun waß but a fountain of electricity, generating heat end light, and. feeling but little of either. He had two days and two hours at his disposal. He was alone. There were no signs of vegetation or animal life. There were no sbadowe. Kven the inequality of tne surface cast no shade. He walked lonely and ehadowloß3 on the barren oreator of all life. Around him, like an aurora, gleamed the yellow mist of the outer circle. There were no stars. There were no worlds. He occupied the life-giving essence, oblivious to every living thing cave himself. He put io two dayß on this line and then prepared to depart.

But hia cannons and guns were immovable. He couldn't wrench the, smallest rifle from its fastening. The: magnet held tbem like a vice. How should be return to the earth ? Then he remembered that there was no gravitation except" to metal. Slipping off a boot he found he wss lighter bocause the nails bnd kept bioa down. Should be Blip off the other aud take a step he would remain in mid-sir. He could not fall again to the sun. He oould not lenve it, because he was not within the influence of any other gravitation or atmosphere. Then he must die in spece, a few feet from substance, But be could not die. The conditions were inimical to death. Already he felt an exhilaration unknown to biro. Life was pouring into bis veins at a rale even then oppressive. He would be smothered with life without power of dissolution. Suddenly he bethought him—the magnetism can be beaten out of iron by a sharp blow. He had no stone to beat with, but dripping water is more powerful than rock, since it will wear rock away. He began to expectorate. In an hour L he had^'spifc one cannon loose. In another hour the second, columbiad was free. He had now exactly time, to the minute, to returb. But he had not time to release the smaller weapons, and without their recoil could he effect his return in the prescribed time? He would try it. Starting his columbiads he found himself in space. He had no idea how fast he travelled. His face was turned from the sun, and there was no light. Composing himself, he slept. "When he came to consciousness he was in the hospital in London, with his three friends bending over him congratulating him on having won his wager. He had stiuck the earth, but not hard enough to injure him seriously. The reason waß that he had been ten days without air, and when he struck the atmosphere he had inhaled so much that he swelled up like a balloon. The. swelling burst his boots off, and his columbiad dropped into the sea while he floated softly down and reached the ground with one minute to spare. An air pump had relieved him of extra pressure, and he was almost as good as new. — Jules Verne, Jun.