Part 21 (1/2)
And the mysterious being resumed his reading.
THE Ma.n.u.sCRIPT CONTINUED.
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
A LESSON ON VOLCANOES.--PRIMARY COLORS ARE CAPABLE OF FARTHER SUBDIVISION.
”Get into the boat,” said my eyeless pilot, ”and we will proceed to the farther edge of the lake, over the barrier of which at great intervals of time, the surface water flows, and induces the convulsion known as Mount Epomeo.”
We accordingly embarked, and a gentle touch of the lever enabled us rapidly to skirt the sh.o.r.e of the underground sea. The soft, bright, pleasant earth-light continually enveloped us, and the absence of either excessive heat or cold, rendered existence delightful. The weird forms taken by the objects that successively presented themselves on the sh.o.r.e were a source of continual delight to my mind. The motion of our boat was constantly at the will of my guide. Now we would skim across a great bay, flas.h.i.+ng from point to point; again we wound slowly through tortuous channels and among partly submerged stones.
”What a blessing this mode of locomotion would be to humanity,” I murmured.
”Humanity will yet attain it,” he replied. ”Step by step men have stumbled along towards the goal that the light of coming centuries is destined to illuminate. They have studied, and are still engaged in studying, the properties of grosser forces, such as heat and electricity, and they will be led by the thread they are following, to this and other achievements yet unthought of, but which lie back of those more conspicuous.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”WE FINALLY REACHED A PRECIPITOUS BLUFF.”]
We finally reached a precipitous bluff, that sprung to my view as by magic, and which, with a gla.s.s-like surface, stretched upward to a height beyond the scope of my vision, rising straight from the surface of the lake. It was composed of a material seemingly black as jet, and yet when seen under varying spectacular conditions as we skirted its base it reflected, or emitted, most gorgeously the brilliant hues of the rainbow, and also other colors. .h.i.therto unknown to me.
”There is something unique in these shades; species of color appear that I can not identify; I seem to perceive colors utterly unlike any that I know as the result of deflected, or transmitted, sunlight rays, and they look unlike the combinations of primary colors with which I am familiar.”
”Your observations are true; some of these colors are unknown on earth.”
”But on the surface of the earth we have all possible combinations of the seven prismatic rays,” I answered. ”How can there be others here?”
”Because, first, your primary colors are capable of further subdivision.
”Second, other rays, invisible to men under usual conditions, also emanate from the sun, and under favorable circ.u.mstances may be brought to the sense of sight.”
”Do you a.s.sert that the prism is capable of only partly a.n.a.lyzing the sunlight?”
”Yes; what reason have you to argue that, because a triangular bit of gla.s.s resolves a white ray into seven fractions that are, as men say, differently colored, you could not by proper methods subdivide each of these so-called primary shades into others? What reason have you to doubt that rays now invisible to man accompany those capable of impressing his senses, and might by proper methods become perceptible as new colors?”
”None,” I answered; ”only that I have no proof that such rays exist.”
”But they do exist, and men will yet learn that the term 'primitive'
ray, as applied to each of the seven colors of the rainbow, is incorrect. Each will yet be resolved, and as our faculties multiply and become more subtle, other colors will be developed, possessed of a delicacy and richness indescribable now, for as yet man can not comprehend the possibilities of education beyond the limits of his present condition.”
During this period of conversation we skirted the richly colored bluff with a rapid motion, and at last shot beyond it, as with a flash, into seeming vacancy. I was sitting with my gaze directed toward the bluff, and when it instantly disappeared, I rubbed my eyes to convince myself of their truthfulness, and as I did so our boat came gradually to a stand on the edge of what appeared to be an unfathomable abyss. Beneath me on the side where had risen the bluff that disappeared so abruptly, as far as the eye could reach, was an absolute void. To our right, and before and behind us, stretched the surface of that great smooth lake on whose bosom we rested. To our left, our boat brus.h.i.+ng its rim, a narrow ledge, a continuation of the black, gla.s.s-like material, reached only a foot above the water, and beyond this narrow brink the ma.s.s descended perpendicularly to seemingly infinite depths. Involuntarily I grasped the sides of the boat, and recoiled from the frightful chasm, over which I had been so suddenly suspended, and which exceeded anything of a similar description that I had ever seen. The immeasurable depth of the abyss, in connection with the apparently frail barrier that held the great lake in its bounds, caused me to shudder and shrink back, and my brain reeled in dizzy fright. An inexplicable attraction, however, notwithstanding my dread, held me spell-bound, and although I struggled to shut out that view, the endeavor failed. I seemed to be drawn by an irresistible power, and yet I shuddered at the awful majesty of that yawning gulf which threatened to end the world on which I then existed.
Fascinated, entranced, I could not help gazing, I knew not how long, down, down into that fathomless, silent profundity. Composing myself, I turned a questioning glance on my guide.
He informed me that this hard, gla.s.s-like dam confined the waters of the slowly rising lake that we were sailing over, and which finally would rise high enough to overflow the barrier.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”THE WALL DESCENDED PERPENDICULARLY TO SEEMINGLY INFINITE DEPTHS.”]
”The cycle of the periodic overflow is measured by great intervals,” he said; ”centuries are required to raise the level of the lake a fraction of an inch, and thousands of years may elapse before its surface will again reach the top of the adamantine wall. Then, governed by the law that attracts a liquid to itself, and heaps the teaspoon with liquid, the water of the quiet lake piles upon this narrow wall, forming a ledge along its summit. Finally the superimposed surface water gives way, and a skim of water pours over into the abyss.”
He paused; I leaned over and meditated, for I had now accustomed myself to the situation.