Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/335

 an extremer variety of hill and dale, much of which still remained over the surface; so that, amongst elevations of twenty miles or upwards, we found we could very fairly acclimatize ourselves. The somewhat different composition of her atmosphere was really our only trouble, causing us a sickish feeling, especially for a time at first; as, in fact, our own atmosphere occasioned in turn to the Venusians. But even that is braved by many on both sides, for the sake of being free of the perpetual bother of the usual protective apparatus, even under all latest improvements. The Venusian man is hardly different from ourselves, excepting some little in the physical composition, and the hue of the flesh and skin—a rather pretty violet tint, due to the higher average temperature, together with the difference of composition in the atmosphere. From Venus let us now pass to the neighbours on the other side of the way celestial, namely—

Although our first steps had been directed, as just related, to Venus, much greater curiosity was aroused by the prospect of our nearly simultaneous visit to Mars. What delayed us chiefly here was the sufficiently near approach of the red planet's opposition, so as to give us a shorter, safer, and less costly voyage. In visiting Venus we had felt comparatively at home, because we had been so long before in communication, mentally, if not yet corporeally, with her people. But, as regarded the Marsians, we were still perfect strangers to such intercourse. We knew