Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/174

 that he was fully alive to the beauties of the mighty panorama which was unrolling itself to my gaze.

Mountains of vast height, stretches of dense forest, fertile plains through which rivers coursed; and then the seas, long  land-locked gatherings of reddish water, extending as far as  the eyes could reach; yet the prevailing color of the land  was green, just as on our earth; but when wonderingly I  glanced back at the clouds behind me, I saw that they, like  the water, were of a dull, red color, and it flashed upon me  that I had solved a mighty problem which has preplexed [sic]  the astronomers of every age.

On, and still on! Nearer and nearer we approached the surface of the planet. We were descending upon a city beside which London is but an infant. I could see the people swarming through the streets. Here Mr. Mirrikh and his parti-colored face would be no novelty, for every  face I saw was of the same mould, half black—half yellow;  otherwise the people were like the dwellers on our earth  except in the matter of dress, which was, with the men only a  simple girdle of some dark cloth about the waist, while the  women wore a loose gown of blue material, gathered in  about the hips and thence dropping to the feet.

So intent was I in watching them that thus far I had scarcely comprehended the fact that I felt interest in other things.

Suddenly a voice seemed to speak in my ear, sounding like the voice of Mr. Mirrikh.

“Look at the city, friend Wylde! Never mind the people.”

Strange that I had not thought of this before!

Still I gazed, my eyes roaming here and there, each individual structure seeming to separate from the others and impress itself on my brain with incredible rapidity.

Houses like ours they were not. For the most part they were low, square structures, ranged along broad streets, not  close together, but with gardens between. I saw no building of any elegance; no vehicles, no animals of any kind; no sign of market place, churches, shops or any sort of  business, Suddenly in their roaming my eyes seemed to fix  themselves upon one huge building which I can only compare with the Mormon tabernacle at Salt Lake City; it was  of but one story, and covered an amazing extent of ground;  just a vast, oval roof of snowy whiteness, supported on tastefully carved columns, ornamented with birds, flowers and