Page:Life in a thousand worlds.djvu/148



FTER I had left the world of Tor-tu I still lingered in the heavens around the planet and examined a few of its moons. While enjoying this pleasing diversion, I learned that not far away, less than one billion miles, there was a world without an atmosphere. This peculiar condition was not new to me, for I had seen, during my never-to-be-forgotten journey, many worlds without gaseous air.

I would not have gone thither had it not been for an unaccountable desire impelling me. Obedient to my impulse, I soon found myself on this odd planet which I have named Airess.

I at once observed that the people are formed without nose or lungs. The nose is substituted by an opening into which liquid air is received and through which it passes to a bodily reservoir of two lobes in the vicinity of the heart. When I saw how these