An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars Read online

  At dawn, after waking up, almost every day for a fortnight, on a regular basis, we found a new letter with an American postmark on our work-desk, already open.

  The origin of this mysterious correspondence remains unknown to us, despite the most scrupulous research.

  The first two were inserted in an evening newspaper. Their appearance caused an emotion of excitement in all our minds at the time, which has not yet calmed in England and Germany. Details of the information they contained were reproduced by almost all the newspapers in Europe, which confirmed or added to them.

  We decided today to publish the others. As they complete the preceding items and treat philosophical and scientific matters that are currently highly controversial, such as the origin of species, the transformation of creatures, spontaneous generation and the plurality of worlds, we think that they will be read with some interest by all thinking men and advanced minds.

  We reproduce them here absolutely as we received them, neither omitting anything nor adding anything. We have only permitted ourselves to annotate those passages which demanded clarification or required correction.

  H. de P.

  LETTER I

  Correspondence from Richmond. An unprecedented discovery. Widespread rumors in America. In which a search is made for oil and a mummy is discovered. A buried aerolith. Excitement in the scientific world. A petrified man. Where has he come from? A fossiliferous tomb. Four planets and a conclusion. An inhabitant of another world.

  A scientific discovery of capital importance has been made in the Arapaho region a few miles from James Peak.1 A rich landowner in the neighborhood, Mr. Paxton, had begun digging for oil. One morning, the pick-axe rebounded from an extremely hard rock; the alluvial deposit having been traversed, a carboniferous layer had been reached and the work was continuing in the paleozooic stratum.2 It was thought that a metal seam had been reached and a drill was brought into play; it sent back a sort of conglomerate formed of traprock, porphyry, quartz crystals and metallic composites.

  Mr. Davis, a highly distinguished geologist from Pittsburgh, begged Mr. Paxton to follow this accumulation, and, after a fortnight’s work, the upper part of an enormous slightly ovoid mass had been stripped bare. Its composition is distinct not only from that of the neighboring rocks but from any specimen discovered on our globe until now.

  The mass measures about 85 yards in its largest diameter and 30 in its smallest. Enormous saccharoid fractures are visible within it, making anfranctuosities and doubtless indicating the places where fragments of it must have been explosively detached. The entire mass is coated on the outside with a sort of black enamel of variable thickness comprised of metallic silicates. Beneath this coat, according to Mr. Davis, the rock is formed of alkaline and earthen silicates of iron, manganese, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, copper, tin, arsenic, sulfur, alkaline chlorides, ammonium chlorohydrate, traces of silver chloride, traces of cesium and large quantities of graphite, with a gaseous layer interposed at a depth of one meter, comprising nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen arsenide.

  The extremely peculiar composition of this mass left the geologists in no doubt. The mass encountered at the foot of James Peak is not of terrestrial origin; it is an aerolith, and certainly the most curious ever seen, firstly by virtue of its composition and its large volume, but more especially because of its situation. Never before has it been possible to discover any kind of aerolith in the succession of ancient strata.

  It is rare for strokes of good luck to occur singly. A second discovery was bound to follow the first, and its importance is such that, at the time of writing, it is causing an even greater stir among the country’s intelligentsia. The war has almost been forgotten, and curiosity-seekers are flocking to the Arapaho region.

  A commission has been established in the neighborhood to examine the Paxton/David aerolith; it had the good idea of piercing the mass along the axis of its larger diameter. At a depth of four meters the composition changed noticeably. Up to that point, the rock presented traces of fusion; in its course through our atmosphere, the bolide had heated up and its surface had melted. Beyond that depth, however, the material became porphyroid, with very large crystals, about the size of an egg, composed of amphibole,3 quartz or feldspar. This was followed by quartzite, with veins of iron and copper. At seven meters, the composition changed to granite with silver crystals. At 20 meters, the drill was advancing slowly through ophite 4 when the bit suddenly screeched and rebounded. It simultaneously lost purchase and jumped, making a hollow sound, ending up a few meters further down. A jet of unbreathable gas emerged, reaching the workmen.

  The hole made by the drill was enlarged and a shaft was hollowed out. It took no less than ten days—ten days of waiting and unsatisfied curiosity!

  Finally, Mr. John Paxton, the son of the landowner, and Mr. Davis went down to the bottom of the hole. There were a few minutes of hesitation before they came back. They were both very pale. Mr. Paxton was carrying a sort of stout amphora made of white metal—silver and zinc—pockmarked with little holes and bizarre designs.

  Whence came this vase? What was it doing at the bottom of the shaft? Those were the questions pressing on everyone’s lips.

  “At the bottom of the hole,” the two explorers reported, “we found the amphora embedded horizontally in the ophite; the drill-bit had touched it and partially detached it; about six feet lowers down, our feet came to rest on a metal sheet, which resonated dully and seemed to be encased in the rock. Above it and to the left, but too deeply embedded in the rock for us to be able to extract them, we made out several more metal amphorae, with yellow rods of some sort.”

  Too much curiosity had been excited for the matter to rest there. The hole at the bottom of the shaft was enlarged until the metal covering was fully exposed. It was dented all over, granulated, oxidized, black in places and even melted. They worked all night, but it was not until the evening of the third day that the metal plate became detachable. They proceeded carefully, for fear of inflammable gas, but there was no explosion when the lamps were sent down. Two workmen and Messrs. John Paxton, Davis and Murchison removed the heavy plate, which was about six feet wide.

  The lamps shone a yellowish light into the excavation and illuminated it. The watching men could not retrain a cry of astonishment. Before their eyes was a rectangular space about three feet deep and six feet wide, most certainly hewn out of granite. The empty space was heaped almost everywhere with calcareous concretions, something like stalagmites, which sparkled in the lamplight. In the center, a human form of short stature, seemingly enveloped in a calcareous shroud, was clearly visible. He was lying down, fully extended, and measured scarcely four feet in height. His slightly-raised head vanished into a cushion of calcium carbonate and his legs also disappeared beneath the calcareous envelope.

  It was very difficult to extract this stony tomb from its granite walls, and it was necessary to enlarge the shaft to bring it up to the surface. The calcium carbonate had molded itself to the gap and had undoubtedly been precipitated there chemically. It was corroded by acid; it was evidently siliceous chalk similar in every respect to terrestrial chalk. It was cut through horizontally and transversally; by this means a veritable mummy—admirably preserved, although a trifle carbonized in places—was successfully laid bare.

  The feet, which were very small, could only be extracted in a badly damaged state. The head came out very nearly intact: devoid of hair; skin glossy and crumpled, having passed into a leathery state; brain-cavity triangular in shape; singularly hatchet-faced, with a sort of trunk emerging almost from the forehead instead of a nose; a very small mouth with only a few teeth; two orbital holes, from which the eyes had doubtless been extracted, since the cavities were full of calcareous concretions. The arms were very long, hanging down beyond the thighs, the hands five-fingered, of which the fourth was much shorter than the others. The general appearance was slender. The skin, slightly charred all over, had undoubtedly been reddis
h-yellow.

  A cast is being made of this singular inhabitant of another world, and we shall soon be able to send drawings.

  He had nothing with him—no weapon, no ornamental object. The only other thing that was found in the fossilized space was a little metal disk covered in silver sulfate, with several lines deeply engraved in its surface.

  It was impossible for the excavators to doubt that they had before their eyes a creature analogous to earthly humans, which had come from space in an extremely remote era, since the aerolith must have fallen in a very ancient geological period. But where had this planetary man come from? It could not be seriously imagined that he had come from the Moon. Aeroliths arrive with a velocity that precludes a lunar origin.

  The discussion had already been going on for some time when Mr. Murchison, on examining the lines that furrowed the inner surface of the metal plate—which had finally been descaled—recognized a very clear depiction of a kind of rhinoceros, then one of a palm-tree, and, far away in the opposite corner, a neat representation of a star, similar to the Sun as drawn by a child.

  The metal, which had been blackened by chemical reactions, was examined more closely; on cleaning it, the commission discovered another, smaller star beside the one that seemed to represent the Sun. Then they found another, more distant, then a third, and, finally, more distant still, a globe drawn much larger than the Sun. On measuring the distances between them, they were found to be manifestly in proportion to those separating the planets Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars from the Sun.

  This was an indication entirely adequate to clarify the question. Was it not permissible to conclude, in fact, that the animal of which a specimen had been found under such strange circumstances knew the planets and was in consequence a thinking being, and therefore a man? Did not the entirely honorific size granted to the planet Mars, to the detriment of the others, demonstrate the pride of an inhabitant, and, at the same time, the mental limitation of the interplanetary human species?

  In all probability, therefore, the aerolith must have originated from the planet Mars—which is, moreover, our nearest neighbor. We may consider it beyond doubt that the planets really are inhabited, and that there are creatures thereon very similar to those on Earth.

  Scientifically, of course, it is the environment that seems to determine the species. Mars has very nearly the same biological conditions as Earth; oceans, continents and mountains of ice can be seen there.5 There is therefore, nothing so admissible in principle than to suspect the presence there of humans closely analogous to ourselves. If the type that has just been discovered is slightly different, it is necessary to remember that, biologically, Mars is more advanced than the Earth; that the aerolith fell thousands of years ago; and that its inhabitants in that period in its life might have been different from the present earthly species. It is unnecessary to deduce from this that Mars has never had, or does not presently have, inhabitants exactly similar to those of Earth.

  How did the aerolith come to Earth, though, and how did it get away from the gravitational field of Mars? There are many points that are difficult to understand and must be submitted to modern scientific research. The aerolith brought with it a portion of ground, containing what is undoubtedly a tomb—which permits us to know how the dead are buried on that planet. A hole of the appropriate size is simply hollowed out in granite and the body is preserved by fossilizing it, with the aid of a bath loaded with calcium salts, just as your Saint-Allyre fountain near Clermont does with objects plunged into its waters; the corpse metamorphoses into calcareous stone.

  Yet another step has been taken in science—and what a step! A quarter of a century ago, people refused to believe in stones that fell from the sky. The French Académie, the English Royal Society and its German equivalent would not have conceded the point unless their members had been struck down on the spot by aeroliths! What will they say, now that an entire human being, perfectly preserved, has fallen to Earth from Mars, coming in person to reveal to us the admirable harmony that presides over the evolution of worlds!

  The promised drawings will follow soon.

  LETTER II

  In which the names of the two Americans promise to become immortal. Is it a hoax or a reality? The opinions of two rival newspapers. Gossip at Independence and Leavenworth. How human industry profits from everything. At the foot of the Cordillera. Gifts and patronesses. Academies. What should we think about the mummy? How we can be sure that it has come from Mars. Its portrait. Singular appearances. A logogriph to decipher.

  Although you have doubtless obtained further details of the James Peak aerolith from the English newspapers, I am sending you more accurate details in the present document.

  What are they saying in France about the Paxton/Davis discovery? The public is still talking about it here. I got here, not without difficulty, on Saturday evening, and I can verify everything that I wrote to you from Richmond.

  If we were not at war, and the journey not so long, the situation in Leavenworth—the last station on the route—would no longer be tenable. People are already arguing over food-supplies and guides. In order to deter unwelcome intruders, John Paxton had the fortunate idea of having reports inserted in the two rival newspapers of Springfield and Saint-Louis that everything that had been said was a crude and ridiculous fabrication made up by the local people in order to sell their foodstuffs and liquor at a better price—but the curiosity-seekers have not fallen into the trap. All the people that have not been deterred by fatigue and the enemy are heading in this direction. At Fort Mann I saw several officers arrested, the importance of the discovery having drawn them as far as the enemy lines.

  The most direct route is to abandon the Missouri at Independence or Leavenworth and go upstream in a canoe as far as the first rapids on the Blue River, whose source is in the Cordillera; it is then necessary to continue on mule-back as far as Fort Mann, where the authorities were kind enough to put the commandant’s boat at our disposal. Two further days on the Arkansas River suffices to reach Fort Bentz. There the Arkansas ceases to be navigable and it is necessary to go on into the mountains amid forests and crags. James Peak is more than three thousand meters high. It is an upsurge through the new red sandstone of the Jurassic stratum and an injection of crystalline rock. The Paxtons’ mine is situated on the carboniferous terrain at the point of contact with porphyroid rocks. It is there that the aerolith was found. The fall appears to have occurred before the upsurge of the Cordillera; it is inclined at exactly the same angle as the neighboring strata.

  When I saw it, the other day, for the first time, from a distance, it gave the initial impression of an enormous ball blackened by fire. It has been almost entirely excavated from the surrounding rock; it stands out in relief as if mounted in the soil. A wide trench has been dug all around it, but the trees and plants have been left in place, confusedly interlaced between the forest and the excavation, making the volcanic tint of the bolide stand out even more. It is cracked and pitted all over; sometimes the facets, polished like mirrors, reflect the rays of the Sun and dazzle you.

  About a quarter of the surrounding ground has been left unexcavated, forming a sort of service-bridge for the works. At the center, the shaft has been dug; it is about 12 meters deep, two meters broad at the opening and 1.25 meters at the base. I have not been able to go down as yet, however, because the work is now proceeding very actively. It has been decided that the mass will be pierced completely through, and that gunpowder will then be exploded at strategic points to complete the exploration.

  The Saint Louis Academy of Sciences has displayed a creditworthy enthusiasm. It has unanimously voted an allocation of $2000 to carry out research. Would your Académie des Sciences have shown such zeal and generosity? The inhabitants of Leavenworth, Batesville, Karkabia and Indianapolis having made a subscription, the Paxtons have already received $1000 from people who want to participate, according to their resources, in the communal task. By way of compensation, Mr. Paxton
has sent his patronesses necklaces and cups made from the stone of the bolide.

  Specimens of the mass are, moreover, beginning to be sold at a very high price, along with crude figurines depicting the mummy fund in the middle of the aerolith. One of them was offered to me for four dollars as I passed through Indianapolis. It is a source of unexpected wealth for the workmen and the inhabitants of the interior. Little wooden shacks are being erected along the road between Fort Bentz and the excavation, and the track through the James Forest is being enlarged.

  Evidently, people will come here in summer as your Parisians go to Biarritz, Ems and Baden. I have already encountered a group of tourists from Saint Louis on the far side of the Arkansas rapids, partly composed of women, and the most elegant in the city. I recognized the famous Mrs. Howard, with whose history you are no doubt familiar. She played a considerable role in the last campaign. Taken prisoner by two of Grant’s officers, she seduced the senior aide-de-camp; two duels followed, and she ended up bringing the federal cavalry’s commanding officer back to Lee’s camp, enchained by her beauty. She has been living in Saint Louis since the winter.

  The Paxtons’ operation is not very large. Situated on the western side of the mountain, a long way from the nearest town, it was almost unknown before now, except to officers from Fort Bentz who sometimes extended their patrols this far. The entire property consists of two large buildings connected by a central unit, a few wooden storehouses, blackened by intemperate weather, a farmhouse and, some distance away, the hangars designed to house the carboniferous shale and the workmen’s cabins. At present, Mr. Paxton is having a large wooden house analogous to the haciendas of South America built for visitors.

  The scientific commission is already numerous. The left wing of the main building has been reserved for them. We are still awaiting two of our most highly-qualified zoologists from Philadelphia and Richmond, Mr. Wintow and Mr. Ziegler. They have been delayed in Petersburg, but a letter that arrived this morning notified us of their imminent arrival. Mr. Murchison, who was present at the moment of the discovery, has agreed to take the responsibility of supervising the research, with Mr. Davis.