34 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



said respecting the voices which are heard to the 

 greatest distance. For the shrill tones of women and 

 children were heard from time to time, when the 

 loudest tones of the male voice were altogether beyond 

 our hearing. The sounds which we heard latest of all, 

 however, were the occasional shrieks of rail way- whistles, 

 and (quite unexpectedly) a peculiarly shrill note pro- 

 duced by the beating of the sea-waves on the shore, 

 which I do not remember to have observed under other 

 circumstances. We noticed this as our onward course 

 carried us past (though far above) the waters of the 

 British Channel. 



I forbear to speak of the aspect presented by the 

 earth as our distance gradually increased ; though, for 

 my own part, my attention (at this part of our pro- 

 gress) was directed far more closely to the planet we 

 were leaving than to the orb which we proposed to visit. 

 X., on the other hand, absorbed (as you will readily 

 believe) in the anticipation of the revelations about to 

 be made respecting the sun, directed his sole attention 

 to the contemplation of that luminary. Y., who ac- 

 companied us (as we have already informed you), rather 

 en amateur than because of any profound interest 

 which he takes in scientific investigations, appeared to 

 be too much perplexed by the unexpected appearance 

 of all the objects now in view to attend to any special 

 features of the scene. He was in particular surprised 

 at the rapidly increasing darkness of the sky in all 

 directions, except where the sun's intense lustre still 

 lit up a small circle of air all round his orb. Long 



