A VOYAGE TO THE RINGED PLANET. 73 



common consent to gaze upon it. We at length saw 

 the true surface of Saturn. And what a surface ! For 

 land and water we saw glowing rock and molten lava. 

 Vast seas of fire, tossed by furious gales whose breath 

 was flame, coruscated with a thousand colours as their 

 condition underwent continual change* Then over a 

 wide extent of those oceans the intense lustre would 

 die out, to be replaced by a dull almost imperceptible 

 glow, where the surface of the fiery ocean was changing 

 into a crust of red-hot rock. But then came fresh 

 disturbance; the crust broke in a thousand places, 

 showing the intensely hot sea beneath. Fragments of 

 red-hot rock, many miles in extent, were tossed hither 

 and thither by the raging sea. Nor were these the 

 only evidences of an intense energy. For from time 

 to time the rush of the hurricanes which raged over 

 the molten oceans was hushed into comparative still- 

 ness as volcanic explosions took place, the least of 

 which seemed competent to destroy a world. Enormous 

 volumes of steam and of other imprisoned gases were 

 flung upwards with irresistible force, bursting their 

 way through the overhanging canopy of cloud, and 

 passing to heights where from our present standpoint 

 they were wholly lost to view. 



We should have wished, perhaps, under other circum- 

 stances, to extend our survey over the rest of Saturn's 

 surface ; though from what we had already witnessed, 

 we felt well assured that the whole planet is the scene 

 of a turmoil and confusion resembling that now before 

 us. At the poles indeed there is an approach to 



