80 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



part of the ring-system we had now reached, we passed 

 over at once to this small orb. 



Prepared to find in Mimas a miniature moon, even 

 less interesting than it might otherwise have been, 

 because we knew now that it could serve no useful part 

 to living creatures in Saturn, our amazement will be 

 conceived when we discovered as we approached that 

 Mimas is a miniature world. We saw before us land 

 and water ; we could perceive clouds floating in the 

 Mimasian air ; and presently as we passed the confines 

 of this air, we began to hear the sounds of busy life. 

 Descending through a cloud veil which hid from our 

 view the land and water immediately beneath us, we 

 saw at length the beings of another world ! 



At first all was perplexing to us. We perceived 

 living creatures utterly unlike any with which we had 

 hitherto been familiar. They were busy in their several 

 ways, but the nature of their ways and the object of 

 their actions we could not comprehend. It would only 

 confuse those whom this narrative will reach to describe 

 all that we saw, or to attempt to explain how what we 

 saw became gradually intelligible to us. The forms of 

 life are probably almost as numerous in Mimas as on 

 the earth ; and the relations between the several orders 

 of living creatures are as interesting and as compli- 

 cated. It would require a whole treatise to present 

 aright all that a Huxley or an Owen in Mimas could 

 teach about the living creatures which exist there. It 

 is clear that to convey accurate ideas respecting the 

 whole economy of another world would be quite im- 



