A VOYAGE TO THE RINGED PLANET. 85 



that the ring is a phenomenon of the Mimasian atmo- 

 sphere ! These ill-advised astronomers have been shown 

 to be mistaken, however ; and it is now admitted by 

 all that the ring is an appendage of Saturn. 



I must leave to another occasion a fuller description 

 of what we saw and learned in Mimas. It will be as 

 well also that for the present I should say nothing re- 

 specting the creatures which inhabit Enceladus, Tethys, 

 Dione, Khea, Titan, and Japetus, for already this 

 account has extended to a greater length than I had 

 intended. Let it be sufficient for the present to remark 

 that all these satellites are inhabited, and that the 

 peculiarities which distinguish their inhabitants from 

 each other and from those of Mimas, are as remarkable 

 as those which distinguish Mimasian creatures from 

 the inhabitants of the earth. 



Hyperion, which terrestrial astronomers regard as a 

 satellite travelling between the orbits of Titan and 

 Japetus, the giants of Saturn's satellite family, is 

 not an inhabited world. It is, indeed, but the largest 

 of a ring of satellites travelling between Titan and 

 Japetus, and bearing somewhat the same relation to 

 the remaining seven satellites that the ring of asteroids 

 bears to the primary planets of the solar system. 



It will interest you also to learn that both Titan 

 and Japetus are attended by small moons, Titan by 

 three, Japetus by five. These orbs, though exceedingly 

 small by comparison with even the least of the Sa- 

 turnian satellites, yet reflect a considerable amount of 

 light to their respective primaries ; for they travel on 



