Here, before beginning the assault on the region of precipices, an immense depôt was established. The tunnel was laid down with double lines of the same sort of parallel steel rods as those which I had noticed on the road at Lucetta. On these ran a series of small trucks, driven by an endless chain which was moved by the gas engine beforementioned; and by means of these all the stores required were easily brought up.
At the height of fifty thousand feet, which had now been reached, little or no difficulty in breathing was encountered. This was probably owing to the extreme density of the Hesperian atmosphere, which, as was noticed before, is so great that the mercury in the tube of Torricelli, at the sea level, stands at an average height of more than fifty-nine inches. Moreover, the slow rate at which it was observed to fall, during the ascent of the last few thousand feet, gave the engineers good hope that, even at the summit, a sufficiency of air to support life would be found.
The ascent of all the three stages of the precipice region was effected by the process of cutting open galleries, inclined at an angle of thirty degrees, in the face of the vertical cliff. The region of ice and snow having been passed, tunnelling was no longer necessary. Four zigzags, each a mile long, sufficed to reach the first terrace, where another depôt was constructed; and a few years’ more labour, and about a dozen similar zigzags, accomplished the ascent of the tremendous middle precipice, thus bringing them within fifteen thousand feet of the cloud-screen.
As the great work neared its completion, the anxiety and excitement, not only of those actually engaged in it, but of the entire population of the planet, rose to a scarcely conceivable intensity. It was now plain that the cloud level would be reached; but no light had as yet been thrown on the question whether the mountain top did or did not pass through the cloudy stratum. If it did not, all their labour of years had been merely thrown away, and they were left as before in absolute ignorance of the external universe. And the fact that the ascent which still remained to be scaled, was not absolutely vertical, but, sloping a little, even at its foot on the last terrace, appeared to diminish its inclination as it approached the cloud, gave reason to suspect that the actual summit of the mountain was not very far off. It may be added that the cloud itself, as they came nearer, presented an unpromising appearance of great density.
So, the final depôt having been constructed, the work on the last series of galleries was begun and carried on with greatly increased vigour, till an altitude only a few yards lower than the under surface of the cloud was gained. At this place the angle of inclination of the cliff had eased off to sixty-three degrees, and it was thought advisable, in view of the unknown possibilities of the mountain inside this thick screen, to establish, by blasting away the rock, a level surface of sufficient extent to enable them to build yet another storehouse, before venturing to proceed with the sloping gallery.
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the great courage of three engineers—How they passed the Screen and saw the Host of Heaven—How they further discovered a Disk of Unknown Fire—Of the reception of the news throughout the world—Of the construction of a mountain Observatory; and of the rapid growth of Astronomical knowledge.
The levelling of the rock was necessarily a work which required a good deal of time; and, while it was proceeding, three of the engineers formed the daring project of scrambling up the cliff, into the cloud, and endeavouring to penetrate through it by themselves. All the three were in the stationary period of life, and, consequently, in the possession of full bodily strength and activity. The cliff was in most places rough enough to give good hold for both hands and feet. Still, to venture on a climb through a dense mist, on the face of a nearly precipitous and wholly unknown mountain, where a single slip would be certainly followed by immediate destruction, was regarded by their comrades as too hazardous to be thought of.
But the three were not to be dissuaded—I ought, perhaps, to mention that it is to one of these daring men I am indebted for the account of the whole expedition. Their preparations were soon complete, for their equipment was very simple; each of them took about one pound weight of some sort of food in a highly concentrated form, and a flask containing a pint of water. Water, it may be observed, was valuable at this elevation, for every drop had to be carried up from the glacier region. Each man also carried a coil of about five hundred yards of fine, but very strong twine. This was intended to be used as a clue to guide them back to the camp. Fixing an end of one of these coils to the wall of their store, they started on their perilous journey at two o’clock in the afternoon. Without very much difficulty they scrambled up to the edge of the cloud, and there disappeared from the sight of their friends, most of whom believed that they had gone mad.
As a proof of the great care and skill with which the works had been carried on, I may here remark that, up to this time, but one fatal accident had occurred. This was during the construction of the galleries on the face of the thirty-thousand-feet precipice. The top had been nearly reached, when a man, who was heaving a fragment of rock over the edge, lost his balance, and fell with the fragment. His horrified comrades watched his terrible fall, unbroken for about twenty thousand feet; there he touched a projecting spur of the rock, and evanesced instantly, mortal lesion having been made.