There
were valleys where vegetation grew luxuriantly. There were ranges of
snow-clad mountains interpenetrating the equatorial strip, and there
were masses of white which, as the ship descended, could be identified
as glaciers moving down toward the vegetation.
But as the ship sank lower and lower--and the sound of its rockets
became thunderous because of the atmosphere around it--a new feature
took over the central position in one's concept of what the planet was
actually like.
The planet was volcanic. There were smoking cones everywhere--in the
snow-fields, among the ice-caps, in between the glaciers, and even among
the tumbled areas whose greenness proved that here was an environment
which might be perilous, but where life should thrive abundantly.
The ship continued to descend toward a great forest near a terminal
moraine.
CHAPTER SIX
Jamison declaimed, wearing a throat-mike as Bell zestfully panned his
camera and the ship swung down. It was an impressive broadcast. The
rockets roared. With the coming of air about the ship, they no longer
made a mere rumbling. They created a tumult which was like the growl of
thunder if one were in the midst of the thunder-cloud.
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