Embarked on Ala's splendid "yacht," as Jack called it, and attended by
her usual companions, we rapidly left the city behind, and sped away
toward the purple mountains, so often seen in the distance. The voyage
was a long one, but at length we drew near the foothills, and beheld the
mountains towering into peaks behind. Lofty as they looked, there was no
snow on their summits. We now descended where plumes of smoke had for
some time attracted our attention, and found ourselves at one of the
mines. It was a gold mine. The processes of extracting the ore,
separating the metal, etc., were conducted with remarkable silence, but
they showed a knowledge of metallurgy that would have amazed us if we had
not already seen so much of the capacity of this people. Yet similarly to
the scene in the library, its earth-likeness was startling.
"This sort of thing is uncanny," said Jack, as we were led through the
works. "It makes me creep to see them doing things just as we do them at
home, except that they are so quiet about it. If everything was different
from our ways it would seem more natural."
"Anyhow," I replied, "we may take it as a great compliment to ourselves,
for it shows that we have found out ways of doing things which cannot be
improved even in Venus.
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