One half of the
remaining three quarters of the planet's surface is bathed in perpetual
sunshine and the other half is a region of eternal night.
And now again, what of life in such a world as that? On the night side,
where no sunshine ever penetrates, the temperature must be extremely
low, hardly greater than the fearful cold of open space, unless
modifying influences beyond our ken exist. It is certain that if life
flourishes there, it must be in such forms as can endure continual
darkness and excessive cold. Some heat would be carried around by
atmospheric circulation from the sunward side, but not enough, it would
seem, to keep water from being perpetually frozen, or the ground from
being baked with unrelaxing frost. It is for the imagination to picture
underground dwellings, artificial sources of heat, and living forms
suited to unearthlike environment.
What would be the mental effects of perpetual night upon a race of
intelligent creatures doomed to that condition? Perhaps not quite so
grievous as we are apt to think. The constellations in all their
splendor would circle before their eyes with the revolution of their
planet about the sun, and with the exception of the sun itself--which
they could see by making a journey to the opposite hemisphere--all the
members of the solar system would pass in succession through their
mid-heaven, and two of them would present themselves with a magnificence
of planetary display unknown on the earth.
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