"A. Wilkinson Jr - When The Earth Melted" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilkinson Jr A)

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When the Earth Melted
A. Wilkinson, Junior
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I II. III. IV. V. VI.

I
THE faculty of the Martian University of Archaeology was in conference. Professor Ignatuch arose.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “we have for discussion this evening a most remarkable natural phenomenon which
for years has kept the learned men of this planet in darkness as to its origin. Perhaps you recognize by
this that of which I speak, namely the great meteorite and its crater which lies some two hundred miles
directly north of us.

“It has remained for us, the faculty of this university, to unravel the mystery which surrounds this great
work of nature, or, I might now say, work of man. You all know that about twenty-nine hundred years
ago our then nearest neighbor, the earth, was in some way totally destroyed. Our records show this
much, but of the nature of the cataclysmic upheaval which resulted in this destruction they say absolutely
nothing.

“A few days ago, while watching a great excavation on the new canal, I noticed a large iron box or
casket about five or six feet square lying in a pile of dirt and trash which had been taken out of the canal.
The box looked interesting to me, and I asked permission to take it home with me and examine it at my
leisure. The permission was granted, so I had some of the workmen take the box to my house.

“As soon as I reached home, I went directly to my laboratory, where the box was placed, and with a
few well-directed blows of a mallet succeeded in removing the rusted cover.

“There were many papers in the box, all bearing the words:

WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

John Brent, Secretary of War.

“The one paper which attracted my especial attention, however, was a bulky manuscript, which I found
in one of the many compartments of the safe, for by now I had determined that this was the nature of the
box. This manuscript was written on paper exactly similar to all the rest of the documents, was dated July
15, 2030, written in New York, and signed by John Brent, secretary of war. This signature was at the
beginning of the narrative, in the upper right-hand corner.

“As you all know, New York was the largest city on the earth at the time of its destruction, so that is to
me conclusive proof that the box and its contents came originally from the earth. As the box was found in
the immediate vicinity of the great meteorite, it is only reasonable to suppose that the meteorite is a
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