The machinery, while noiseless, was very powerful.
The banks and trees on either side seemed to rush by.

The ship's speed, at times, surpassed that of any railroad train on which I have ever ridden, even here in America.

It was wonderful.
In the meantime we had lost sight of the sun's rays, but we found a radiance "within" emanating from the dull-red sun which had already attracted our attention, now giving out a white light seemingly from a cloud-bank far away in front of us.

It dispensed a greater light, I should say, than two full moons on the clearest night.
In twelve hours this cloud of whiteness would pass out of sight as if eclipsed, and the twelve hours following corresponded with our night.
We early learned that these strange people were worshipers of this great cloud of night.

It was "The Smoky God" of the "Inner World." The ship was equipped with a mode of illumination which I now presume was electricity, but neither my father nor myself were sufficiently skilled in mechanics to understand whence came the power to operate the ship, or to maintain the soft beautiful lights that answered the same purpose of our present methods of lighting the streets of our cities, our houses and places of business.
It must be remembered, the time of which I write was the autumn of 1829, and we of the "outside" surface of the earth knew nothing then, so to speak, of electricity.
The electrically surcharged condition of the air was a constant vitalizer.