Uller Uprising | Page 3

it
bisects the horizon all day, swinging completely around. April 1 to July
1, it continues swinging around, gradually rising in the sky, the spiral
converging to its center at the zenith, which it reaches July 1. From
July 1 to October 1 the spiral starts again, spreading out from the center
until on October 1 it bisects the horizon again. On October 1 night
arrives to stay until April 1.
At the equator, the sun is visible bisecting the southern horizon for all
26 hours of the day on January 1. From January 1 to April 1, the sun

starts to dip below the horizon at night, to rise higher above it during
the day. During all this time it rises and sets at the same hours, but rises
in the southeast and sets in the southwest. At noon it is higher each day
in the southern sky until April 1, when it rises due east, passes through
the zenith and sets due west. From April 1 to July 1, its noon position
drops down to the north, until on July 1, it is visible all day, bisected by
the northern horizon.
3. CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY OF ULLER
Calcium and chlorine are rarer than on earth, sodium is somewhat
commoner. As a result of the shortage of calcium there is a higher
ration of silicates to carbonates than exists on earth. The water is
slightly alkaline and resembles a very dilute solution of sodium silicate
(water glass). It would have a pH of 8.5 and tastes slightly soapy. Also,
when it dries out it leaves a sticky, and then a glassy, crackly film.
Rocks look fairly earthlike, but the absence or scarcity of anything like
limestone is noticeable. Practically all the sedimentary rocks are of the
sandstone type.
All rivers are seasonal, running from the polar regions to the central
seas in the spring only, or until the polar cap is completely dried out.
4. ANIMAL LIFE
As on Earth life arose in the primitive waters and with a carbon base,
but because of the abundance of silicone, there was a strong tendency
for the microscopic organisms to develop silicate exoskeletons, like
diatoms. The present invertebrate animal life of the planet is of this
type and is confined to the equatorial seas. They run from amoeba-like
objects to things like crayfish, with silicate skeletons. Later, some
species of them started taking silicone into their soft tissues, and
eventually their carbon-chain compounds were converted to silicone
type chains, from
| | | | | | | | --C--C--C-- to O--Si--O--Si--O--Si, | | | | | | | |
with organic radicals on the side links. These organisms were a

transitional type, with silicone tissues and water body fluids,
resembling the earthly amphibians, and are now practically extinct.
There are a few species, something like segmented worms, still to be
seen in the backwaters of the central seas.
A further development occurred when the silicone chain animals began
to get short-chain silicones into their circulatory systems, held in
solution by OH or NH-{2} groups on the ends and branches of the
chains. The proportion of these compounds gradually increased until
the water was a minor and then a missing constituent. The larger
mobile species were, then, practically anhydrous. Their blood consists
of short-chain silicones, with quartz reinforcing for the soft parts and
their armor, teeth, etc., of pure amorphous quartz (opal). Most of these
parts are of the milky variety, variously tinted with metallic impurities,
as are the varieties of sapphires.
These pure silicone animals, due to their practical indestructibility,
annihilated all but the smaller of the carbon animals, and drove the
compromise types into odd corners as relics. They developed into a
fish-like animal with a very large swim-bladder to compensate for the
rather higher density of the silicone tissues, and from these fish the land
animals developed. Due to their high density and resulting high weight,
they tend to be low on the ground, rather reptilian in look. Three pairs
of legs are usual in order to distribute the heavy load. There is no sharp
dividing line between the quartz armor and the silicone tissue. One
merges into the other.
The dominant pure silicone animals only could become mobile and
venture far from the temperate equatorial regions of Uller, since they
neither froze nor stiffened with cold, nor became incapacitated by heat.
Note that all animal life is cold-blooded, with a negligible difference
between body and ambient temperatures. Since the animals are
silicones, they don't get sluggish like cold snakes.
5. PLANT LIFE
The plants are of the carbon-metabolism, silicate-shell type, like the
primitive animals. They spread out from the equator as far as they

could go before the baking polar summers killed them. They have
normal seasonal growth in the temperate