177. They reported that the sun of their world looks fiery to the inhabitants. Their year contains two hundred days, their day being equal to nine of our hours. They could work this out by perceiving in me the length of days in our world. They also reported that spring and summertime are for them perpetual, so that the fields blossom and the trees bear fruit all the year round. This is because their year is so short, being equivalent to only seventy-five of our days; and where years are so short the cold of winter and the heat of summer are not prolonged, so that the ground is constantly as if in spring.* [* This would also be the effect if the obliquity of the axis of rotation of the planet were much less than the Earth's.-TR.]