Eventually, an overview of Continent 9 will go here... once the place is settled, names are added, and we have some cultures to view! For now let's just say that this southern continent is big, largely fertile and temperate, but isolated. In the high-orbital photo below, Continent 9 is the one at the bottom. There are no land-bridges and rather few island chains; fliers and coastal mariners will not easily reach it, or spread from it. In fact, the only continent on Earth comparable in depth of isolation isn't Australia, which has habitable land just 1-200 km off its coasts, in chains leading to the Eurasian mainland; it's Antarctica. And yet Continent 9 is far more fertile than either Australia or Antarctica even at its best, 50 million years ago. We simply have no parallel: a whole world apart. Even the New World was more linked to the Old.

The nearest neighbors are the Inner Hemisphere cluster (upper left of world map; called this because they, like Continent 9, always face Zeus). At least they have each other, plus an east-west flyway to Continent 3 in the Outer Hemisphere. But getting to Continent 9 will be grueling...

TOUR OF CONTINENT 9 will start here.

But where CAN we start from? There's no easy way to reach Continent 9!

1. Over the Antarctic 3-9 Strait (southern Continent 3 to southwest tip of Continent 9; see south polar photo); at least as harsh as our Bering Strait. Even winged migrators will tend to go north-south; only cold-adapted species will ever make it over this long east-west bridge.
2. South at least 900 km from Continent 8 to the 89 Islands, a chain along the mid-sea ridge. Then just fly or sail 1000 km east along this chain, then 750 km south over deep sea, get lucky, and hit the one cape on Continent 9 reaching out toward you--otherwise, make that a 1200-km hop. This is no paddle on a raft! Warmer than the polar route, but only open to good fliers or deep-sea navigators. Likely to take generations, as the 89 Islands are settled...
3. From western Continent 3, hopping through the Rift-Junction Isles, then sharply south 640 km to the Curl 9 Islands and finally to the mainland. The hop between the two island chains is at a right angle to the rest of the flyway; while perfectly feasible (say, 7 hours at 90 kph/50 mph, a reasonable cruising speed for a large flier), there's a some chance it was never discovered. As far as we know, the Patagonians who visited the Falklands/Malvinas offshore never discovered the Antarctic Peninsula, a similar southern detour. But Pegasia's different: fliers travel faster and have a much wider horizon; the region's warmer than our Antarctic seas, so strays would survive longer; and both island chains have tall mountains visible a long way to sea. Thus, I think this is the most likely migration route--but it may take generations after that flyway develops between Continent 3 and Continent 8 before a stray discovers Continent 9.

So it looks like we'll start our tour in the far east--that long piny cape like a lateral Patagonia. Cool, but not cold.

Big Triangle Island to the north shelters a huge inland sea with temperate climate and forested shores. The sea extends way inland; the climate of this whole eastern half of Continent 9 is maritime. A very fertile region; clearly a home for a major civilization. Coastal fishers would do well here; a hundred green islands dot that sea.

On the mainland west of Big Triangle Island, see that small peninsula trailing off north into the deeps? It may be more important than it looks: it's the jumping-off place to the 89 Islands and (possibly) the northern hemisphere.

If we were going to try crossing that southern land-bridge, it's easy enough--you just need to be a masochist. Just follow the mountains southwest for thousands of km, as the weather turns fouler and the range becomes barren. Keep going over several ice-choked straits between volcanic islands mantled in ice. Ignore blizzards. Keep going long enough and you're (technically) on Continent 3. Now you only have another few thousand miles of arctic barrens to traverse, a high mountain range to cross, and with luck you'll reach the city in western Continent 3 that's on the far end of the island-chain I've been mentioning. Both flyways are complex and strenuous--but each hop on the sea-route is merely hours of hard flying, not days or weeks. And it's not freezing. Trust me, they'll take the island route.

THE NORTH AND WEST

Western Continent 9 is largely dry--only the northern coast is green.

In summer the inland desert heats up; rising air pulls a monsoon wind south, drenching the north coast.

Unfortunately, that high east-west range just north of the desert wrings most of the water from these winds; some peaks are so high they bear large icefields. Still, some rain gets through.

In winter, though, the whole region is dry and sunny.

The desert resembles the Mohave--low country with ridges and valleys paralleling the great range to the west. It's not utterly barren; each ridge is a tilted block, and its west face (usually the western, slightly rainier side) is a scarp with a small fault at its foot. The grinding along these faults creates fine clay; as along many California faults, water seeping down from the ridges gets trapped by the clay, creating springs, seeps, and "fault ponds." These oases would be ideal for fliers who like cliff-dwelling--and pottery. All the ingredients are there except wood; that'd have to be imported from the highlands around the basin.

A chain of huge lakes runs from the desert to the southern steppes. The northernmost is salty and lies below sea level, like our Caspian Sea, though clearly it did once drain south; but it must have been much larger then. With no outlet, it swells in rainy years and shrinks in dry, leaving salt- and alkali-flats. It's more like Australia's Lake Eyre than the Caspian.

In contrast, the southern lakes are a true chain draining to the sea, and are freshwater. They're as big as America's Great Lakes, though their coasts are drier--prairie.

The West, though less fertile overall, has wide grasslands--savanna in the north, prairie and steppe (freezing in winter) in the south. There will be huge graminivorous herds of... something. Will they be fliers like so much Pegasian life, or would they be too heavy, with the elaborate digestive apparatus needed for grasses? Grass-equivalents; my guess is, small plants in dry regions that endure steady grazing will don silicon armor just as Earth grasses did. Or other tough cellulose fibers. We animals are so annoying!

I see at least two possible niches for intelligent life here: a hunter, cooperating in bands (the prehuman model), and/or an herbivore accessing all that grass directly. Humans living in the temperate zones tend to think of herbivores as stupid, but that's due to us: we hunted all our real rivals to extinction. But consider Africa, last refuge of the megafauna that once were worldwide. It's crawling with bright animals--and not just apes. Elephants are brighter--perhaps as bright as people. And given the new proof that whales and hippos are close relatives, let's rethink the assumption hippos are just animals. They're big fat and funny-looking, so they must be dumb? Doesn't that sort of prejudice sound familiar!

While you're at it, read up on parrots, corvids and cameloids (llamas are smart).

Anyway, on the prairies of Continent 9, we can assume that some large herbivores will be smart; if they have hands (or tentacles, snouts, prehensile tongues...) they may build a civilization. No, elephants haven't yet, but if we got out of the way, can we be sure they wouldn't in the next five or ten million years? Remember how unpromising apes were, ten million years ago. Take the long view!

But what do these grass-eaters or hunters of grass-eaters look like? You tell me!

The prairie doesn't reach the sea. The west coast, like America's, is an ecological island. It's sheltered offshore by the (almost Japanese) West Arc Islands. The climate is mild--Californian meadows and "oak" groves in the north, greening to dense woods in the center and cool-temperate rainforests in the south. The coast is snow-free all around the sheltered West Arc Sea (at sea level; but both islands and mainland have rugged, snowy mountains dotted with tall volcanoes, deepening the resemblance to the Cascades). Earth has no true parallel to the West Arc Sea, no truly temperate inland seas; it's warmer than the Sea of Japan or the North Sea, cooler and much rainier than the Mediterranean. A maritime civilization could flourish here, though it'd be isolated from most other people on the planet...

THE SOUTH

Southern Continent 9 is a wide zone of cool forest, rugged icecapped mountains, and windswept subpolar flats--an antipodal Siberia. Sorry to be so brief about a million square miles or more of green land, but I'm writing this bit in deep winter, shivering a bit, and the climate down there will be harsh for humans--deep snows, short growing seasons, stunted trees. Still, maybe a better-insulated creature than me would find its forests Paradise. Mmm. What sort of creature? Bear-people? Tigeroids who learn to herd reindeer, maybe?

Something furry?

Something big?

Something what'll be a pig?

Something neat.

Something sweet.

Something what'll be a treat!

Sorry, Krazy Kat said that. In her case the treat turned out to be getting walloped with a brick.

But she liked that sort of thing.

What do you like? You tell me...

TOUR PEGASIA! The following route snakes around Pegasia, covering all major features:
Continent 1 - 165 Is. - Continent 2 - Continent 3 - Rift-Junction and Curl 9 Is. - 1-4 Is. - Continent 4 - Continent 5 - Curl 5 Is. - Continent 6 - Continent 7 - Continent 8 - 89 Is. - Continent 9

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