Across the Zodiac / The Story of a Wrecked Record

A first-person account describes construction and launch of a craft that leaves Earth, the voyage's technical observations and eventual arrival at a nearby planet, where the narrator studies its language, laws, customs, and social institutions. He records official visits, domestic life, marriage practices, seasonal activities, hunting and seafaring, and encounters with religious movements and political upheaval, culminating in personal loss and departure. The work blends scientific detail about space travel with ethnographic description of an alien society, organized into sequential chapters that move from voyage log to cultural and moral reflection.