THE GIANT. DISK-SHAPED WORLD 

of Mesklin was an Earthman's nightmare - so cold that the seas were liquid methane and the snow frozen ammonia, with crushing gravity of up to 700 times that of Earth. No human being could explore Mesklin's surface.

Yet - a desperately needed research rocket was down on Mesklin. Someone had to go after it. That someone was the strangest explorer ever to appear in science-fiction - the Mesklinite merchant seaman, Barlennan-fifteen inches long, thirty-six legs, weighing hundreds of pounds. And, as it turned out, the sharpest trader an Earthman ever met!