But the first man on Mars would have experienced less unfamiliarity than did he.

Without any antecedent knowledge, without any warning whatever that such existed, he found himself an explorer in a totally new world.
Now that the terrible unknown had let go of him, he forgot that the unknown had any terrors.

He was aware only of curiosity in all the things about him.

He inspected the grass beneath him, the moss-berry plant just beyond, and the dead trunk of the blasted pine that stood on the edge of an open space among the trees.

A squirrel, running around the base of the trunk, came full upon him, and gave him a great fright.
He cowered down and snarled.