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eruption. And Barbicane did not hesitate to pronounce upon it.
"The sun!" he exclaimed.
"What! the sun?" answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.
"Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself lighting up the summit of the
mountains situated on the southern borders of the moon. We are evidently
nearing the south pole."
"After having passed the north pole," replied Michel. "We have made the
circuit of our satellite, then?"
"Yes, my good Michel."
"Then, no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves to fear?"
"No, but a closed curve."
"Which is called----"
"An ellipse. Instead of losing itself in interplanetary space, it is probable
that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit around the moon."
"Indeed!"
"And that it will become _her_ satellite."
"Moon of the moon!" cried Michel Ardan.
"Only, I would have you observe, my worthy friend," replied
Barbicane, "that we are none the less lost for that."
"Yes, in another manner, and much more pleasantly," answered the careless
Frenchman with his most amiable smile.
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
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183
CHAPTER XVII
TYCHO
At six in the evening the projectile passed the south pole at less than forty
miles off, a distance equal to that already reached at the north pole. The
elliptical curve was being rigidly carried out.
At this moment the travelers once more entered the blessed rays of the sun.
They saw once more those stars which move slowly from east to west. The
radiant orb was saluted by a triple hurrah.
With its light it also sent heat, which soon pierced the metal walls.
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The glass resumed its accustomed appearance. The layers of ice melted as if
by enchantment; and immediately, for economy's sake, the gas was put out, the
air apparatus alone consuming its usual quantity.
"Ah!" said Nicholl, "these rays of heat are good. With what impatience must
the Selenites wait the reappearance of the orb of day."
"Yes," replied Michel Ardan, "imbibing as it were the brilliant ether, light
and heat, all life is contained in them."
At this moment the bottom of the projectile deviated somewhat from the lunar
surface, in order to follow the slightly lengthened elliptical orbit. From
this point, had the earth been at the full, Barbicane and his companions could
have seen it, but immersed in the sun's irradiation she was quite invisible.
Another spectacle attracted their attention, that of the southern part of the
moon, brought by the glasses to within 450 yards. They did not again leave
the scuttles, and noted every detail of this fantastical continent.
Mounts Doerful and Leibnitz formed two separate groups very near the south
pole. The first group extended from the pole to the eighty-fourth parallel,
on the eastern part of the orb; the second occupied the eastern border,
extending from the 65@ of latitude to the pole.
On their capriciously formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets, as mentioned by
Pere Secchi. With more certainty than the illustrious Roman astronomer,
Barbicane was enabled to recognize their nature.
"They are snow," he exclaimed.
"Snow?" repeated Nicholl.
"Yes, Nicholl, snow; the surface of which is deeply frozen.
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
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184
See how they reflect the luminous rays. Cooled lava would never give out such
intense reflection. There must then be water, there must be air on the moon.
As little as you please, but the fact can no longer be contested." No, it
could not be. And if ever Barbicane should see the earth again, his notes
will bear witness to this great fact in his selenographic observations.
These mountains of Doerful and Leibnitz rose in the midst of plains of a
medium extent, which were bounded by an indefinite succession of circles and
annular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones met with in this region
of circles.
Comparatively but slightly marked, they throw up here and there some sharp
points, the highest summit of which attains an altitude of 24,600 feet.
But the projectile was high above all this landscape, and the projections
disappeared in the intense brilliancy of the disc.
And to the eyes of the travelers there reappeared that original aspect of the
lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colors, and without
degrees of shadow, roughly black and white, from the want of diffusion of
light.
But the sight of this desolate world did not fail to captivate them by its
very strangeness. They were moving over this region as if they had been borne
on the breath of some storm, watching heights defile under their feet,
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piercing the cavities with their eyes, going down into the rifts, climbing the
ramparts, sounding these mysterious holes, and leveling all cracks. But no
trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities; nothing but stratification, beds
of lava, overflowings polished like immense mirrors, reflecting the sun's rays
with overpowering brilliancy.
Nothing belonging to a _living_ world-- everything to a dead world, where
avalanches, rolling from the summits of the mountains, would disperse
noiselessly at the bottom of the abyss, retaining the motion, but wanting the
sound. In any case it was the image of death, without its being possible even
to say that life had ever existed there.
Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognized a heap of ruins, to which he drew
Barbicane's attention. It was about the 80th parallel, in 30@ longitude.
This heap of stones, rather regularly placed, represented a vast fortress,
overlooking a long rift, which in former days had served as a bed to the
rivers of prehistorical times. Not far from that, rose to a height of 17,400
feet the annular mountain of Short, equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel
Ardan, with his accustomed ardor, maintained "the evidences" of his fortress.
Beneath it he discerned the dismantled ramparts of a town; here the still
intact arch of a portico, there two or three columns lying under their base;
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