that in which the
planet rotated, and the main squadron, sharing that rotation, would be
continually moving in our direction.

But to travel westward was to penetrate once more into the night side
of the planet.

The prows, if I may so call them, of our ships were accordingly turned
in the direction of the vast shadow which Mars was invisibly projecting
into space behind it, and on entering that shadow the sun disappeared
from our eyes, and once more the huge hidden globe beneath us became a
black chasm among the stars.

Now that we were in the neighborhood of a globe capable of imparting
considerable weight to all things under the influence of its attraction
that peculiar condition which I have before described as existing in
the midst of space, where there was neither up nor down for us, had
ceased. Here where we had weight "up" and "down" had resumed their old
meanings. "Down" was toward the centre of Mars, and "up" was away from
that centre.

The Two Moons of Mars.

Standing on the deck, and looking overhead as we swiftly ploughed our
smooth way at a great height through the now imperceptible atmosphere
of the planet, I saw the two moons of Mars meeting in the sky exactly
above us.

Before our arrival at Mars, there had been considerable discussion among
the learned men as to the advisability of touching at one of their moons,
and when the discovery was made that our provisions were nearly exhausted,
it had been suggested that the Martian satellites might furnish us with
an additional supply.

But it had appeared a sufficient reply to this suggestion that the moons
of Mars are both insignificant bodies, not much larger than the asteroid
we had fallen in with, and that there could not possibly be any form of
vegetation or other edible products upon them.

This view having prevailed, we had ceased to take an interest in the
satellites, further than to regard them as objects of great curiosity
on account of their motions.

The nearer of these moons, Phobos, is only 3,700 miles from the surface
of Mars, and we watched it travelling around the planet three times in
the course of every day. The more distant one, Deimos, 12,500 miles away,
required considerably more than one day to make its circuit.

It now happened that the two had come into conjunction, as I have said,
just over our heads, and, throwing myself down on my back on the deck
of the electrical ship, for a long time I watched the race between t