ore of all the hemispheres, the
northern and southern, as well as of the eastern and western.

Into these great divisions the surface of our satellite resolved itself
before the eyes of Barbican and M'Nicholl. Adding up the various
measurements, they found that the surface of her visible hemisphere was
about 7-1/2 millions of square miles, of which about the two thirds
comprised the volcanoes, the mountain chains, the rings, the islands--in
short, the land portion of the lunar surface; the other third comprised
the "seas," the "lakes," the "marshes," the "bays" or "gulfs," and the
other divisions usually assigned to water.

To all this deeply interesting information, though the fruit of
observation the closest, aided and confirmed by calculation the
profoundest, Ardan listened with the utmost indifference. In fact, even
his French politeness could not suppress two or three decided yawns,
which of course the mathematicians were too absorbed to notice.

In their enthusiasm they tried to make him understand that though the
Moon is 13-1/2 times smaller than our Earth, she can show more than 50
thousand craters, which astronomers have already counted and designated
by specific names.

"To conclude this portion of our investigation therefore," cried
Barbican, clearing his throat, and occupying Aldan's right ear,--"the
Moon's surface is a honey combed, perforated, punctured--"

"A fistulous, a rugose, salebrous,--" cut in the Captain, close on the
left.

--"And highly cribriform superficies--" cried Barbican.

--"A sieve, a riddle, a colander--" shouted the Captain.

--"A skimming dish, a buckwheat cake, a lump of green cheese--" went on
Barbican--.

--In fact, there is no knowing how far they would have proceeded with
their designations, comparisons, and scientific expressions, had not
Ardan, driven to extremities by Barbican's last profanity, suddenly
jumped up, broken away from his companions, and clapped a forcible
extinguisher on their eloquence by putting his hands on their lips and
keeping them there awhile. Then striking a grand attitude, he looked
towards the Moon and burst out in accents of thrilling indignation:

"Pardon, O beautiful Diana of the Ephesians! Pardon, O Phoebe, thou
pearl-faced goddess of night beloved of Greece! O Isis, thou sympathetic
queen of Nile-washed cities! O Astarte, thou favorite deity of the
Syrian hills! O Artemis, thou symbolical daughter of Jupiter and Latona,
that is of ligh