FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>   >|  
Were chilled into a selfish prayer for _light_!" As he pronounced these words in accents at once monotonous and melancholy, Ardan, fully appreciative, quietly gesticulated in perfect cadence with the rhythm. Then the three men remained completely silent for several minutes. Buried in recollection, or lost in thought, or magnetized by the bright Sun, they seemed to be half asleep while steeping their limbs in his vitalizing beams. Barbican was the first to dissolve the reverie by jumping up. His sharp eye had noticed that the base of the Projectile, instead of keeping rigidly perpendicular to the lunar surface, turned away a little, so as to render the elliptical orbit somewhat elongated. This he made his companions immediately observe, and also called their attention to the fact that from this point they could easily have seen the Earth had it been Full, but that now, drowned in the Sun's beams, it was quite invisible. A more attractive spectacle, however, soon engaged their undivided attention--that of the Moon's southern regions, now brought within about the third of a mile by their telescopes. Immediately resuming their posts by the windows, they carefully noted every feature presented by the fantastic panorama that stretched itself out in endless lengths beneath their wondering eyes. [Illustration: THEY SEEMED HALF ASLEEP.] Mount _Leibnitz_ and Mount _Doerfel_ form two separate groups developed in the regions of the extreme south. The first extends westwardly from the pole to the 84th parallel; the second, on the southeastern border, starting from the pole, reaches the neighborhood of the 65th. In the entangled valleys of their clustered peaks, appeared the dazzling sheets of white, noted by Father Secchi, but their peculiar nature Barbican could now examine with a greater prospect of certainty than the illustrious Roman astronomer had ever enjoyed. "They're beds of snow," he said at last in a decided tone. "Snow!" exclaimed M'Nicholl. "Yes, snow, or rather glaciers heavily coated with glittering ice. See how vividly they reflect the Sun's rays. Consolidated beds of lava could never shine with such dazzling uniformity. Therefore there must be both water and air on the Moon's surface. Not much--perhaps very little if you insist on it--but the fact that there is some can now no longer be questioned." This assertion of Barbican's, made so positively by a man who never decided unless when thoroughly
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184  
185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Barbican

 

dazzling

 

decided

 

attention

 

surface

 

regions

 

examine

 

Secchi

 
Father
 

appeared


peculiar
 

sheets

 

clustered

 
nature
 

valleys

 
reaches
 
Doerfel
 

Leibnitz

 

groups

 

separate


ASLEEP

 

wondering

 
beneath
 

Illustration

 
SEEMED
 

developed

 

extreme

 

starting

 
border
 

greater


neighborhood

 

southeastern

 

extends

 

westwardly

 

parallel

 

entangled

 

uniformity

 

Therefore

 
insist
 
positively

assertion

 

questioned

 

longer

 

Consolidated

 

lengths

 

enjoyed

 

certainty

 

illustrious

 

astronomer

 

exclaimed