meteor had passed, killing two or
three men who stood in its course."_]

This strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members of
the fleet, and they quickly drew together, in order to inquire for the
particulars. As the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition of so
many men to its crew, Mr. Edison had them distributed among the other
cars. Fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained in the
wrecked car were not injured. Mr. Edison thought that it would be
possible to repair the car itself, and for that purpose he had it
attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as
the moon. The bodies of the dead were transported with it, as it was
determined, instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space,
where they would have wandered forever, or else have fallen like meteors
upon the earth, to give them interment in the lunar soil.

As we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of
its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the surface
of the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding
from it. From a pale silver orb, shining with comparative faintness
among the stars, it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous
desert. As we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced; the great
flat regions appeared darker; the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly.
The huge chasms seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight. Gradually
separate mountains appeared. What seemed like expanses of snow and
immense glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great
brilliancy in the perpendicular rays of the sun. Our motion had now
assumed the aspect of falling. We seemed to be dropping from an
immeasurable height, and with an inconceivable velocity, straight down
upon those giant peaks.

Here and there curious lights glowed upon the mysterious surface of the
moon. Where the edge of the moon cut the sky behind it, it was broken
and jagged with mountain masses. Vast crater rings overspread its
surface, and in some of these I imagined I could perceive a lurid
illumination coming out of their deepest cavities, and the curling of
mephitic vapors around their terrible jaws.

We were approaching that part of the moon which is known to the
astronomers as the Bay of Rainbows. Here a huge semi-circular region, as
smooth almost as the surface of a prairie, lay beneath our eyes,
stretching southward into a vast ocea