refuge on the opposite surface of the moon, which is never seen
from the earth. This alteration in the primitive form of the
satellite was only perceptible for a few moments. The distance
of the projectile from the moon diminished very rapidly under
its speed, though that was much less than its initial velocity–
but eight or nine times greater than that which propels our
express trains. The oblique course of the projectile, from its
very obliquity, gave Michel Ardan some hopes of striking the
lunar disc at some point or other. He could not think that they
would never reach it. No! he could not believe it; and this
opinion he often repeated. But Barbicane, who was a better
judge, always answered him with merciless logic.
“No, Michel, no! We can only reach the moon by a fall, and we
are not falling. The centripetal force keeps us under the
moon’s influence, but the centrifugal force draws us
irresistibly away from it.”
This was said in a tone which quenched Michel Ardan’s last hope.
The portion of the moon which the projectile was nearing was the
northern hemisphere, that which the selenographic maps place
below; for these maps are generally drawn after the outline
given by the glasses, and we know that they reverse the objects.
Such was the _Mappa Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler which
Barbicane consulted. This northern hemisphere presented vast
plains, dotted with isolated mountains.
At midnight the moon was full. At that precise moment the
travelers should have alighted upon it, if the mischievous
meteor had not diverted their course. The orb was exactly in
the condition determined by the Cambridge Observatory. It was
mathematically at its perigee, and at the zenith of the
twenty-eighth parallel. An observer placed at the bottom of the
enormous Columbiad, pointed perpendicularly to the horizon,
would have framed the moon in the mouth of the gun. A straight
line drawn through the axis of the piece would have passed
through the center of the orb of night. It is needless to say,
that during the night of the 5th-6th of December, the travelers
took not an instant’s rest. Could they close their eyes when so
near this new world? No! All their feelings were concentrated
in one single thought:– See! Representatives of the earth, of
humanity, past and present, all centered in them! It is through
their eyes that the human race look at these lunar regions, and
penetrate the secrets of their satellite! A strange emotion
filled their hearts as they went from one window to the other.
Their observations, reproduced by Barbicane, were rigidly determined.
To take them, they had glasses; to correct them, maps.
As regards the optical instruments at their disposal, they had
excellent marine glasses specially constructed for this journey.
They possessed magnifying powers of 100. They would thus have
brought the moon to within a distance (apparent) of less than
2,000 leagues from the earth. But then, at a distance which for
three hours in the morning did not exceed sixty-five miles, and
in a medium free from all atmospheric disturbances, these
instruments could reduce the lunar surface to within less than
1,500 yards!
CHAPTER XI
FANCY AND REALITY
“Have you ever seen the moon?” asked a professor, ironically,
of one of his pupils.
“No, sir!” replied the pupil, still more ironically, “but I must
say I have heard it spoken of.”
In one sense, the pupil’s witty answer might be given by a large
majority of sublunary beings. How many people have heard speak
of the moon who have never seen it– at least through a glass or
a telescope! How many have never examined the map of their satellite!
In looking at a selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us.
Contrary to the arrangement followed for that of the Earth and
Mars, the continents occupy more particularly the southern
hemisphere of the lunar globe. These continents do not show
such decided, clear, and regular boundary lines as South
America, Africa, and the Indian peninsula. Their angular,
capricious, and deeply indented coasts are rich in gulfs
and peninsulas. They remind one of the confusion in the
islands of the Sound, where the land is excessively indented.