登陆注册
15684200000043

第43章 CHAPTER XVII(1)

TYCHO

At six in the evening the projectile passed the south pole at less than forty miles off, a distance equal to that already reached at the north pole. The elliptical curve was being rigidly carried out.

At this moment the travelers once more entered the blessed rays of the sun. They saw once more those stars which move slowly from east to west. The radiant orb was saluted by a triple hurrah.

With its light it also sent heat, which soon pierced the metal walls.

The glass resumed its accustomed appearance. The layers of ice melted as if by enchantment; and immediately, for economy's sake, the gas was put out, the air apparatus alone consuming its usual quantity.

"Ah!" said Nicholl, "these rays of heat are good. With what impatience must the Selenites wait the reappearance of the orb of day.""Yes," replied Michel Ardan, "imbibing as it were the brilliant ether, light and heat, all life is contained in them."At this moment the bottom of the projectile deviated somewhat from the lunar surface, in order to follow the slightly lengthened elliptical orbit. From this point, had the earth been at the full, Barbicane and his companions could have seen it, but immersed in the sun's irradiation she was quite invisible. Another spectacle attracted their attention, that of the southern part of the moon, brought by the glasses to within 450 yards. They did not again leave the scuttles, and noted every detail of this fantastical continent.

Mounts Doerful and Leibnitz formed two separate groups very near the south pole. The first group extended from the pole to the eighty-fourth parallel, on the eastern part of the orb; the second occupied the eastern border, extending from the 65@ of latitude to the pole.

On their capriciously formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets, as mentioned by Pere Secchi. With more certainty than the illustrious Roman astronomer, Barbicane was enabled to recognize their nature.

"They are snow," he exclaimed.

"Snow?" repeated Nicholl.

"Yes, Nicholl, snow; the surface of which is deeply frozen.

See how they reflect the luminous rays. Cooled lava would never give out such intense reflection. There must then be water, there must be air on the moon. As little as you please, but the fact can no longer be contested." No, it could not be. And if ever Barbicane should see the earth again, his notes will bear witness to this great fact in his selenographic observations.

These mountains of Doerful and Leibnitz rose in the midst of plains of a medium extent, which were bounded by an indefinite succession of circles and annular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones met with in this region of circles.

Comparatively but slightly marked, they throw up here and there some sharp points, the highest summit of which attains an altitude of 24,600 feet.

But the projectile was high above all this landscape, and the projections disappeared in the intense brilliancy of the disc.

And to the eyes of the travelers there reappeared that original aspect of the lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colors, and without degrees of shadow, roughly black and white, from the want of diffusion of light.

But the sight of this desolate world did not fail to captivate them by its very strangeness. They were moving over this region as if they had been borne on the breath of some storm, watching heights defile under their feet, piercing the cavities with their eyes, going down into the rifts, climbing the ramparts, sounding these mysterious holes, and leveling all cracks. But no trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities; nothing but stratification, beds of lava, overflowings polished like immense mirrors, reflecting the sun's rays with overpowering brilliancy.

Nothing belonging to a _living_ world-- everything to a dead world, where avalanches, rolling from the summits of the mountains, would disperse noiselessly at the bottom of the abyss, retaining the motion, but wanting the sound. In any case it was the image of death, without its being possible even to say that life had ever existed there.

Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognized a heap of ruins, to which he drew Barbicane's attention. It was about the 80th parallel, in 30@ longitude. This heap of stones, rather regularly placed, represented a vast fortress, overlooking a long rift, which in former days had served as a bed to the rivers of prehistorical times. Not far from that, rose to a height of 17,400 feet the annular mountain of Short, equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel Ardan, with his accustomed ardor, maintained "the evidences" of his fortress. Beneath it he discerned the dismantled ramparts of a town; here the still intact arch of a portico, there two or three columns lying under their base; farther on, a succession of arches which must have supported the conduit of an aqueduct; in another part the sunken pillars of a gigantic bridge, run into the thickest parts of the rift. He distinguished all this, but with so much imagination in his glance, and through glasses so fantastical, that we must mistrust his observation. But who could affirm, who would dare to say, that the amiable fellow did not really see that which his two companions would not see?

Moments were too precious to be sacrificed in idle discussion.

The selenite city, whether imaginary or not, had already disappeared afar off. The distance of the projectile from the lunar disc was on the increase, and the details of the soil were being lost in a confused jumble. The reliefs, the circles, the craters, and the plains alone remained, and still showed their boundary lines distinctly. At this moment, to the left, lay extended one of the finest circles of lunar orography, one of the curiosities of this continent. It was Newton, which Barbicane recognized without trouble, by referring to the _Mappa Selenographica_.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 鸳鸳欲泪:火狐篇

    鸳鸳欲泪:火狐篇

    她是修行万年的火狐,贪吃又贪睡,婆婆无奈,只好让火狐到人间历练,却不料她痴迷人间红尘,最后丧失法力,魂飞魄散。
  • 无敌邪君之覆手天下

    无敌邪君之覆手天下

    他是都市少年,初二到高三一直蝉联年级的倒数第一,就在他绝望之时,跟随他多年的天音魔石突然复活一下赋予了他极品透视术,读心术,无敌穿墙术等诸多异能,也就从那时开始,校花爱上了他,警花爱上了她,富婆要包养他,千金小姐要聘请他做贴身的护花高手......也就从那之后庄无罪踏上了一条惊天地,泣鬼神的传奇无敌路!兄弟,姐妹们大家都来,让我们一起看看庄邪少如何成就狂天霸业,如何舞风云,怎么定乾坤!本书绝对的搞笑爽文,热血,战斗那也是样样不缺哦!!
  • 废材逆天:魅王的小王妃

    废材逆天:魅王的小王妃

    ————她在大婚之夜被新郎打死,醒来后,她已不在是她……————他是冷漠无情的魅王,谁都不能靠进他三米以内,不然,一个字“死”……当她遇见他会有什么惊天地泣鬼神的事呢?请看《废材逆天:魅王的小王妃》现代女杀手对古代冷皇子…
  • 长路漫漫,遥遥无期

    长路漫漫,遥遥无期

    这夜,静的悲伤,满空繁星,却无明月,让人觉得孤独,她从来都是安静的,如一个平静的湖面,只要没有风,会一直平静下去,而方尧就像是那一阵风,也只有他能吹起那一湖的涟漪何路跟方尧相识于高一,现在已然是大学毕业,可是何路左等右等,却等不来方尧的态度,方尧就是那种玩心重的人,根本无心结婚,七年的恋爱长跑让他体会到人生的无趣和乏味,这也是两人的爆发点跟方尧分手后,就是满满的后悔,心是冷的,可是思念却像汹涌的浪花打遍了何路脑海每一寸地方,让她煎熬着过着没有方尧的世界,让何路煎熬的同时,时光将她带回了七年前的高一,青春开始重新走过,何路是否还会继续重蹈覆辙,还是开辟新的人生,会将怎样改变呢...结局是否会改变
  • 战神联盟之星语学院

    战神联盟之星语学院

    初来星语,我看到的是高手之间的对决友人之间的劝说旁人的冷眼看戏我,轻轻勾起嘴角轻笑道:星语学院,有点意思.......................
  • 霸道人类恋上我

    霸道人类恋上我

    他,霸道夺走了她的初吻,傲娇的对她宣布:“你只能属于我。”山盟海誓后,竟是利益争夺?他,仰望星空,只愿再睹她的容颜......生死相随,两人于天地却只能存一人,ta终究是用自己的命换取TA得永生.....此生能否再相见,再相偎?
  • 少年武霸

    少年武霸

    他本是天武大陆的绝世武霸,却阴沟里翻船导致最后一战败北,穿越到地球是一个傻子的身上,算了既然我到了你身上,那我就要让你称霸天下重新傲立于这天地间,什么找茬的富二代不用太狠抽不死就行专治各种二代;美女?没几分姿色还真不要;钱?什么你跟我谈钱?钱乃身外之物,给几十个亿就可以,看本大少怎么重振武霸声威。
  • 凤起天澜

    凤起天澜

    暂无,,,,,,,,,,,,,凤逆天下,
  • 九霄叹

    九霄叹

    灵魔大陆,神奇的命武。繁茂之上,暗潮涌动。神秘的兽盟,危机!
  • 邪王宠妃:腹黑二小姐

    邪王宠妃:腹黑二小姐

    她,21世纪最顶尖的杀手,却穿为叶府最无用的废材小姐,当废材变身绝顶天才,昔日欺辱她的人,通通做好心理准备,不往死里弄,她就不姓叶。他,帝国最尊贵的皇子,冷酷且腹黑,却慧眼识珠,独独对她痴宠无度。“喂,大哥,我们不熟!”邪王轻笑“娘子是不想负责了?”呃……且看他们如何强强联手,傲视群雄?