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broke forth, and within a few minutes a crater was formed, out of which a
stream of slime or lava poured all over the
vicinity.
"Too bad that the astronomers on the earth cannot see the new volcano,"
Flitmore remarked regretfully. "It is too
small for their instruments."
"We have observed the event and that's enough!" crowed
Schulze.
"Yes," interceded Hank. "That is, if we ever reach the
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earth again and can bring back information about this
event."
"An old dispute would be decided that way," said the Professor ; "that is, if
we should be believed, which is still pretty
doubtful."
"What remarkable colors!" Lady Flitmore now observed,
and pointed to the region of the
Oceanus procellarum.
There really were revealed extensive spots of bright green
and yellowish color.
"Can there be vegetation down there, after all that has
been said?" Hank dared to suppose.
"Attention, gentlemen!" Lord Flitmore cried out. "We are now going to see a
spectacle which no earthly eye has yet perceived. The moon always turns but
one and the same side towards the earth, because it revolves on its axis in
exactly the same time in which it revolves around the earth. Only as a result
of its libration, that is, of the slight swing of its axis, we see first on
one side and then on the other a small portion of the half that is turned away
from us.
"Now the moment has arrived when we shall fly past the earth's satellite and
get a glimpse of its enigmatical other side, and at pretty close range; for we
have approached to within 6000 miles of it, while it is at a distance of
248,000 miles from the earth. "
Everybody was on tiptoe for the scene that the mysterious other side of the
moon held for them, although Schulze thought that it would not be very
different from what they had already seen.
For observation, another chamber had to be sought out, for, as a result of the
rotation of the
Sannah, the moon was going straight down under the room occupied by the
company and, besides, the
Sannah was rushing beyond the moon's orbit.
The Englishman decided to approach closer to the moon so that all the details
of the expected phenomena might be observed with the greatest plainness. He
therefore shut off the centrifugal circuit and the
Sannah hurtled towards the moon at a furious pace.
The next thing to be noticed was the enormous extent of the colored spots,
which could now be plainly recognized through the telescope as green fields
and arid grassy plains.
"What is that?" exclaimed Lady Flitmore in sudden fright.
Through the window fell a luminous gleam. Lord Flitmore looked up and rushed
with a bound to the
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circuit connection in order to put the centrifugal force in
operation once more.
"What was it?" asked Hank.
"We have penetrated into the atmosphere of the moon," explained the
Englishman, "and with the speed of our fall, the metal rims of the
window-frames began to grow red-hot in spite of the flint-glass protection.
However, the danger is
eliminated; we are already rising again above the atmosphere."
"So it exists, this much-disputed moon air," said Schulze. "There is no longer
any doubt about it," replied Flitmore, "but look at that!"
The moon's surface was a bare sixty-two miles away so high did the denser part
of its atmospheric envelope rise.
And now appeared landscape scenes of charming splendor.
Here too the peculiar mountain chains predominated; but they were covered with
woods.
The distance prevented the naked eye from recognizing the nature of these
woods, but the telescope revealed very sin-gularly formed trees such as are
not to be found on earth. Most of these growths resembled enormous clusters of
grass on high trunks, so that they looked like palms; yet the trees seldom had
an actual crown; most of them were horizontal branches which stretched out
their bushy tips on all sides.
Megaphytons and coniferous trees of the same singular construction were to be
seen elsewhere; the fronds stood at right angles from the trunks and inclined
somewhat downwards, so that under the trunk no shadow could be found, apart
from the meager shadow of the trunk itself and its branch-wood; only at a
goodly distance was the tree surrounded by a circle of shadow spots.
In the crater hollows glistened numerous small and large lakes; waterfalls and
rivulets plunged down the steep mountain walls, but larger river-courses and
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