Chapter 13 - Page 2

the lunar surface, and were not due, as
certain astronomers asserted, either to the imperfections of the
spy-glasses, or to the interference of the terrestrial atmosphere. His
singular opportunity for correct observation allowed him to entertain no
doubt whatever on the subject. Hampered by no atmosphere, he was free
from all liability to optical illusion. Satisfied therefore as to the
reality of these tints, he considered such knowledge a positive gain to
science. But that greenish tint--to what was it due? To a dense tropical
vegetation maintained by a low atmosphere, a mile or so in thickness?
Possibly. But this was another question that could not be answered at
present.

Further on he could detect here and there traces of a decidedly ruddy
tint. Such a shade he knew had been already detected in the _Palus
Somnii_, near _Mare Crisium_, and in the circular area of _Lichtenberg_,
near the _Hercynian Mountains_, on the eastern edge of the Moon. To what
cause was this tint to be attributed? To the actual color of the surface
itself? Or to that of the lava covering it here and there? Or to the
color resulting from the mixture of other colors seen at a distance too
great to allow of their being distinguished separately? Impossible to
tell.

Barbican and his companions succeeded no better at a new problem that
soon engaged their undivided attention. It deserves some detail.

Having passed _Lambert_, being just over _Timocharis_, all were
attentively gazing at the magnificent crater of _Archimedes_ with a
diameter of 52 miles across and ramparts more than 5000 feet in height,
when Ardan startled his companions by suddenly exclaiming:

"Hello! Cultivated fields as I am a living man!"

"What do you mean by your cultivated fields?" asked M'Nicholl sourly,
wiping his glasses and shrugging his shoulders.

"Certainly cultivated fields!" replied Ardan. "Don't you see the
furrows? They're certainly plain enough. They are white too from
glistening in the sun, but they are quite different from the radiating
streaks of _Copernicus_. Why, their sides are perfectly parallel!"

"Where are those furrows?" asked M'Nicholl, putting his glasses to his
eye and adjusting the focus.

"You can see them in all directions," answered Ardan; "but two are
particularly visible: one running north from _Archimedes_, the other
south towards the _Apennines_."

M'Nicholl's face, as he gazed, gradually assumed a grin which soon
developed into a snicker, if not a positive laugh, as he observed to
Ardan:

"Your Selenites must be Brobdignagians, their oxen Leviathans, and their
ploughs bigger than Marston's famous cannon, if