From the Earth to the Moon direct in ninety-seven hours and twenty minutes, and a trip round it . nds theinvisible glory of the moon. In that flash, continents, seas, andforests had become visible to them. Did an atmosphere, then,bring to this unknown face its life-giving atoms ? Questions stillinsoluble, and for ever closed against human curiosity ! It was then half past three in the afternoon. The projectilewas following its curvilinear direction round the mooii. Had itscourse been again altered by the meteor? It was to be feared the projectile must describe a curve unalterably detei-
From the Earth to the Moon direct in ninety-seven hours and twenty minutes, and a trip round it . nds theinvisible glory of the moon. In that flash, continents, seas, andforests had become visible to them. Did an atmosphere, then,bring to this unknown face its life-giving atoms ? Questions stillinsoluble, and for ever closed against human curiosity ! It was then half past three in the afternoon. The projectilewas following its curvilinear direction round the mooii. Had itscourse been again altered by the meteor? It was to be feared the projectile must describe a curve unalterably detei-minedby the laws of mechanical reasoning. Barbicane was inclined tobelieve that this curve would be rather a parabola than a hyper-bola. But admitting the parabola, the projectile must quicklyhave passed through the cone of shadow projected into spaceopposite the sun. This cone, indeed, is very narrow, the angulardiameter of the moon being so little when compared with thediameter of the orb of day ; and up to this time the projectilehad been floating in this deep shadow. Whatever had been its. THE SUN! [p. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 27 I speed (and it could not have beeu insignificant) its period ofoccultation continued. That ivas evident, but perhaps that wouldnot have been the case in a supposed rigidly parabolical trajectory,—a new problem which tormented Barbicanes brain, imprisonedas he was in a circle of unknowns which he couhl not unravel. Neither of the travellers thought of taking an instants one watched for an unexpected fact, which might throwsome new light on their uranographic studies. About five oclock,Michel Ardan distributed, under the name of dinner, some piecesof bread and cold meat, which were quickly swallowed withouteither of them abandoning their scuttle, the glass of which wasincessantly encrusted by the condensation of vapour. About forty-five minutes past five in the evening, Nicholl,armed with his glass, sighted towards the southern b
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1874
