[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
names, which science has respected up to the present time. Michel Ardan was
right when he compared this map to a "Tendre card," got up by a Scudary or a
Cyrano de Bergerac. "Only," said he, "it is no longer the sentimental card of
the seventeenth century, it is the card of life, very neatly divided into two
parts, one feminine, the other masculine; the right hemisphere for woman, the
left for man."
In speaking thus, Michel made his prosaic companions shrug their shoulders.
Barbicane and Nicholl looked upon the lunar map from a very different point of
view to that of their fantastic friend. Nevertheless, their fantastic friend
was a little in the right. Judge for yourselves.
In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," where human reason is so
often shipwrecked. Not far off lies the "Sea of Rains," fed by all the fever
of existence. Near this is the
"Sea of Storms," where man is ever fighting against his passions, which too
often gain the victory. Then, worn out by deceit, treasons, infidelity, and
the whole body of terrestrial misery, what does he find at the end of his
career? that vast
"Sea of Humors," barely softened by some drops of the waters from the "Gulf of
Dew!" Clouds, rain, storms, and humors-- does the life of man contain aught
but these? and is it not summed up in these four words?
The right hemisphere, "dedicated to the ladies," encloses smaller seas, whose
significant names contain every incident of a feminine existence. There is
the "Sea of Serenity," over which the young girl bends; "The Lake of Dreams,"
reflecting a joyous future; "The Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tenderness
and breezes of love; "The Sea of Fruitfulness;" "The Sea of
Crises;" then the "Sea of Vapors," whose dimensions are perhaps a little too
confined; and lastly, that vast "Sea of
Tranquillity," in which every false passion, every useless dream, every
unsatisfied desire is at length absorbed, and whose waves emerge peacefully
into the "Lake of Death!"
What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of the moon's
two hemispheres, joined to one another like man and woman, and forming that
sphere of life carried into space!
And was not the fantastic Michel right in thus interpreting the
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
158
fancies of the ancient astronomers? But while his imagination thus roved over
"the seas," his grave companions were considering things more geographically.
They were learning this new world by heart. They were measuring angles and
diameters.
Page 150
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
CHAPTER XII
OROGRAPHIC DETAILS
The course taken by the projectile, as we have before remarked, was bearing it
toward the moon's northern hemisphere. The travelers were far from the
central point which they would have struck, had their course not been subject
to an irremediable deviation.
It was past midnight; and Barbicane then estimated the distance at seven
hundred and fifty miles, which was a little greater than the length of the
lunar radius, and which would diminish as it advanced nearer to the North
Pole. The projectile was then not at the altitude of the equator; but across
the tenth parallel, and from that latitude, carefully taken on the map to the
pole, Barbicane and his two companions were able to observe the moon under the
most favorable conditions. Indeed, by means of glasses, the above-named
distance was reduced to little more than fourteen miles. The telescope of the
Rocky Mountains brought the moon much nearer; but the terrestrial atmosphere
singularly lessened its power. Thus Barbicane, posted in his projectile, with
the glasses to his eyes, could seize upon details which were almost
imperceptible to earthly observers.
"My friends," said the president, in a serious voice, "I do not know whither
we are going; I do not know if we shall ever see the terrestrial globe again.
Nevertheless, let us proceed as if our work would one day by useful to our
fellow-men. Let us keep our minds free from every other consideration. We
are astronomers; and this projectile is a room in the Cambridge
University, carried into space. Let us make our observations!"
This said, work was begun with great exactness; and they faithfully reproduced
the different aspects of the moon, at the different distances which the
projectile reached.
At the time that the projectile was as high as the tenth parallel, north
latitude, it seemed rigidly to follow the twentieth degree, east longitude.
We must here make one important remark with regard to the map by which they
were taking observations. In the selenographical maps where, on account of
the reversing of the objects by the glasses, the south is above and the north
below, it would seem natural that, on account of that inversion, the east
should be to the left hand, and the west to the right. But it is not so. If
the map were turned upside down, showing the moon as we see her, the east
would be to the left, and the west to the right, contrary
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
159
to that which exists on terrestrial maps. The following is the reason of this
anomaly. Observers in the northern hemisphere
(say in Europe) see the moon in the south-- according to them.
When they take observations, they turn their backs to the north, the reverse
position to that which they occupy when they study a terrestrial map. As they
turn their backs to the north, the east is on their left, and the west to
their right. To observers in the southern hemisphere (Patagonia for example),
the moon's west would be quite to their left, and the east to their right, as
the south is behind them. Such is the reason of the apparent reversing of
these two cardinal points, and we must bear it in mind in order to be able to
follow President Barbicane's observations.
Page 151
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
With the help of Boeer and Moedler's _Mappa Selenographica_, the travelers
were able at once to recognize that portion of the disc enclosed within the
field of their glasses.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]