"Among their catch was many-tentaculate, evil-eyed black thing, ferociously active, whose appearance they greeted with shrieks and twitters, and which with quick, nervous movements they hacked to pieces of little hatchets All its dissevered limbs continued to lash and writhe in vicious manner Afterwards, when fever had hold of me, I dreamt again and again bitter, furious creature rising so vigorous and active unknown sea It most active and malignant thing of all the living creatures yet seen world inside the moon . .

"The surface sea very nearly two hundred miles ( more) below the level moon's exterior; all the cities moon lie, I learnt, immediately above this Central Sea, cavernous spaces and artificial galleries as described, communicate exterior by enormous vertical shafts which open invariably in called by earthly astronomers the 'craters' moon The lid covering one such aperture I had already seen during the wanderings that had preceded my capture

" condition less central portion moon arrived at very precise knowledge an enormous system of caverns mooncalves shelter during the night; and abattoirs like - in it I and Bedford fought Selenite butchers - and since seen balloons laden with meat descending upper dark scarcely learnt things as Zulu in London would learn British corn supplies same time clear, however, vertical shafts vegetation surface must play an essential role in ventilating and keeping fresh the atmosphere moon At , and particularly on my first emergence from my prison, certainly cold wind blowing down the shaft, and later kind of sirocco upward that corresponded with my fever For end of about three weeks I fell ill of an indefinable sort of fever, and of sleep quinine tabloids that very fortunately I had brought in my pocket, I remained ill and fretting miserably, almost time when taken presence Grand Lunar, Master Moon

" dilate wretchedness condition," he remarks, " during those days of ill-health " And he goes on with great amplitude with details I omit here "My temperature," he concludes, "kept abnormally high , and I lost all desire for food I had stagnant waking intervals, and sleep tormented by dreams, and at one phase , I remember, so weak be earth-sick and almost hysterical I longed almost intolerably for colour to break the everlasting blue . "

He reverts again presently topic sponge caught lunar atmosphere told by astronomers and physicists that all he tells is in absolute accordance with already known moon's condition Had earthly astronomers had the courage and imagination to push home bold induction, says Mr Wendigee, they foretold almost everything that Cavor has general structure moon They know now pretty certainly that moon and earth satellite and primary as smaller and greater sisters, made out of one mass, and consequently made same material And density moon is only three-fifths that earth, there nothing but that hollowed out by great system of caverns no necessity, said Sir Jabez Flap, F R S , that most entertaining exponent facetious side stars, that ever moon out such easy inferences, and points the pun with an allusion to Gruyere, but he certainly announced his knowledge hollowness moon before And moon is hollow, then the apparent absence of air and water is, , quite easily explained The sea lies within bottom caverns, air travels great sponge of galleries, in accordance with simple physical laws The caverns moon, whole, are very windy places sunlight comes round the moon the air outer galleries side is heated, its pressure increases, some flows out exterior and mingles evaporating air craters (where the plants remove its carbonic acid), while the greater portion flows round galleries to replace the shrinking air cooling side sunlight has left , therefore, constant eastward breeze air outer galleries, and an upflow during the lunar day up the shafts, complicated, , very greatly varying shape galleries, ingenious contrivances Selenite mind . .

Chapter 24

The Natural History Selenites

THE messages of Cavor sixth sixteenth are most part broken, abound so in repetitions, scarcely form consecutive narrative given in full, , scientific report, but here far more convenient simply to abstract and quote as former chapter subjected every word to keen critical scrutiny, and my own brief memories and impressions of lunar things of inestimable help in interpreting what would otherwise impenetrably dark And, naturally, as living beings, our interest centres far more strange community of lunar insects living, it would seem, as an honoured guest than mere physical condition world

already made it clear, , Selenites resembled man in maintaining the erect attitude, and in having four limbs, and compared the general appearance heads jointing limbs of insects mentioned, too, the peculiar consequence smaller gravitation moon on their fragile slightness Cavor confirms me upon all these points He calls them "animals," though they fall under no division classification of earthly creatures, and he points out "the insect type of anatomy had, fortunately for men, never exceeded relatively size on earth " The largest terrestrial insects, living or extinct, , as matter of fact, measure 6 in in length; "but here, against the lesser gravitation moon, creature certainly an insect as vertebrate seems to to attain to human and ultra-human dimensions "

mention the ant, but throughout his allusions the ant is continually being brought before my mind, in its sleepless activity, in its intelligence and social organisation, in its structure, and more particularly fact displays, two forms, the male female form, that almost all other animals possess, number of other sexless creatures, workers, soldiers, like, differing from one another in structure, character, power, and use, and yet all members same species Selenites, also, have great variety of forms , only colossally greater in size than ants, but also, in Cavor's opinion , in intelligence, morality, and social wisdom are they colossally greater than men And instead four or five different forms of ant found, almost innumerably different forms of Selenite I had endeavoured to indicate the very considerable difference observable Selenites outer crust as I happened to encounter; the differences in size and proportions were certainly as wide differences most widely separated races of men But such differences as fade absolutely to nothing in comparison huge distinctions Cavor tells It would seem the exterior Selenites were, indeed, mostly engaged in kindred occupations - mooncalf herds, butchers, fleshers, like But moon, practically unsuspected by me, , it seems, number of other sorts of Selenite, differing in size, differing relative size of part to part, differing in power and appearance, and yet not different species of creatures, but only different forms of one species, and retaining through all their variations certain common likeness that marks their specific unity The moon is, indeed, sort of vast ant-hill, only, instead of there being only four or five sorts of ant, many hundred different sorts of Selenite, and almost every gradation between one sort and another

It would seem the discovery came upon Cavor very speedily I infer rather than learn narrative that captured mooncalf herds under the direction other Selenites who "have larger brain cases (heads ? ) and shorter legs " Finding walk even under the goad, they carried him into darkness, crossed narrow, plank-like bridge the identical bridge I had refused, and put him down in something have seemed at first some sort of lift the balloon - it had certainly been absolutely invisible darkness - and what had seemed mere plank-walking void was really, , the passage gangway he descended towards constantly more luminous caverns moon At first they descended in silence - save twitterings Selenites - and then into stir of windy movement In little while the profound blackness had made his eyes so sensitive that he began more and more things about him, and at last the vague took shape