by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XI.
FANCY AND REALITY.
"Have you ever seen the moon?" asked a professor, ironically, of one ofhis pupils.
"No, sir!" replied the pupil, still more ironically, "but I must say Ihave heard it spoken of."
In one sense, the pupil's witty answer might be given by a large majorityof sublunary beings. How many people have heard speak of the moon whohave never seen it--at least through a glass or a telescope! How manyhave never examined the map of their satellite!
In looking at a selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us. Contraryto the arrangement followed for that of the Earth and Mars, the continentsoccupy more particularly the southern hemisphere of the lunar globe.These continents do not show such decided, clear, and regular boundarylines as South America, Africa, and the Indian peninsula. Their angular,capricious, and deeply indented coasts are rich in gulfs and peninsulas.They remind one of the confusion in the islands of the Sound, where theland is excessively indented. If navigation ever existed on the surfaceof the moon, it must have been wonderfully difficult and dangerous; andwe may well pity the Selenite sailors and hydrographers; the former,when they came upon these perilous coasts, the latter when they took thesoundings of its stormy banks.
Illustration: HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE HEARD SPEAK OF THE MOON.
We may also notice that, on the lunar sphere, the south pole is much morecontinental than the north pole. On the latter, there is but one slightstrip of land separated from other continents by vast seas. Towards thesouth, continents clothe almost the whole of the hemisphere. It is evenpossible that the Selenites have already planted the flag on one oftheir poles, whilst Franklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont d'Urville, and Lamberthave never yet been able to attain that unknown point of the terrestrialglobe.
As to islands, they are numerous on the surface of the moon. Nearlyall oblong or circular, and as if traced with the compass, they seem toform one vast Archipelago, equal to that charming group lying betweenGreece and Asia Minor, and which mythology in ancient times adorned withmost graceful legends. Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, andCarpathos, rise before the mind, and we seek vainly for Ulysses' vesselor the "clipper" of the Argonauts. So at least it was in Michel Ardan'seyes. To him it was a Grecian Archipelago that he saw on the map. Tothe eyes of his matter-of-fact companions, the aspect of these coastsrecalled rather the parcelled-out land of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia;and where the Frenchman discovered traces of the heroes of fable, theseAmericans were marking the most favourable points for the establishmentof stores in the interests of lunar commerce and industry.
After wandering over these vast continents, the eye is attracted by stillgreater seas. Not only their formation, but their situation and aspectremind one of the terrestrial oceans; but again, as on earth, these seasoccupy the greater portion of the globe. But in point of fact, theseare not liquid spaces, but plains, the nature of which the travellershoped soon to determine. Astronomers, we must allow, have graced thesepretended seas with at least odd names, which science has respected up tothe 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," saidhe, "it is no longer the sentimental card of the seventeenth century, itis 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 theirshoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked upon the lunar map from a verydifferent 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 reasonis so often shipwrecked. Not far off lies the "Sea of Rains," fed by allthe fever of existence. Near this is the "Sea of Storms," where man isever fighting against his passions, which too often gain the victory.Then, worn out by deceit, treasons, infidelity, and the whole body ofterrestrial misery, what does he find at the end of his career? that vast"Sea of Humours," barely softened by some drops of the waters from the"Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, storms, and humours,--does the life of mancontain 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; "TheLake of Dreams," reflecting a joyous future; "the Sea of Nectar," with itswaves of tenderness and breezes of love; "The Sea of Fruitfulness;" "TheSea of Crises;" then the "Sea of Vapours," whose dimensions are perhapsa little too confined; and lastly, that vast "Sea of Tranquillity," inwhich every false passion, every useless dream, every unsatisfied desireis at length absorbed, and whose waves emerge peaceably into the "Lakeof Death!"
What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of the moon'stwo hemispheres, joined to one another like man and woman, and formingthat sphere of life carried into space! And was not the fantastic Michelright in thus interpreting the fancies of the ancient astronomers? Butwhilst his imagination thus roved over "the seas," his grave companionswere considering things more geographically. They were learning this newworld by heart. They were measuring angles and diameters.