"An absurd idea!" cried M'Nicholl. "But probably Kepler never knew the
real dimensions of these craters. Barbican knows the trouble and time
required to dig a well in Stony Hill only nine hundred feet deep. To dig
out a single lunar crater would take hundreds and hundreds of years, and
even then they should be giants who would attempt it!"
"Why so?" asked Ardan. "In the Moon, where gravity is six times less
than on the Earth, the labor of the Selenites can't be compared with
that of men like us."
"But suppose a Selenite to be six times smaller than a man like us!"
urged M'Nicholl.
"And suppose a Selenite never had an existence at all!" interposed
Barbican with his usual success in putting an end to the argument. "But
never mind the Selenites now. Observe _Eratosthenes_ as long as you have
the opportunity."
"Which will not be very long," said M'Nicholl. "He is already sinking
out of view too far to the right to be carefully observed."
"What are those peaks beyond him?" asked Ardan.
"The _Apennines_," answered Barbican; "and those on the left are the
_Carpathians_."
"I have seen very few mountain chains or ranges in the Moon," remarked
Ardan, after some minutes' observation.
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