"They're not furrows, dear friend," said Barbican, "and can't be,
either, simply on account of their immense size. They are what the
German astronomers called _Rillen_; the French, _rainures_, and the
English, _grooves_, _canals_, _clefts_, _cracks_, _chasms_, or
_fissures_."
"You have a good stock of names for them anyhow," observed Ardan, "if
that does any good."
"The number of names given them," answered Barbican, "shows how little
is really known about them. They have been observed in all the level
portion of the Moon's surface. Small as they appear to us, a little
calculation must convince you that they are in some places hundreds of
miles in length, a mile in width and probably in many points several
miles in depth. Their width and depth, however, vary, though their
sides, so far as observed, are always rigorously parallel. Let us take a
good look at them."
Putting the glass to his eye, Barbican examined the clefts for some time
with close attention. He saw that their banks were sharp edged and
extremely steep. In many places they were of such geometrical regularity
that he readily excused Gruithuysen's idea of deeming them to be
gigantic earthworks thrown up by the Selenite engineers.
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