"I shan't regret it much if we never get to the Moon," growled
M'Nicholl; "I never hankered after it anyhow!"
By this time the Projectile had reached the fortieth degree of lunar
latitude, and could hardly be further than five hundred miles from the
surface, a distance reduced to about 5 miles by the travellers' glasses.
Away to their left appeared _Helicon_, a ring mountain about 1600 feet
high; and still further to the left the eye could catch a glimpse of the
cliffs enclosing a semi-elliptical portion of _Mare Imbrium_, called the
_Sinus Iridium_, or Bay of the Rainbows.
In order to allow astronomers to make complete observations on the lunar
surface, the terrestrial atmosphere should possess a transparency
seventy times greater than its present power of transmission. But in the
void through which the Projectile was now floating, no fluid whatever
interposed between the eye of the observer and the object observed.
Besides, the travellers now found themselves at a distance that had
never before been reached by the most powerful telescopes, including
even Lord Rosse's and the great instrument on the Rocky Mountains.
Barbican was therefore in a condition singularly favorable to resolve
the great question concerning the Moon's inhabitableness.
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