"Straight as an arrow!" added Ardan.
"Running through lofty mountains!" cried M'Nicholl.
"Cut through with a pair of saws and scooped out with a chisel!" cried
Ardan.
"See the shadows of those peaks!" cried M'Nicholl catching fire at the
sight. "Black, long, and sharp as if cast by cathedral spires!"
"Oh! ye crags and peaks!" burst forth Ardan; "how I should like to catch
even a faint echo of the chorus you could chant, if a wild storm roared
over your beetling summits! The pine forests of Norwegian mountains
howling in midwinter would not be an accordeon in comparison!"
"Wonderful instance of subsidence on a grand scale!" exclaimed the
Captain, hastily relapsing into science.
"Not at all!" cried the Frenchman, still true to his colors; "no
subsidence there! A comet simply came too close and left its mark as it
flew past."
"Fanciful exclamations, dear friends," observed Barbican; "but I'm not
surprised at your excitement. Yonder is the famous _Valley of the Alps_,
a standing enigma to all selenographers. How it could have been formed,
no one can tell. Even wilder guesses than yours, Ardan, have been
hazarded on the subject. All we can state positively at present
regarding this wonderful formation, is what I have just recorded in my
note-book: the _Valley of the Alps_ is about 5 mile wide and 70 or 80
long: it is remarkably flat and free from _debris_, though the mountains
on each side rise like walls to the height of at least 10,000
feet.
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