--Over the whole surface of our Earth I know of no natural
phenomenon that can be at all compared with it."
"Another wonder almost in front of us!" cried Ardan. "I see a vast lake
black as pitch and round as a crater; it is surrounded by such lofty
mountains that their shadows reach clear across, rendering the interior
quite invisible!"
"That's _Plato_;" said M'Nicholl; "I know it well; it's the darkest spot
on the Moon: many a night I gazed at it from my little observatory in
Broad Street, Philadelphia."
"Right, Captain," said Barbican; "the crater _Plato_, is, indeed,
generally considered the blackest spot on the Moon, but I am inclined to
consider the spots _Grimaldi_ and _Riccioli_ on the extreme eastern edge
to be somewhat darker. If you take my glass, Ardan, which is of somewhat
greater power than yours, you will distinctly see the bottom of the
crater. The reflective power of its plateau probably proceeds from the
exceedingly great number of small craters that you can detect there."
"I think I see something like them now," said Ardan. "But I am sorry the
Projectile's course will not give us a vertical view."
"Can't be helped!" said Barbican; "we must go where it takes us.
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