The day
may come when man can steer the projectile or the balloon in which he is
shut up, in any way he pleases, but that day has not come yet!"
Towards five in the morning, the northern limit of _Mare Imbrium_ was
finally passed, and _Mare Frigoris_ spread its frost-colored plains
far to the right and left. On the east the travellers could easily see
the ring-mountain _Condamine_, about 4000 feet high, while a little
ahead on the right they could plainly distinguish _Fontenelle_ with an
altitude nearly twice as great. _Mare Frigoris_ was soon passed, and the
whole lunar surface beneath the travellers, as far as they could see in
all directions, now bristled with mountains, crags, and peaks. Indeed,
at the 70th parallel the "Seas" or plains seem to have come to an end.
The spy-glasses now brought the surface to within about three miles, a
distance less than that between the hotel at Chamouni and the summit of
Mont Blanc. To the left, they had no difficulty in distinguishing the
ramparts of _Philolaus_, about 12,000 feet high, but though the crater
had a diameter of nearly thirty miles, the black shadows prevented the
slightest sign of its interior from being seen.
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