Therefore, as to
the second question before the house for deliberation, _Has the Moon
been ever inhabited?_ the Chair gets out of its difficulty, as a Scotch
jury does when it has not evidence enough either way, by returning a
solemn verdict of _Not Proven!_"
"And with this conclusion," said Barbican, hastily rising, "of a subject
on which, to tell the truth, we are unable as yet to throw any light
worth speaking of, let us be satisfied for the present. Another question
of greater moment to us just now is: where are we? It seems to me that
we are increasing our distance from the Moon very decidedly and very
rapidly."
It was easy to see that he was quite right in this observation. The
Projectile, still following a northerly course and therefore approaching
the lunar equator, was certainly getting farther and farther from the
Moon. Even at 30 deg. S., only ten degrees farther north than the latitude
of _Tycho_, the travellers had considerable difficulty, comparatively,
in observing the details of _Pitatus_, a walled mountain on the south
shores of the _Mare Nubium_. In the "sea" itself, over which they now
floated, they could see very little, but far to the left, on the 20th
parallel, they could discern the vast crater of _Bullialdus_, 9,000
feet deep.
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