Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Martians -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space travelers -- Fiction
I may say that I had been somewhat familiar with the scenery of this
part of the lunar world, for I had often studied it from the earth with
a telescope, and I had thought that if there was any part of the moon
where one might, with fair expectation of success, look for inhabitants,
or if not inhabitants, at least for relics of life no longer existant
there, this would surely be the place. It was, therefore, with no small
degree of curiosity, notwithstanding the unexpectedly frightful and
repulsive appearance that the surface of the moon presented, that I now
saw myself rapidly approaching the region concerning whose secrets my
imagination had so often busied itself. When Mr. Edison and I had paid
our previous trip to the moon on our first experimental trip of the
electrical ship we had landed at a point on its surface remote from
this, and, as I have before explained, we then made no effort to
investigate its secrets. But now it was to be different, and we were at
length to see something of the wonders of the moon.
I had often on the earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them
Cape Heraclides with a telescope, and calling their attention to the
fact that the outline of the peak terminating the cape was such as to
present a remarkable resemblance to a human face, unmistakably a
feminine countenance, seen in profile, and possessing no small degree of
beauty. To my astonishment, this curious human semblance still remained
when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming
the cape filled nearly the whole field of view of the window from which
I was watching it. The resemblance, indeed, was most startling.
"Can this indeed be Diana herself?" I said half-aloud, but instantly
afterward I was laughing at my fancy, for Mr. Edison had overhead me and
exclaimed, "Where is she?"
"Who?"
"Diana."
"Why, there," I said, pointing to the moon. But lo! the appearance was
gone even while I spoke. A swift change had taken place in the line of
sight by which we were viewing it, and the likeness had disappeared in
consequence.
A few moments later my astonishment was revived, but the cause this time
was a very different one. We had been dropping rapidly toward the
mountains, and the electrician in charge of the car was swiftly and
constantly changing his potential, and, like a pilot who feels his way
into an unknown harbor, endeavoring to approach the moon in such a
manner that no hidden peril should surprise us. As we thus approached I
suddenly perceived, crowning the very apex of the lofty peak near the
termination of the cape, the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient
watch tower. It was evidently composed of Cyclopean blocks larger than
any that I had ever seen even among the ruins of Greece, Egypt and Asia
Minor.
[Illustration: _"As we thus approached I suddenly perceived, crowning
the very apex of the lofty peak near the termination of the cape, the
ruins of what appeared to be the ancient watch-tower."_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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