Putting the countless miles speedily behind them, the “Meteor” at
last came in sight of the moon. Calling Sana to his side, Carl let
their ship hover above that cold dead world. The sight below them was
fearful--the planet was a veritable charnel-house. Countless circular
mountain ranges, looking like great inactive volcanic craters, some
of them hundreds of miles in diameter and with ramparts more than
twenty-five thousand feet high, studded the surface of the moon.
Between these mountain ranges the surface of the moon was scarred with
great clefts or crevices, evidently caused by the sudden cooling of
that planet.
Recalling that among the various books they had with them, was one
containing photographic maps of the moon, compiled by the greatest of
the earth’s astronomers, Carl procured it and with Sana’s assistance,
compared the pictured maps with the planet itself. Yes, there was the
great Copernicus crater, with its strange central peak rising some
eleven thousand feet from the bottom of the pit, although the peak
rose only some two thousand five hundred feet above the surface of
the moon. There was the Plato crater, sixty miles in diameter with
peaks over seven thousand feet high; Clavius, one hundred and forty
miles from rampart to rampart with peaks sixteen thousand feet high;
Herschel ninety miles in diameter; Gauss and Humbolt each about one
hundred miles across. He recognized, too, the lunar Apennines, some
four thousand five hundred miles long, soaring in rugged steps to a
height of eighteen thousand feet; the lunar Alps, consisting of some
hundred peaks, rising to a height of ten thousand feet, while the great
peaks of the Doerfel and Leipnitz mountains overshadowed all in their
majestic heights of twenty-six to twenty-seven thousand feet.
Gleaming white, dull red and brilliant yellow the peaks and craters
reflected the rays of the sun. A beautiful sight, indeed, yet more
impressive, to Carl, was the fact that the planet they inspected was
but the skeleton of what might once have been a world of life and
progress. Who knows?
Leaving the moon behind, they headed for the earth. The dust clouds had
disappeared and the land and water surfaces were clearly visible even
at their great distance. Their earth-home was once again in sight. A
feeling of happiness stole over the returning wanderers. Truly, there
is no place like home.
Guiding the “Meteor” in the direction of the earth’s rotation, they
swooped earthward, landing at last in a highly vegetated field.
People were working the lands, using, Carl soon saw, rather primitive
implements. The alighting airplane caused a great deal of commotion
among these people, but seeing that the people who stepped from the
machine were human beings, looking much like themselves, they soon got
over their fright, and came forward, eager questions on their lips.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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