lay wrapped up in the time-worn relics! Naturally I thought of Pompeii
as I was viewing the antique treasures that had been brought to light
from their old graves of ashes, cinder and lava. In some of these
specimens I saw glimpses of inventions that have never been reproduced
on the Moon and never known on our Earth.
Onward I moved to take my last views of the Moon. For ragged and jagged
cliffs of almost total barrenness, and yawning chasms lined with
intolerable precipices, the Moon outrivals the Earth. I took a passing
glimpse of the famous crater-mountains, called by our astronomers
Copernicus and Theophilus, the former situated in the eastern and the
latter in the western hemisphere of the Moon. The largest openings of
our Earth dwindle into insignificance compared with such stupendous
marvels of natural scenery.
Many similar places I visited, but I spent my last hours on the Moon in
the presence of that gigantic chasm called Newton, where I was thrilled
with feelings of sublimity as never before. Outstretched lay the immense
opening, nearly one hundred and fifty miles long and about seventy miles
broad. It was fearful to gaze into it, for my eye stretched downward
mile after mile until it reached the blackness of darkness. It
frequently happens that a Moonite accidentally falls into this monster
Newtonian chasm. Nothing more is ever seen or heard of him.
I shuddered as I peered into this gigantic opening whose gaping mouth
could swallow Pike's Peak so that its highest point would be many
thousands of feet below the surface. We have nothing on our Earth that
can compare with this terribly imposing sight, and as I was studying the
expansive waste I could more readily understand how large numbers of
human beings could be destroyed by such fabulous quantities of boiling
lava as were capable of being thrown from this pit. There is no doubt
that the lava and ashes hurled from this crater alone would send a
withering blast of death-dealing for many hundreds of miles around.
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