The whole face of the moon, Atterley now found to be entirely changed, and on looking through the upper telescope, the earth presented an appearance not very dissimilar; but the outline of her continents and oceans was still perceptible in different shades, and capable of being readily recognised; the bright glare of the sun, however, made the surfaces of both bodies somewhat dim and pale.

“After a short interval, I again looked at the moon, and found not only its magnitude very greatly increased, but that it was beginning to present a more beautiful spectacle.  The sun’s rays fell obliquely on her disc, so that by a large part of its surface not reflecting the light, I saw every object on it, so far as I was enabled by the power of my telescope.  Its mountains, lakes, seas, continents, and islands, were faintly, though not indistinctly, traced; and every moment brought forth something new to catch my eye, and awaken my curiosity.  The whole face of the moon was of a silvery hue, relieved and varied by the softest and most delicate shades.  No cloud nor speck of vapour intercepted my view.  One of my exclamations of delight awakened the Brahmin, who quickly arose, and looking down on the resplendent orb below us, observed that we must soon begin to slacken the rapidity of our course, by throwing out ballast.  The moon’s dimensions now rapidly increased; the separate mountains, which formed the ridges and chains on her surface, began to be plainly visible through the telescope; whilst, on the shaded side, several volcanoes appeared upon her disc, like the flashes of our fire-fly, or rather like the twinkling of stars in a frosty night.  He remarked, that the extraordinary clearness and brightness of the objects on the moon’s surface, was owing to her having a less extensive and more transparent atmosphere than the earth:  adding—­’The difference is so great, that some of our astronomical observers have been induced to think she has none.  If that, however, had been the case, our voyage would have been impracticable.’”

After gazing for some time on this magnificent spectacle, with admiration and delight, one of their balls of lunarium was let off for the purpose of checking their velocity.  At this time the Brahmin supposed they were not more than four thousand miles from the nearest point of the moon’s surface.  In about four hours more, her apparent magnitude was so great, that they could see her by looking out of either of the side windows.

“Her disc had now lost its former silvery appearance, and began to look more like that of the earth, when seen at the same distance.  It was a most gratifying spectacle to behold the objects successively rising to our view, and steadily enlarging in their dimensions.  The rapidity with which we approached the moon, impressed me, in spite of myself, with the alarming sensation of falling; and I found myself alternately agitated with a sense of this danger, and with impatience to