We listened.  For a space the moon world was still.  But it was some time before we resumed our crawling search for the vanished sphere.

When next we saw mooncalves they were some little distance away from us in a place of tumbled rocks.  The less vertical surfaces of the rocks were thick with a speckled green plant growing in dense mossy clumps, upon which these creatures were browsing.  We stopped at the edge of the reeds amidst which we were crawling at the sight of them, peering out at then and looking round for a second glimpse of a Selenite.  They lay against their food like stupendous slugs, huge, greasy hulls, eating greedily and noisily, with a sort of sobbing avidity.  They seemed monsters of mere fatness, clumsy and overwhelmed to a degree that would make a Smithfield ox seem a model of agility.  Their busy, writhing, chewing mouths, and eyes closed, together with the appetising sound of their munching, made up an effect of animal enjoyment that was singularly stimulating to our empty frames.

“Hogs!” said Cavor, with unusual passion.  “Disgusting hogs!” and after one glare of angry envy crawled off through the bushes to our right.  I stayed long enough to see that the speckled plant was quite hopeless for human nourishment, then crawled after him, nibbling a quill of it between my teeth.

Presently we were arrested again by the proximity of a Selenite, and this time we were able to observe him more exactly.  Now we could see that the Selenite covering was indeed clothing, and not a sort of crustacean integument.  He was quite similar in his costume to the former one we had glimpsed, except that ends of something like wadding were protruding from his neck, and he stood on a promontory of rock and moved his head this way and that, as though he was surveying the crater.  We lay quite still, fearing to attract his attention if we moved, and after a time he turned about and disappeared.

We came upon another drove of mooncalves bellowing up a ravine, and then we passed over a place of sounds, sounds of beating machinery as if some huge hall of industry came near the surface there.  And while these sounds were still about us we came to the edge of a great open space, perhaps two hundred yards in diameter, and perfectly level.  Save for a few lichens that advanced from its margin this space was bare, and presented a powdery surface of a dusty yellow colour.  We were afraid to strike out across this space, but as it presented less obstruction to our crawling than the scrub, we went down upon it and began very circumspectly to skirt its edge.

For a little while the noises from below ceased and everything, save for the faint stir of the growing vegetation, was very still.  Then abruptly there began an uproar, louder, more vehement, and nearer than any we had so far heard.  Of a certainty it came from below.  Instinctively we crouched as flat as we could, ready for a prompt plunge into the thicket beside us.  Each knock and throb seemed to vibrate through our bodies.  Louder grew this throbbing and beating, and that irregular vibration increased until the whole moon world seemed to be jerking and pulsing.