I then busied myself in ascertaining the secret of their signal system.  I learned, much to my surprise, that with scarcely any knowledge of electricity the Moonites had long ago discovered a means of communication which is somewhat similar to our wireless telegraphy.  From central stations messages are transmitted to sensitive metal rods set up on each house-top, somewhat like the lightning rods that decorate house-tops on my own Earth.  I also learned that a very thin atmosphere is prevalent on the Moon, and that this rare medium is more suited to their wireless telegraphy than our heavier atmosphere would be with its different composition.

I soon learned that great excitement was prevailing throughout the adjacent villages.  Wireless telegraphy carried the news, and from all directions throngs were pressing toward the city.  Furthermore I saw that the noted personage with whom I had spent a quiet season was now making his way toward me.  Not wishing to hold further conversation with him, and desiring to escape the ever-rising tide of curious questioners, I once more became invisible and proceeded to study the physical phenomena of the Moon.

I now saw that everything bore evidence to the fearful havoc of volcanic eruptions that had laid waste so large a portion of the Moon’s surface.  The people live in the remaining fertile belts and patches of land which are fortunately scattered in rich profusion over the greater portion of the surface, reminding one of productive oases in the deserts of our world.

Here and there, in stately museums, are stored the relics of the old glorious civilization.  At a few of these places I tarried to study the achievements of a people who flourished five thousand years ago, at a time when the civilization of our world was yet young.  What an interest 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.