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"
I
was
reminded
on
this
excursion
of
what
I
have
read
of
the
Mammoth
Caves
;
if
only
I
had
had
a
yellow
flambeau
instead
of
the
pervading
blue
light
,
and
a
solid-looking
boatman
with
an
oar
instead
of
a
scuttle-faced
Selenite
working
an
engine
at
the
back
of
the
canoe
,
I
could
have
imagined
I
had
suddenly
got
back
to
earth
.
The
rocks
about
us
were
very
various
,
sometimes
black
,
sometimes
pale
blue
and
veined
,
and
once
they
flashed
and
glittered
as
though
we
had
come
into
a
mine
of
sapphires
.
And
below
one
saw
the
ghostly
phosphorescent
fishes
flash
and
vanish
in
the
hardly
less
phosphorescent
deep
.
Then
,
presently
,
a
long
ultra-marine
vista
down
the
turgid
stream
of
one
of
the
channels
of
traffic
,
and
a
landing
stage
,
and
then
,
perhaps
,
a
glimpse
up
the
enormous
crowded
shaft
of
one
of
the
vertical
ways
.
"
In
one
great
place
heavy
with
glistening
stalactites
a
number
of
boats
were
fishing
.
We
went
alongside
one
of
these
and
watched
the
long-armed
Selenites
winding
in
a
net
.
They
were
little
,
hunchbacked
insects
,
with
very
strong
arms
,
short
,
bandy
legs
,
and
crinkled
face-masks
.
As
they
pulled
at
it
that
net
seemed
the
heaviest
thing
I
had
come
upon
in
the
moon
;
it
was
loaded
with
weights
--
no
doubt
of
gold
--
and
it
took
a
long
time
to
draw
,
for
in
those
waters
the
larger
and
more
edible
fish
lurk
deep
.
The
fish
in
the
net
came
up
like
a
blue
moonrise
--
a
blaze
of
darting
,
tossing
blue
.
"
Among
their
catch
was
a
many-tentaculate
,
evil-eyed
black
thing
,
ferociously
active
,
whose
appearance
they
greeted
with
shrieks
and
twitters
,
and
which
with
quick
,
nervous
movements
they
hacked
to
pieces
by
means
of
little
hatchets
.
All
its
dissevered
limbs
continued
to
lash
and
writhe
in
a
vicious
manner
.
Afterwards
,
when
fever
had
hold
of
me
,
I
dreamt
again
and
again
of
that
bitter
,
furious
creature
rising
so
vigorous
and
active
out
of
the
unknown
sea
.
It
was
the
most
active
and
malignant
thing
of
all
the
living
creatures
I
have
yet
seen
in
this
world
inside
the
moon
...
"
The
surface
of
this
sea
must
be
very
nearly
two
hundred
miles
(
if
not
more
)
below
the
level
of
the
moon
's
exterior
;
all
the
cities
of
the
moon
lie
,
I
learnt
,
immediately
above
this
Central
Sea
,
in
such
cavernous
spaces
and
artificial
galleries
as
I
have
described
,
and
they
communicate
with
the
exterior
by
enormous
vertical
shafts
which
open
invariably
in
what
are
called
by
earthly
astronomers
the
'
craters
'
of
the
moon
.
The
lid
covering
one
such
aperture
I
had
already
seen
during
the
wanderings
that
had
preceded
my
capture
.
"
Upon
the
condition
of
the
less
central
portion
of
the
moon
I
have
not
yet
arrived
at
very
precise
knowledge
.
There
is
an
enormous
system
of
caverns
in
which
the
mooncalves
shelter
during
the
night
;
and
there
are
abattoirs
and
the
like
--
in
one
of
these
it
was
that
I
and
Bedford
fought
with
the
Selenite
butchers
--
and
I
have
since
seen
balloons
laden
with
meat
descending
out
of
the
upper
dark
.
I
have
as
yet
scarcely
learnt
as
much
of
these
things
as
a
Zulu
in
London
would
learn
about
the
British
corn
supplies
in
the
same
time
.
It
is
clear
,
however
,
that
these
vertical
shafts
and
the
vegetation
of
the
surface
must
play
an
essential
role
in
ventilating
and
keeping
fresh
the
atmosphere
of
the
moon
.
At
one
time
,
and
particularly
on
my
first
emergence
from
my
prison
,
there
was
certainly
a
cold
wind
blowing
down
the
shaft
,
and
later
there
was
a
kind
of
sirocco
upward
that
corresponded
with
my
fever
.
For
at
the
end
of
about
three
weeks
I
fell
ill
of
an
indefinable
sort
of
fever
,
and
in
spite
of
sleep
and
the
quinine
tabloids
that
very
fortunately
I
had
brought
in
my
pocket
,
I
remained
ill
and
fretting
miserably
,
almost
to
the
time
when
I
was
taken
into
the
presence
of
the
Grand
Lunar
,
who
is
Master
of
the
Moon
.
"
I
will
not
dilate
on
the
wretchedness
of
my
condition
,
"
he
remarks
,
"
during
those
days
of
ill-health
.
"
And
he
goes
on
with
great
amplitude
with
details
I
omit
here
.
"
My
temperature
,
"
he
concludes
,
"
kept
abnormally
high
for
a
long
time
,
and
I
lost
all
desire
for
food
.
I
had
stagnant
waking
intervals
,
and
sleep
tormented
by
dreams
,
and
at
one
phase
I
was
,
I
remember
,
so
weak
as
to
be
earth-sick
and
almost
hysterical
.
I
longed
almost
intolerably
for
colour
to
break
the
everlasting
blue
...
"
He
reverts
again
presently
to
the
topic
of
this
sponge-caught
lunar
atmosphere
.
I
am
told
by
astronomers
and
physicists
that
all
he
tells
is
in
absolute
accordance
with
what
was
already
known
of
the
moon
's
condition
.
Had
earthly
astronomers
had
the
courage
and
imagination
to
push
home
a
bold
induction
,
says
Mr.
Wendigee
,
they
might
have
foretold
almost
everything
that
Cavor
has
to
say
of
the
general
structure
of
the
moon
.
They
know
now
pretty
certainly
that
moon
and
earth
are
not
so
much
satellite
and
primary
as
smaller
and
greater
sisters
,
made
out
of
one
mass
,
and
consequently
made
of
the
same
material
.
And
since
the
density
of
the
moon
is
only
three-fifths
that
of
the
earth
,
there
can
be
nothing
for
it
but
that
she
is
hollowed
out
by
a
great
system
of
caverns
.
There
was
no
necessity
,
said
Sir
Jabez
Flap
,
F.R.S.
,
that
most
entertaining
exponent
of
the
facetious
side
of
the
stars
,
that
we
should
ever
have
gone
to
the
moon
to
find
out
such
easy
inferences
,
and
points
the
pun
with
an
allusion
to
Gruyère
,
but
he
certainly
might
have
announced
his
knowledge
of
the
hollowness
of
the
moon
before
.
And
if
the
moon
is
hollow
,
then
the
apparent
absence
of
air
and
water
is
,
of
course
,
quite
easily
explained
.
The
sea
lies
within
at
the
bottom
of
the
caverns
,
and
the
air
travels
through
the
great
sponge
of
galleries
,
in
accordance
with
simple
physical
laws
.
The
caverns
of
the
moon
,
on
the
whole
,
are
very
windy
places
.
As
the
sunlight
comes
round
the
moon
the
air
in
the
outer
galleries
on
that
side
is
heated
,
its
pressure
increases
,
some
flows
out
on
the
exterior
and
mingles
with
the
evaporating
air
of
the
craters
(
where
the
plants
remove
its
carbonic
acid
)
,
while
the
greater
portion
flows
round
through
the
galleries
to
replace
the
shrinking
air
of
the
cooling
side
that
the
sunlight
has
left
