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April 18th. To-day I found an enormous increase in
the moon's apparent bulk --- and the evidently accelerated velocity of my
descent, began to fill me with alarm. It will be remembered, that, in the
earliest stage of my speculations upon the possibility of a passage to the moon,
the existence, in its vicinity, of an atmosphere dense in proportion to the bulk
of the planet, had entered largely into my calculations; this too in spite of
many theories to the contrary, and, it may be added, in spite of a general
disbelief in the existence of any lunar atmosphere at all. But, in addition to
what I have already urged in regard to Encke's comet and the zodiacal light, I
had been strengthened in my opinion by certain observations of Mr. Schroeter, of
Lilienthal. He observed the moon, when two days and a half old, in the evening
soon after sunset, before the dark part was visible, and continued to watch it
until it became visible. The two cusps appeared tapering in a very sharp faint
prolongation, each exhibiting its farthest extremity faintly illuminated by the
solar rays, before any part of the dark hemisphere was visible. Soon afterwards,
the whole dark limb became illuminated. This prolongation of the cusps beyond
the semicircle, I thought, must have arisen from the refraction of the sun's
rays by the moon's atmosphere. I computed, also, the height of the atmosphere
(which could refract light enough into its dark hemisphere, to produce a
twilight more luminous than the light reflected from the earth when the moon is
about 32ยบ from the new,) to be 1356 Paris feet; in this view, I supposed the
greatest height capable of refracting the solar ray, to be 5376 feet. My ideas
upon this topic had also received confirmation by a passage in the eighty-second
volume of the Philosophical Transactions, in which it is stated, that, at an
occultation of Jupiter's satellites, the third disappeared after having been
about 1" or 2" of time indistinct, and the fourth became indiscernible
near the limb.*
* Hevelius writes that he has several times found, in skies perfectly clear, when even stars of the sixth and seventh magnitude were conspicuous, that, at the same altitude of the moon, at the same elongation from the earth, and with one and the same excellent telescope, the moon and its maculae did not appear equally lucid at all times. From the circumstances of the observation, it is evident that the cause of this phenomenon is not either in our air, in the tube, in the moon, or in the eye of the spectator, but must be looked for in something (an atmosphere?) existing about the moon. Cassini frequently observed Saturn,
Jupiter, and the fixed stars, when approaching the moon to occultation, to have
their circular figure changed into an oval one; and, in other occultations, he
found no alteration of figure at all. Hence it might be supposed, that at
some times, and not at others, there is a dense matter encompassing the moon
wherein the rays of the stars are refracted. Upon the resistance, or more properly, upon the support of an atmosphere, existing in the state of density imagined, I had, of course, entirely depended for the safety of my ultimate descent. Should I then, after all, prove to have been mistaken, I had in consequence nothing better to expect, as a finale to my adventure, than being dashed into atoms against the rugged surface of the satellite. And, indeed, I had now every reason to be terrified. My distance from the moon was comparatively trifling, while the labor required by the condenser was diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication whatever of a decreasing rarity in the air. April 19th. This morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the surface of the moon being frightfully near, and my apprehensions excited to the utmost, the pump of my condenser at length gave evident tokens of an alteration in the atmosphere. By ten, I had reason to believe its density considerably increased. By eleven, very little labor was necessary at the apparatus; and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation, I ventured to unscrew the tourniquet, when, finding no inconvenience from having done so, I finally threw open the gum-elastic chamber, and unrigged it from around the car. As might have been expected, spasms and violent headache were the immediate consequences of an experiment so precipitate and full of danger. But these and other difficulties attending respiration, as they were by no means so great as to put me in peril of my life, I determined to endure as I best could, in consideration of my leaving them behind me momently in my approach to the denser strata near the moon. This approach, however, was still impetuous in the extreme; and it soon became alarmingly certain that, although I had probably not been deceived in the expectation of an atmosphere dense in proportion to the mass of the satellite, still I had been wrong in supposing this density, even at the surface, at all adequate to the support of the great weight contained in the car of my balloon. Yet this should have been the case, and in an equal degree as at the surface of the earth, the actual gravity of bodies at either planet supposed in the ratio of the atmospheric condensation. That it was not the case, however, my precipitous downfall gave testimony enough; why it was not so, can only be explained by a reference to those possible geological disturbances to which I have formerly alluded. At all events I was now close upon the planet, and coming down with the most terrible impetuosity. I lost not a moment, accordingly, in throwing overboard first my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my condensing apparatus and gum-elastic chamber, and finally every article within the car. But it was all to no purpose. I still fell with horrible rapidity, and was now not more than half a mile from the surface. As a last resource, therefore, having got rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from the balloon the car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and thus, clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach, was thickly interspersed with diminutive habitations, ere I tumbled headlong into the very heart of a fantastical-looking city, and into the middle of a vast crowd of ugly little people, who none of them uttered a single syllable, or gave themselves the least trouble to render me assistance, but stood, like a parcel of idiots, grinning in a ludicrous manner, and eyeing me and my balloon askant, with their arms set a-kimbo. I turned from them in contempt, and, gazing upwards at the earth so lately left, and left perhaps for ever, beheld it like a huge, dull, copper shield, about two degrees in diameter, fixed immovably in the heavens overhead, and tipped on one of its edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold. No traces of land or water could be discovered, and the whole was clouded with variable spots, and belted with tropical and equatorial zones.
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