reduced to next to nothing; her vegetation, if existing at all, existing
only on the scantiest scale; her transitions from intense heat to
intense cold, as we ourselves can testify, sudden in the extreme; her
nights and her days each nearly 360 hours long. With all this positively
against her and nothing at all that we know of positively for her, I
have very little hesitation in saying that the Moon appears to me to be
absolutely uninhabitable. She seems to me not only unpropitious to the
development of the animal kingdom but actually incapable of sustaining
life at all--that is, in the sense that we usually attach to such a
term."

"That saving clause is well introduced, friend Barbican," said
M'Nicholl, who, seeing no chance of demolishing Ardan, had not yet made
up his mind as to having another little bout with the President. "For
surely you would not venture to assert that the Moon is uninhabitable by
a race of beings having an organization different from ours?"

"That question too, Captain," replied Barbican, "though a much more
difficult one, I shall try to answer. First, however, let us see,
Captain, if we agree on some fundamental points. How do we detect the
existence of life? Is it not by _movement_? Is not _motion_ its result,
no matter what may be its organization?"

"Well," said the Captain in a drawling way, "I guess we may grant that."

"Then, dear friends," resumed Barbican, "I must remind you that, though
we have had the privilege of observing the lunar continents at a
distance of not more than one-third of a mile, we have never yet caught
sight of the first thing moving on her surface. The presence of
humanity, even of the lowest type, would have revealed itself in some
form or other, by boundaries, by buildings, even by ruins. Now what
_have_ we seen? Everywhere and always, the geological works of _nature_;
nowhere and never, the orderly labors of _man_. Therefore, if any
representatives of animal life exist in the Moon, they must have taken
refuge in those bottomless abysses where our eyes were unable to track
them. And even this I can't admit. They could not always remain in these
cavities. If there is any atmosphere at all in the Moon, it must be
found in her immense low-lying plains. Over those plains her inhabitants
must have often passed, and on those plains they must in some way or
other have left some mark, some trace, some vestige of their existence,
were it even only a road. But you both