“Millions of millions!” exclaimed Michel Ardan; “then savants have measured and counted these oscillations!  All these figures, friend Barbicane, are savants’ figures, which reach the ear but say nothing to the mind.”

“But they are obliged to have recourse to figures.”

“No.  It would be much better to compare.  A billion signifies nothing.  An object of comparison explains everything.  Example—­When you tell me that Uranus is 76 times larger than the earth, Saturn 900 times larger, Jupiter 1,300 times larger, the sun 1,300,000 times larger, I am not much wiser.  So I much prefer the old comparisons of the Double Liegoise that simply tells you, ’The sun is a pumpkin two feet in diameter, Jupiter an orange, Saturn a Blenheim apple, Neptune a large cherry, Uranus a smaller cherry, the earth a pea, Venus a green pea, Mars the head of a large pin, Mercury a grain of mustard, and Juno, Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas fine grains of sand!’ Then I know what it means!”

After this tirade of Michel Ardan’s against savants and their billions, which he delivered without stopping to take breath, they set about burying Satellite.  He was to be thrown into space like sailors throw a corpse into the sea.

As President Barbicane had recommended, they had to act quickly so as to lose as little air as possible.  The bolts upon the right-hand port-hole were carefully unscrewed, and an opening of about half a yard made, whilst Michel prepared to hurl his dog into space.  The window, worked by a powerful lever, which conquered the pressure of air in the interior upon the sides of the projectile, moved upon its hinges, and Satellite was thrown out.  Scarcely a particle of air escaped, and the operation succeeded so well that later on Barbicane did not fear to get rid of all the useless rubbish that encumbered the vehicle in the same way.

CHAPTER VI.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

On the 4th of December, at 5 a.m. by terrestrial reckoning, the travellers awoke, having been fifty-four hours on their journey.  They had only been five hours and forty minutes more than half the time assigned for the accomplishment of their journey, but they had come more than seven-tenths of the distance.  This peculiarity was due to their regularly-decreasing speed.

When they looked at the earth through the port-light at the bottom, it only looked like a black spot drowned in the sun’s rays.  No crescent or pale light was now to be seen.  The next day at midnight the earth would be new at the precise moment when the moon would be full.  Above, the Queen of Night was nearing the line followed by the projectile, so as to meet it at the hour indicated.  All around the dark vault was studded with brilliant specks which seemed to move slowly; but through the great distance they were at their relative size did not seem to alter much.  The sun and the stars appeared exactly as they do from the earth.  The moon was considerably enlarged; but the travellers’ not very powerful telescopes did not as yet allow them to make very useful observations on her surface, or to reconnoitre the topographical or geological details.