The “Feminine” hemisphere, naturally more
capricious, was distinguished by smaller and more
numerous seas. These were, towards the north,
the Mare Frigoris, in north latitude 55 deg.
and longitude 0 deg., with 76,000 square leagues of
surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of
Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, Mare Serenitatis,
by north latitude 25 deg. and west longitude 20 deg.,
comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues; the
Sea of Crises, Mare Crisium, round and very
compact, in north latitude 17 deg. and west longitude
55 deg., a surface of 40,000 square leagues, a veritable
Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains. Then
on the equator, in north latitude 5 deg. and west
longitude 25 deg., appeared the Sea of Tranquillity,
Mare Tranquillitatis, occupying 121,509 square
leagues of surface; this sea communicated on the south
with the Sea of Nectar, Mare Nectaris, an extent
of 28,800 square leagues, in south latitude 15 deg.
and west longitude 35 deg., and on the east with the
Sea of Fecundity, Mare Fecunditatis, the vastest
in this hemisphere, occupying 219,300 square leagues,
in south latitude 3 deg. and west longitude 50 deg..
Lastly, quite to the north and quite to the south lie
two more seas, the Sea of Humboldt, Mare Humboldtianum,
with a surface of 6,500 square leagues, and the Southern
Sea, Mare Australe, with a surface of 26,000.
In the centre of the lunar disc, across the equator
and on the zero meridian, lies the centre gulf, Sinus
Medii, a sort of hyphen between the two hemispheres.
Thus appeared to the eyes of Nicholl and Barbicane
the surface always visible of the earth’s satellite.
When they added up these different figures they found
that the surface of this hemisphere measured 4,738,160
square leagues, 3,317,600 of which go for volcanoes,
chains of mountains, amphitheatres, islands—in
a word, all that seems to form the solid portion of
the globe—and 1,410,400 leagues for the
seas, lake, marshes, and all that seems to form the
liquid portion, all of which was perfectly indifferent
to the worthy Michel.
It will be noticed that this hemisphere is thirteen
and a-half times smaller than the terrestrial hemisphere.
And yet upon it selenographers have already counted
50,000 craters. It is a rugged surface worthy
of the unpoetical qualification of “green cheese”
which the English have given it.
When Barbicane pronounced this disobliging name Michel
Ardan gave a bound.
“That is how the Anglo-Saxons of the 19th century
treat the beautiful Diana, the blonde Phoebe, the
amiable Isis, the charming Astarte, the Queen of Night,
the daughter of Latona and Jupiter, the younger sister
of the radiant Apollo!”
CHAPTER XII.
OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
It has already been pointed out that the direction
followed by the projectile was taking us towards the
northern hemisphere of the moon. The travellers
were far from that central point which they ought to
have touched if their trajectory had not suffered
an irremediable deviation.
