As we saw it first it was the wildest and most desolate1 of scenes. We were in an enormous amphitheatre, a vast circular plain, the floor of the giant crater2. Its cliff-like walls closed us in on every side. From the westward3 the light of the unseen sun fell upon them, reaching to the very foot of the cliff, and showed a disordered escarpment of drab and grayish rock, lined here and there with banks and crevices4 of snow. This was perhaps a dozen miles away, but at first no intervening atmosphere diminished in the slightest the minutely detailed5 brilliancy with which these things glared at us. They stood out clear and dazzling against a background of starry6 blackness that seemed to our earthly eyes rather a gloriously spangled velvet7 curtain than the spaciousness8 of the sky.
The eastward9 cliff was at first merely a starless selvedge to the starry dome11. No rosy12 flush, no creeping pallor, announced the commencing day. Only the Corona13, the Zodiacal light, a huge cone-shaped, luminous14 haze15, pointing up towards the splendour of the morning star, warned us of the imminent16 nearness of the sun.
Whatever light was about us was reflected by the westward cliffs. It showed a huge undulating plain, cold and gray, a gray that deepened eastward into the absolute raven17 darkness of the cliff shadow. Innumerable rounded gray summits, ghostly hummocks18, billows of snowy substance, stretching crest19 beyond crest into the remote obscurity, gave us our first inkling of the distance of the crater wall. These hummocks looked like snow. At the time I thought they were snow. But they were not--they were mounds20 and masses of frozen air.
So it was at first; and then, sudden, swift, and amazing, came the lunar day.
The sunlight had crept down the cliff, it touched the drifted masses at its base and incontinently came striding with seven-leagued boots towards us. The distant cliff seemed to shift and quiver, and at the touch of the dawn a reek21 of gray vapour poured upward from the crater floor, whirls and puffs22 and drifting wraiths23 of gray, thicker and broader and denser24, until at last the whole westward plain was steaming like a wet handkerchief held before the fire, and the westward cliffs were no more than refracted glare beyond.
"It is air," said Cavor. "It must be air--or it would not rise like this--at the mere10 touch of a sun-beam. And at this pace...."
He peered upwards25. "Look!" he said.
"What?" I asked.
"In the sky. Already. On the blackness--a little touch of blue. See! The stars seem larger. And the little ones and all those dim nebulosities we saw in empty space--they are hidden!"
Swiftly, steadily26, the day approached us. Gray summit after gray summit was overtaken by the blaze, and turned to a smoking white intensity27. At last there was nothing to the west of us but a bank of surging fog, the tumultuous advance and ascent29 of cloudy haze. The distant cliff had receded30 farther and farther, had loomed31 and changed through the whirl, and foundered32 and vanished at last in its confusion.
Nearer came that steaming advance, nearer and nearer, coming as fast as the shadow of a cloud before the south-west wind. About us rose a thin anticipatory33 haze.
Cavor gripped my arm. "What?" I said.
"Look! The sunrise! The sun!"
He turned me about and pointed34 to the brow of the eastward cliff, looming35 above the haze about us, scarce lighter36 than the darkness of the sky. But now its line was marked by strange reddish shapes, tongues of vermilion flame that writhed37 and danced. I fancied it must be spirals of vapour that had caught the light and made this crest of fiery38 tongues against the sky, but indeed it was the solar prominences39 I saw, a crown of fire about the sun that is forever hidden from earthly eyes by our atmospheric40 veil.
And then--the sun!
Steadily, inevitably41 came a brilliant line, came a thin edge of intolerable effulgence42 that took a circular shape, became a bow, became a blazing sceptre, and hurled43 a shaft44 of heat at us as though it was a spear.
It seemed verily to stab my eyes! I cried aloud and turned about blinded, groping for my blanket beneath the bale.
And with that incandescence45 came a sound, the first sound that had reached us from without since we left the earth, a hissing46 and rustling47, the stormy trailing of the aerial garment of the advancing day. And with the coming of the sound and the light the sphere lurched, and blinded and dazzled we staggered helplessly against each other. It lurched again, and the hissing grew louder. I had shut my eyes perforce, I was making clumsy efforts to cover my head with my blanket, and this second lurch48 sent me helplessly off my feet. I fell against the bale, and opening my eyes had a momentary49 glimpse of the air just outside our glass. It was running--it was boiling--like snow into which a white-hot rod is thrust. What had been solid air had suddenly at the touch of the sun become a paste, a mud, a slushy liquefaction, that hissed50 and bubbled into gas.
There came a still more violent whirl of the sphere and we had clutched one another. In another moment we were spun51 about again. Round we went and over, and then I was on all fours. The lunar dawn had hold of us. It meant to show us little men what the moon could do with us.
I caught a second glimpse of things without, puffs of vapour, half liquid slush, excavated52, sliding, falling, sliding. We dropped into darkness. I went down with Cavor's knees in my chest. Then he seemed to fly away from me, and for a moment I lay with all the breath out of my body staring upward. A toppling crag of the melting stuff had splashed over us, buried us, and now it thinned and boiled off us. I saw the bubbles dancing on the glass above. I heard Cavor exclaiming feebly.
Then some huge landslip in the thawing53 air had caught us, and spluttering expostulation, we began to roll down a slope, rolling faster and faster, leaping crevasses54 and rebounding55 from banks, faster and faster, westward into the white-hot boiling tumult28 of the lunar day.
Clutching at one another we spun about, pitched this way and that, our bale of packages leaping at us, pounding at us. We collided, we gripped, we were torn asunder--our heads met, and the whole universe burst into fiery darts56 and stars! On the earth we should have smashed one another a dozen times, but on the moon, luckily for us, our weight was only one-sixth of what it is terrestrially, and we fell very mercifully. I recall a sensation of utter sickness, a feeling as if my brain were upside down within my skull57, and then--
Something was at work upon my face, some thin feelers worried my ears. Then I discovered the brilliance58 of the landscape around was mitigated59 by blue spectacles. Cavor bent60 over me, and I saw his face upside down, his eyes also protected by tinted61 goggles62. His breath came irregularly, and his lip was bleeding from a bruise63. "Better?" he said, wiping the blood with the back of his hand.
Everything seemed swaying for a space, but that was simply my giddiness. I perceived that he had closed some of the shutters64 in the outer sphere to save me--from the direct blaze of the sun. I was aware that everything about us was very brilliant.
"Lord!" I gasped65. "But this--"
I craned my neck to see. I perceived there was a blinding glare outside, an utter change from the gloomy darkness of our first impressions. "Have I been insensible long?" I asked.
"I don't know--the chronometer66 is broken. Some little time.... My dear chap! I have been afraid..."
I lay for a space taking this in. I saw his face still bore evidences of emotion. For a while I said nothing. I passed an inquisitive67 hand over my contusions, and surveyed his face for similar damages. The back of my right hand had suffered most, and was skinless and raw. My forehead was bruised68 and had bled. He handed me a little measure with some of the restorative--I forget the name of it--he had brought with us. After a time I felt a little better. I began to stretch my limbs carefully. Soon I could talk.
"It wouldn't have done," I said, as though there had been no interval69.
"No! it _wouldn't_."
He thought, his hands hanging over his knees. He peered through the glass and then stared at me.
"Good Lord!" he said. "No!"
"What has happened?" I asked after a pause. "Have we jumped to the tropics?"
"It was as I expected. This air has evaporated--if it is air. At any rate, it has evaporated, and the surface of the moon is showing. We are lying on a bank of earthy rock. Here and there bare soil is exposed. A queer sort of soil!"
It occurred to him that it was unnecessary to explain. He assisted me into a sitting position, and I could see with my own eyes.
1 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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2 crater | |
n.火山口,弹坑 | |
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3 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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4 crevices | |
n.(尤指岩石的)裂缝,缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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5 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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6 starry | |
adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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7 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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8 spaciousness | |
n.宽敞 | |
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9 eastward | |
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部 | |
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10 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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11 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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12 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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13 corona | |
n.日冕 | |
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14 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
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15 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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16 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
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17 raven | |
n.渡鸟,乌鸦;adj.乌亮的 | |
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18 hummocks | |
n.小丘,岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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19 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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20 mounds | |
土堆,土丘( mound的名词复数 ); 一大堆 | |
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21 reek | |
v.发出臭气;n.恶臭 | |
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22 puffs | |
n.吸( puff的名词复数 );(烟斗或香烟的)一吸;一缕(烟、蒸汽等);(呼吸或风的)呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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23 wraiths | |
n.幽灵( wraith的名词复数 );(传说中人在将死或死后不久的)显形阴魂 | |
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24 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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25 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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26 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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27 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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28 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
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29 ascent | |
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高 | |
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30 receded | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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31 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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32 foundered | |
v.创始人( founder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33 anticipatory | |
adj.预想的,预期的 | |
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34 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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35 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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36 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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37 writhed | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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39 prominences | |
n.织物中凸起的部分;声望( prominence的名词复数 );突出;重要;要事 | |
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40 atmospheric | |
adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的 | |
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41 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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42 effulgence | |
n.光辉 | |
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43 hurled | |
v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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44 shaft | |
n.(工具的)柄,杆状物 | |
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45 incandescence | |
n.白热,炽热;白炽 | |
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46 hissing | |
n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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47 rustling | |
n. 瑟瑟声,沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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48 lurch | |
n.突然向前或旁边倒;v.蹒跚而行 | |
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49 momentary | |
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
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50 hissed | |
发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 ); 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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51 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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52 excavated | |
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘 | |
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53 thawing | |
n.熔化,融化v.(气候)解冻( thaw的现在分词 );(态度、感情等)缓和;(冰、雪及冷冻食物)溶化;软化 | |
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54 crevasses | |
n.破口,崩溃处,裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 ) | |
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55 rebounding | |
蹦跳运动 | |
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56 darts | |
n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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57 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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58 brilliance | |
n.光辉,辉煌,壮丽,(卓越的)才华,才智 | |
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59 mitigated | |
v.减轻,缓和( mitigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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61 tinted | |
adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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62 goggles | |
n.护目镜 | |
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63 bruise | |
n.青肿,挫伤;伤痕;vt.打青;挫伤 | |
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64 shutters | |
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门 | |
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65 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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66 chronometer | |
n.精密的计时器 | |
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67 inquisitive | |
adj.求知欲强的,好奇的,好寻根究底的 | |
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68 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
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69 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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