beyond question that the moon was "down" and under my feet, and that the

earth was somewhere away on the level of the horizon--the earth that had

been "down" to me and my kindred since the beginning of things.

So slight were the exertions required of us, so easy did the practical

annihilation of our weight make all we had to do, that the necessity for

taking refreshment did not occur to us for nearly six hours (by Cavor's

chronometer) after our start. I was amazed at that lapse of time. Even

then I was satisfied with very little. Cavor examined the apparatus for

absorbing carbonic acid and water, and pronounced it to be in satisfactory

order, our consumption of oxygen having been extraordinarily slight. And

our talk being exhausted for the time, and there being nothing further

for us to do, we gave way to a curious drowsiness that had come upon us,

and spreading our blankets on the bottom of the sphere in such a manner as

to shut out most of the moonlight, wished each other good-night, and

almost immediately fell asleep.

And so, sleeping, and sometimes talking and reading a little, and at times

eating, although without any keenness of appetite,[*] but for the most part

in a sort of quiescence that was neither waking nor slumber, we fell

through a space of time that had neither night nor day in it, silently,

softly, and swiftly down towards the moon.

[* Footnote: It is a curious thing, that while we were in the sphere we

felt not the slightest desire for food, nor did we feel the want of it when

we abstained. At first we forced our appetites, but afterwards we fasted

The First Men In The Moon