They might even have strength enough left to be able to chant one solemn final eternal adieu to their dear old Mother World, upon whose features their mortal eyes should never again rest in love and longing! Then, what was their Projectile to become?
An inert, lifeless, extinct mass, not a particle better than the most defunct asteroid that wanders blindly through the fields of ether.

A gloomy fate to look forward to.
Yet, instead of grieving over the inevitable, our bold travellers actually felt thrilled with delight at the prospect of even a momentary deliverance from those gloomy depths of darkness and of once more finding themselves, even if only for a few hours, in the cheerful precincts illuminated by the genial light of the blessed Sun! The ring of light, in the meantime, becoming brighter and brighter, Barbican was not long in discovering and pointing out to his companions the different mountains that lay around the Moon's south pole.
"There is _Leibnitz_ on your right," said he, "and on your left you can easily see the peaks of _Doerfel_.

Belonging rather to the Moon's dark side than to her Earth side, they are visible to terrestrial astronomers only when she is in her highest northern latitudes.

Those faint peaks beyond them that you can catch with such difficulty must be those of _Newton_ and _Curtius_." "How in the world can you tell ?" asked Ardan.
"They are the highest mountains in the circumpolar regions," replied Barbican.

"They have been measured with the greatest care; _Newton_ is 23,000 feet high." "More or less!" laughed Ardan.