I propound it for discussion in the following form: _Has the Moon ever been inhabited ?_ Captain, the Committee would be delighted to hear your remarks on the subject." "Gentlemen," began the Captain in reply, "I had formed my opinion regarding the ancient inhabitability of our Satellite long before I ever dreamed of testing my theory by anything like our present journey.

I will now add that all our observations, so far made, have only served to confirm me in my opinion.

I now venture to assert, not only with every kind of probability in my favor but also on what I consider most excellent arguments, that the Moon was once inhabited by a race of beings possessing an organization similar to our own, that she once produced animals anatomically resembling our terrestrial animals, and that all these living organizations, human and animal, have had their day, that that day vanished ages and ages ago, and that, consequently, _Life_, extinguished forever, can never again reveal its existence there under any form." "Is the Chair," asked Ardan, "to infer from the honorable gentleman's observations that he considers the Moon to be a world much older than the Earth ?" "Not exactly that," replied the Captain without hesitation; "I rather mean to say that the Moon is a world that grew old more rapidly than the Earth; that it came to maturity earlier; that it ripened quicker, and was stricken with old age sooner.

Owing to the difference of the volumes of the two worlds, the organizing forces of matter must have been comparatively much more violent in the interior of the Moon than in the interior of the Earth.

The present condition of its surface, as we see it lying there beneath us at this moment, places this assertion beyond all possibility of doubt.