Never before had mortal eye beheld such a sight.

Let us take each in its turn.
We all know that the ashy light by means of which we perceive what is called the _Old Moon in the Young Moon's arms_ is due to the Earth-shine, or the reflection of the solar rays from the Earth to the Moon.

By a phenomenon exactly identical, the travellers could now see that portion of the Earth's surface which was unillumined by the Sun; only, as, in consequence of the different areas of the respective surfaces, the _Earthlight_ is thirteen times more intense than the _Moonlight_, the dark portion of the Earth's disc appeared considerably more adumbrated than the _Old Moon_.
But the other phenomenon had burst on them so suddenly that they uttered a cry loud enough to wake up Barbican from his problem.

They had discovered a true starry ring! Around the Earth's outline, a ring, of internally well defined thickness, but somewhat hazy on the outside, could easily be traced by its surpassing brilliancy.

Neither the _Pleiades_, the _Northern Crown_, the _Magellanic Clouds_ nor the great nebulas of _Orion_, or of _Argo_, no sparkling cluster, no corona, no group of glittering star-dust that the travellers had ever gazed at, presented such attractions as the diamond ring they now saw encompassing the Earth, just as the brass meridian encompasses a terrestrial globe.
The resplendency of its light enchanted them, its pure softness delighted them, its perfect regularity astonished them.