A most terrific fall! Even taking the lunar attraction to be only the one-sixth of the Earth's, such a fall was simply bewildering to think of.

The greatest height to which a balloon ever ascended was seven miles (Glaisher, 1862).

Imagine a fall from even that distance! Then imagine a fall from a height of four thousand miles! Yet it was for a fall of this appalling kind on the surface of the Moon that the travellers had now to prepare themselves.

Instead of avoiding it, however, they eagerly desired it and would be very much disappointed if they missed it.

They had taken the best precautions they could devise to guard against the terrific shock.