Why did it not fall?
Barbican could not tell; his companions were equally in the dark.

Ardan said he gave it up.

Besides they had no time to spend in investigating it.

The lunar panorama was unrolling all its splendors beneath them, and they could not bear to lose one of its slightest details.
The lunar disc being brought within a distance of about six miles by the spy-glasses, it is a fair question to ask, what _could_ an aeronaut at such an elevation from our Earth discover on its surface?
At present that question can hardly be answered, the most remarkable balloon ascensions never having passed an altitude of five miles under circumstances favorable for observers.

Here, however, is an account, carefully transcribed from notes taken on the spot, of what Barbican and his companions _did_ see from their peculiar post of observation.
Varieties of color, in the first place, appeared here and there upon the disc.