You are far more comfortable in here than when floating about in empty space like a bolide." Ardan, unwilling to quarrel with his companions, appeared to give in; but he secretly consoled himself by a hope which he had been entertaining for some time, and which now looked like assuming the appearance of a certainty.

The Projectile had been lately approaching the Moon's surface so rapidly that it at last seemed actually impossible not to finally touch it somewhere in the neighborhood of the north pole, whose dazzling ridges now presented themselves in sharp and strong relief against the black sky.

Therefore he kept silent, but quietly bided his time.
The Projectile moved on, evidently getting nearer and nearer to the lunar surface.

The Moon now appeared to the travellers as she does to us towards the beginning of her Second Quarter, that is as a bright crescent instead of a hemisphere.

On one side, glaring dazzling light; on the other, cavernous pitchy darkness.