"I like dearly to be surprised.

All I regret is that you scientists have surprised me so much already that I shall never have a good, hearty, genuine surprise again!" -- "I am most firmly convinced," continued the Captain, hardly waiting for Ardan to finish, "that, at the period of the Moon's occupancy by living creatures, her days and nights were by no means 354 hours long." "Well! if anything could surprise me," said Ardan quickly, "such an assertion as that most certainly would.

On what does the honorable gentleman base his _most firm conviction_ ?" "We know," replied the Captain, "that the reason of the Moon's present long day and night is the exact equality of the periods of her rotation on her axis and of her revolution around the Earth.

When she has turned once around the Earth, she has turned once around herself.

Consequently, her back is turned to the Sun during one-half of the month; and her face during the other half.