had traveled over a hundred miles I came to a thriving center of
population, the largest city on the sphere, inhabited by more than sixty
thousand rational beings.

These creatures resemble us most strongly in their mental capacities,
though their bodies are out of harmony with ours, having three eyes and
no nose. The third eye is situated in the center of the forehead, and
the other two more toward the sides of the head.

Life is not sustained by breathing a gaseous air as we do, so that the
sense of smell is performed by the protruded upper lip. At the voluntary
effort to catch scent the upper lip noticeably rolls upward into a
partial scroll.

I was anxious to learn how the life of these Moonites is sustained
without breathing and, to my astonishment, I learned that they eat solid
air at intervals of about six hours. This is not taken in connection
with the regular food, but is eaten alone and carried into a separate
stomach wherein it is disintegrated by the chemical action of the
stomachic acids. The gases thus formed serve the same purpose as the air
we breathe into our lungs.

According to the conjectures of some earthly astronomers I was expecting
to see a race of immense giants. On the contrary, I found that these
Moonites grow to only about one-fourth our height, but possess fully
three-fourths as much circumference of body. Notwithstanding that they
are so short and rotund, they are healthy and exceedingly quick in all
their bodily movements.

No doubt I shall be chided for saying that these Moon-inhabitants are a