degree of perfection.

In those long-ago ages the Moon was a much more fertile garden than now.
Luxury and refinement were enjoyed by the favored sons of that period,
and no one dreamed of the horrible fate that was to sweep practically
the whole race into the regions of death. My intelligent informer used
excessive language in trying to picture the unequaled catastrophe that
put an end to the old era.

My interest was unbounded, and with awed breath I continued listening as
he described the cause of this great and terrible cataclysm.

"It all occurred about five thousand years ago," he said. "The Moon was
shaken by subterraneous rumblings, followed by fiery ejections, covering
a period of nearly one and one-half wagon-wheel revolutions. Whole
cities were ruined, fertile valleys covered and human life was almost
annihilated."

I knew what my informant meant by "one and one-half wagon-wheel
revolutions." This would be a period of about forty days and nights of
earthly time. Do you wonder that my mind flew back to the forty days and
nights of rain that destroyed, at one time, on our Earth, the whole
human family, except the few who were saved in the ark?

"What are the evidences of this horrible world-ending?" I asked.

"They are on every hand. Have you not yet seen the vast craters, the
mountains of barren cinder, the stumps of immense pillars, partly
excavated? All this, and very much more, silently unfolds a tale of
horror that can be faintly pictured only by the imagination. Think of a