"A volcano! it is a volcano in action!" cried Nicholl;"a disemboweling of the interior fires of the moon! That world is not quite extinguished."
"Yes, an eruption," replied Barbicane, who was carefully studying the phenomenon through his night glass. "What should it be, if not a volcano?"
"But, then," said Michel Ardan, "in order to maintain that combustion, there must be air. So the atmosphere does surround that part of the moon."