Sir John headed a group of astronomers who had finally succeeded in setting up a marvellously powerful telescope on the Cape of Good Hope, according to the Sun’s report. Through this great instrument he discovered “wondrous secrets which had been hid from the eyes of all men that had lived since the birth of time.” Most amazing of these wonders was the revelation of life on the moon.
Far from being a barren, uninhabited planet, the moon had strange, lush vegetation, weird animals with hairy masks to guard their eyes against glare—and winged men and women! These happy little lunar people, who stood scarcely four feet high, wore no clothes. Their bodies, though, were covered with a bear-like (!) fur and when they landed on the ground, they walked “in an erect and dignified manner.”
Lunar Animals and other Objects