nearly eleven o'clock
Besides , I hope to approach sufficiently near the moon to enable us to add a little more power to our store , so it will not all be lost time ; and we can also use the moon to give us a fresh start . But for the fact that it would be best for us to reach the moon before it has waned to any large extent we might have delayed our start for many days , and , whilst considerably shortening our journey , still arrived at Mars on the date we have fixed . '' Our chronometer was housed in a substantial non-magnetic cubicle , with a very thick glass window , in order to protect it from the magnetism and electricity which pervaded our vessel . On looking at the chronometer I found the time was nearly eleven o'clock . We had , therefore , been nearly two hours on our journey and had travelled some three hundred miles , mostly in an upward direction from the earth ; so if there were any of the earth 's atmosphere around our vessel it must be of the most extreme tenuity , and we might safely increase our speed . I accordingly gave M'Allister the order to switch on the power gradually , up to our full speed , and it was not long before we were rushing through space at the rate of over eighty-three thousand miles an hour . At this rate , as I told them , we might expect to reach the moon in a little over sixteen hours , allowing for loss in slackening down at the latter part of the journey .