You will now of course ask: Why such a strange shape for an animal? It shall not be difficult to solve this riddle for you. You see, as already known, the temperature of the moon is completely different from the temperature of the earth; for in the course of a period of nearly twenty-eight days of the earth, the moon earth is covered by deep snow, then in the next seven days of the moon earth, it is often flooded in all directions, and again soon after it is afflicted by an insufferable heat from the sun. – The Moon, Chapter 3, Paragraph 6