LUNAR LORE AND PORTRAITURE. 513 



Improved instruments have demonstrated that life, as we under- 

 stand it, is impossible on the lunar body, revealing to us that it is 

 composed of rocks and matter of a highly reflective character ; its 

 surface being broken up by ranges of lofty, perpendicular mountains, 

 craters of elevation, precipitous caves and hollows ; that the dark 

 plains are the beds of oceans long ago evaporated or withdrawn into 

 the interior of the planet ; that it is subject to enormous degrees of 

 heat and cold, has no water or apparent atmosphere, and, if so, neither 

 wind, wave, nor sound. 



Nothing varies the monotony of the long days and nights compos- 

 ing the lunar year, save the changing positions of the intensely black 

 shadows falling from hills and mountains that cut off or fling back 

 into space the white light of the sun ; or the swift, silent fall of the 

 crumbling walls of some hollow crater. 



On looking at the moon through the telescope for the first time, 

 one is struck by the melancholy character of its broken yet shining 

 surface. Desolate plains are seen stretching away from the central 

 view to the dazzling sunlit edge where, under the immedate solar 

 glare, they seem sheeted with everlasting snow. To the right, as they 

 gradually approach the region of darkness, the white softens into the 

 greenish gray of a sandy desert. 



But, ho ! what tracks are these like the footprints of huge camels ? 

 Has some celestial caravan passed this way and disappeared from 

 sight in the far south ? Shall we see another wending its slow way 

 after? 



And yonder another marvel a fountain of silver sending from 

 its argent depths rivers of precious metal to wander over sandy plains ! 

 Will the wonders never cease ? Beyond, on the brilliant terminator, 

 are promontories of pearly luster jutting out into seas of darkness, 

 and, remoter still, pendent stars shining over ebon gulfs ! 



Gentle astronomer, increase your magnifying, for we long to in- 

 vestigate, space by space, this moon whose beauties we have never 

 known before ! 



Ah, the footprints are footprints no longer they are cup-shaped 

 hollows innumerable ! These drifts, as of snow, are ranges of moun- 

 tains, and the promontories and pendent stars are crags and mountain- 

 tops just catching the rays of dawn. Down their steep sides lie the 

 shadows of night ; the topmost peaks alone have caught the glory ! 

 And beyond is the night-side of the moon, illumined by dim earth- 

 light. 



The power is increased again, and now we are looking down into a 

 crater, and behold ! one, two, three mountains rising from its central 

 depths ; their peaks hardly reach the level of its ring-shaped summit ! 



Here is another crater, with a solitary peak rising from its bottom. 

 See, down below, piles of rocks are lying around its base. Three miles 

 deep, by measurement, what awful gulfs of darkness these at the new 

 VOL. XIX. 33 



