55 
terrific in character, where we could follow the arétes to the summit, 
and cross or trace cols and couloirs in abundance up the face of the 
precipices without the least danger of meeting with a cannonade of 
boulders or of tumbling into some deep crevasse ; in a word, where 
we might enjoy many of the pleasures of alpine wandering and sur- 
veying without meeting the dangers that beset Tyndall and Whymper 
‘in the Swiss mountains. And there were Elevated Plateaus, inter- 
sected by ravines and fissures, extensive Groupings of Hills, solitary 
column-like Peaks, Hillocks, and blocks of rock innumerable. The 
highest of the mountain ranges were the Déerfel mountains, 
reaching an altitude of 26,000 feet, and of which Mr. Pratt 
exhibited a large drawing, taken from his telescope on a 
scale of ten miles to the inch, showing this range in 
- grand profile on the moon’s limb, and giving an idea also of the 
serrated character of the edge of the lunar disc as seen in a powerful 
instrument, Valleys, Passes, and Gorges, of course abounded in such 
regions, as strangely varied in their aspect as the formations which 
encompassed them. ‘he singular Clefts or rills were described ; and 
_the strange White Rays, which seem so mysteriously connected with 
many of the principal craters, received attention. One of them, 
which rises near Tycho, was afterwards traced on the photograph 
shown by the lime-light by Mr. Nash for a distance of over 1,700 
miles. Yet we could not say whatthey were. At theirjunction they often 
enveloped objects in a luminous blaze under a mid-day sun, so that we 
could no longer make out their chief features. The Sun, however, had 
but to approach the horizon of the spot for them entirely to vanish 
and leave us in complete ignorance of their cause. And there were 
Faults, or breaks in the continuity of the strata, which had been 
caused by cracks and then filled up again from beneath. They had 
been chiefly recorded by Mr, Birt, 
The endless variety of lunar formations already described and 
sketched were numbered by thousands, yet many thousands more were 
waiting their turn. Here a slight digression was made to urge that a 
large addition to our knowledge of the Lunar surface might still be 
made by means of ordinary telescopes, say 3 inches aperture. It was 
a common fallacy which supposed real work could not be done without 
monster telescopes. But it was very much as in microscopy, where 
more could be learned from quite a moderate instrument, combined 
with skilful manipulation of the object and the light, than from a more 
powerful one used in a desultory fashion. 
