A TRIP TO THE MOON. 271 



formed ranges of low hills, which, though often a mile 

 wide, never rise beyond a thousand feet, and therefore 

 show us their shadow only when the sun is extremely 

 low. 



Much as these strange forms differ from all we see on 

 earth, we are still more struck with the quaint, mysterious 

 fissures, narrow but deep, which pass in almost straight 

 lines, like railways, right through plain and mountain, cut 

 even craters in two, and often end themselves in craters. 

 At full moon they appear to us as lines of brilliant light, 

 at other times as black threads, and must, therefore, have 

 a width of at least a thousand feet. We have, on earth, 

 nothing to compare with them ; for even the terrible gul- 

 lies which cross the prairies of Texas, dwindle into utter 

 nothingness by the side of these gigantic rents. As long 

 as men saw every day new surprising analogies between 

 the moon and the earth, and the gray spots were oceans, 

 the light ones continents, these inexplicable lines also ap- 

 peared now as rivers and now as canals, or even as beauti- 

 fully Macadamized turnpikes ! The citizens of the moon 

 can, however, hardly yet afford building roads of such 

 gigantic width, by water or by land, nor will the fact, 

 that these deep furrows cut through craters and lofty 

 mountains, and invariably preserve the same level, admit 

 of such an interpretation. At all events those only can 

 see canals and roads on the moon, who have already found 

 there cities and fortified places. 



What gigantic and astounding revolutions must have 

 passed over the moon, to produce these colossal moun- 

 tains, rising not unfrequently to a height of twenty-six 



