CRATERS IN THE MOON. 



Sir 



ov/n, and to be inhabited by immense creatures, and various theories con- 

 tinued to be promulgated respecting her, until the telescope came into use, 

 and then astronomers began to find out many new things concerning Luna. 

 Now, what has the telescope told us regarding our moon ? It shows us 

 that there are mountains and craters, and numerous traces of volcanic action. 

 At one time it was supposed that the dark masses apparent in the surface 

 of the moon, and which can easily be distinguished by the naked eye, were 

 seas, and maps of the moon were made, marking continents and craters. 



If it were possible to reach the moon, as M. Jules Verne's travellers 

 did, we should find a very irregular and corrugated surface plains and 

 mountains without water. We should be able to see the stars in the day- 

 time, because there is no atmosphere around the moon, and there is a silence 

 that " might be felt." The appearance of our earth from the moon, and the 

 beauty of the stars in the unclouded and waterless space around the satellite, 

 must be very grand, and has been, in a measure, depicted in the illustration 

 (fig. 559) on the opposite page. 



-ss^_ 



Fig. 560. The Moon : the ring plain Copernicus. 



In this illustration (fig. 560) we have some idea what the moon is like. 

 We see the rugged and cratered appearance of the disc ; it is a desert waste, 

 so far as we can ascertain, without inhabitants, and, in all probability, with- 

 out vegetation. For there being no moisture amongst the plains and craters 

 and mountains of our satellite, we must conclude that the moon is dead. 

 It is a very interesting, nay, a fascinating study. When we take up our 

 telescope and look from the window at the heavens the most beautiful object 

 within our small telescopic vision is the moon shining like a silver plate, 

 and we wonder what is up there. With a small telescope even we can dis- 

 cern many interesting features in the moon at the full, which will assist us 

 in verifying the diagrams in books and their explanations, 



As the moon is only a few miles away, comparatively speaking, and as 

 the large telescopes now in use bring us within a measurable distance of the 

 surface, we are enabled to speak more positively about our changeable 

 satellite than of any of the planets. When we look steadily at the full moon 



