The Moon Landscape 



From a magnificent volume on The Moon by Naysmilh and Carpenter, 

 two eminent English astronomers. 



And now for a time let us turn attention from the lunar sky to 

 the scenery of the lunar landscape. Let us in imagination, take 

 our stand high upon the eastern side of the rampart of one of the 

 great craters. Height it must be remarked is more essential on 

 the moon to command extent of view than upon the earth, for on 

 account of the comparati\'e smallness of the lunar sphere the dip 

 of the horizon is very rapid. Such height however, would be at- 

 tained with great exercise of muscular power, since equal amounts 

 of climbing energy would, from the smallness of lunar gravity, 

 take a man six times as high on the moon as on the earth. Let us 

 choose for instance, the hill-side of Copernicus. The day begins 

 by a sudden transition. The faint looming of objects under 

 the united illumination of the half full earth, and the zodiacal light 

 is the lunar precursor of daybreak. Suddenly the highest moun- 

 tain peaks receive the direct rays of a portion of the sun's disc as 

 it emerges from below the horizon. The brilliant lighting of these 

 summits serves but to increase by contrast, the prevailing darkness, 

 for they seem to float like islands of lignt in a sea of gloom. At a 

 rate of motion 28 times slower than we are accustomed to, the light 

 tardily creeps down the mountain-sides, and in the course of about 

 1 2 hours the whole of the circular rampart of the great crater below 

 us, and towards the east, shines out in brilliant light, unsoftened 

 by a trace of mountain mist. But on the opposite side, looking 

 into the crater, nothing but blackness is to be seen. As hour 

 succeeds hour, the sunbeams reach peak after peak of the circular 

 rampart in slow succession, till at length the circle is complete 

 and the vast crater-rim, 50 miles in diameter, glistens like a silver- 

 margined abyss of darkness. By-and-by in the centre, appears 

 a group of bright peaks of bosses. These are the now illuminated 

 summits of the central cones, and the development of the great 

 mountain cluster they form henceforth becomes an imposing 

 feature of the scene. From our high standpoint, and looking 

 backwards to the sunny side of our cosmorama, we glance over a 

 vast region of the wildest volcanic desolation. Craters from ii\e 

 miles diameter downwards crowd together in countless numbers, 

 so that the surface, as far as the eye can reach, looks v^eritably 

 frothed over with them. Nearer the base of the rampart on \vh\c]) 



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