POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



429 



general taxation, are the imposition of tolls, 

 which has now been generally abandoned, 

 and recoupment, or buying the property be- 

 fore the improvement is made as in the 

 opening of new streets and public places 

 and reselling it afterward, which involves 

 a large outlay of capital, and runs counter to 

 the generally existing constitutional provi- 

 sions respecting the exercise of eminent do- 

 main. For young and growing municipali- 

 ties the method of special assessment is 

 considered the best. "With few excep- 

 tions and abuses, it has been operated in the 

 United States to the general satisfaction of 

 all. It rests upon principles of right and 

 justice. It brings quick results at the very 

 time when needed. It discourages the 

 speculative holding of unimproved urban 

 property." 



Characteristics of Lunar Craters. In 



the study of lunar physiography or physiog- 

 nomy, says Prof. G. K. Gilbert, interest nat- 

 urally centers in the craters, for these are the 

 dominant features. All theories begin with 

 them. Their range in size is great, extend- 

 ing from a maximum of about eight hundred 

 miles in diameter to a minimum of less than 

 one mile. The size of the smallest ones is 

 not known, as they are beyond the present 

 power of the telescope. Within this range 

 are several varieties, more or less correlated 

 in size, but their intergradation is so per- 

 fect that they are all regarded as phases of 

 a single type. To describe them one should 

 picture to himself a circular plain, ten, twenty, 

 fifty, or one hundred miles in diameter, sur- 

 rounded by an acclivity which everywhere 

 rises steeply but irregularly to a rude ter- 

 race, above which is a circular cliff likewise 

 facing inward toward the plain. This cliff 

 is the inner face of a rugged, compound, an- 

 nular ridge, composed of shorter ridges 

 which overlap one another, but all trend con- 

 centrically. Seen from above, this ridge 

 calls to mind a wreath, and it has been so 

 named. From the outer edge of the wreath 

 a gentle slope descends in all directions to 

 the general surface of the moon, which it is 

 convenient here to call the outer plain. The 

 outer slope of the crater may be identical in 

 surface character with the outer plain, or it 

 may be radially and somewhat delicately 

 ridged as though by streams of lava. The 



inner slope from the base of the cliff to the 

 margin of the inner plain is broken by uneven 

 and discontinuous terraces. From the center 

 of the inner plain rises a hill or mountain, 

 sometimes symmetric but usually irregular 

 and crowned by several peaks. From the 

 outer plain to the base of the wreath the 

 ascent is one thousand to two thousand feet, 

 and the ascent thence to the top of the 

 wreath may be as much more. The descent 

 from the wreath to the inner plain is ordi- 

 narily from five thousand to ten thousand 

 feet, and the height of the central hill is 

 from one thousand to five thousand feet. 

 With rare exceptions the inner plain is sev- 

 eral thousand feet lower than the outer plain. 

 The central hill is not universally present, but 

 appears in rather more than half the craters 

 of medium size, and tends to disappear as the 

 craters become larger. Mr. Gilbert attempts 

 to account for the origin of these craters by 

 collisions of meteoric bodies with the moon, 

 or of the moonlets by the aggregation of 

 which under the meteoric theory the moon 

 has been formed, and is supported by the 

 fact that the splash produced by dropping a 

 pebble into pasty mud, etc., has the form of 

 a crater. 



The Royal Cinnamon of Tonkin. The 



cinnamon of Thanh-Hoa, Tonkin, called roy- 

 al cinnamon, is highly esteemed by the An- 

 namites, and great value is attached to 

 pieces of its bark as presents. It is not 

 cultivated, but grows in thick, hardly acces- 

 sible forests on the Muong Mountains, where 

 some cantons are tributary to Annam. Each 

 canton must furnish the king a tribute of 

 three stools of cinnamon a year. When an 

 inhabitant learns of a stool, he immediately 

 informs the mayor of his village ; the mayor 

 informs the sub-prefect, and he advises the 

 governor of the province of the fact, who 

 makes report of the matter to the court. 

 The Quang phu, or sub-prefect, sends a 

 squad of men to guard the tree, who are not 

 relieved till the crop is gathered, in the 

 presence of the Quang phu or of some man- 

 darin deputized by him. The whole crop is 

 supposed to go to the king, but the officers 

 know how to retain a little of it. So pre- 

 cious a spice as is this particular kind has 

 not entered into commerce, and so jealously 

 is it guarded that it is extremely difficult to 



