THE MOON IN MASQUERADE 119 



the mountains and craters that we see are nothing more 

 nor less than the fantastic sculptnrings of one Jack 

 Frost. An inch of water is said to be equivalent to 

 ten of snow, hence the distinguished artist has not 

 lacked plastic material. 



Consider the ideal conditions for this glacial ef- 

 fect : a fortnight day of evaporation followed by a night 

 of equal length and unspeakable cold. Under such con- 

 ditions in what other form should we expect to find 

 water than as snow and ice? And where, other than 

 on the land? 



Of course the condition of the moon's surface in 

 this year of 1912, by long continuance, has reached a 

 stage of uniformity, so that snowscape changes have 

 t>een reduced to a trifling minimum. But,, conceivably, 

 the water may once have been fluid and occupied its 

 natural basins, and, if so, and in sufficient quantity, 

 the planet must have rotated on its axis. These suppo- 

 sitions do not affect ray solution one way or the other; 

 but T think that by picturing a definite beginning, the 

 crateral and other forms can be more graphically recon- 

 structed, and the surface, as now visible, be better un- 

 derstood. 



Let us imagine the planet, then, as naturally pos- 

 sessed of a comparatively flat surface exhibiting all the 

 diversified forms of land and water, except probably 

 mountains, and enjoying, as we do, a 24-hour day. By 

 some freak of nature, as, for example, by a shifting of 

 the moon's axis so as to point its original north pole 

 earthward, let us say, the entire economy of the planet 

 was changed, and its day become as we know it. 



It is plain now that until the bottoms of the oceans 

 were licked dry by the sun's hot rays, the planet must 

 have been enveloped by great clouds of vapor r which 

 being carried around to the dark side condensed into 

 snow and ice, nntil the transformation became com- 



