PROCEEDiyaS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 825 



interior, the result will be a mere ring mountain and basin without 

 rajs ; but if the interior sources be in communication with the 

 basin in such a manner that the flow becomes more or less con- 

 stant throughout a ])rotracted epoch, the sedimentary matter evolved 

 with the water will be deposited along the courses in which it will be 

 directed in the flow from the basin, and the extent of the supply will 

 be represented by the ray system which it developes ; and though the 

 flow may not be very great in volume, yet when it is continued 

 throughout geological epochs, the traces it leaves behind may be 

 very mighty in extent, while the lightness of the lunar earths would 

 naturall}' increase the quantity disturbed by the water and carried in 

 its flow. 



The water evolved will be reabsorbed by the earthy surfaces over 

 which it flows, the same as upon our earth ; and all the causes com- 

 bined will have a tendency to distribute it more evenly throughout 

 the envelope, as well as preventing it by mere mechanical pressure 

 from descending so deeply as before ; the rings will become smaller 

 for Avant of large supplies of water at any particular location. The 

 examples of violence before referred to will become graudally less, 

 and finally cease from the absence of the causes which formerly pro- 

 duced them, all of which will of course increase the number of points 

 at which the water will issue. The size of the basins will gradually 

 diminish as their number increases, until small fountain basins are, as it 

 were numerously developed over the moon's surface, which, after all, 

 is equivalent to the natural distribution of that fluid upon our own 

 earth ; for though upon the moon, water is evidently far less abun- 

 dant than upon the earth, the process of distribution which the lunar 

 formations so significantly suggest will make it sufliciently plenty 

 everywhere for the sustenance of vegetable and animal life. 



Significant Testimony and Sj'eculation. 

 The London Atlieneum has the following statement which presents 

 a singular piece of testimony in support of this theory. It says : 

 '' In a short paper read lately before the Royal Society, Prof. Phillips 

 has embodied some of his principal results. A skillful draughtsman, 

 he has made numerous drawings of difterent parts of the moon's sur- 

 face, and representing the same object as seen by morning light and 

 afternoon light, he reverses the shadows and obtains a more accurate 

 knowledge of the real forms of mountains and craters than is possi- 

 ble with a single light. In one of Prof. Pliillip's drawings there is 



