The Lunar Taurus (S.) and Argceus, 255 



reform will be shorn of much of its usefulness. The demand 

 for gold coins, both from England and Australia, will be for 

 several years to come very great, and it is desirable that there 

 should be no incongruity in the emanations from the stamping 

 presses of the Royal establishment in London and its branch 

 at the Antipodes. 



THE LUNAR TAURUS (S.) AND ARG^US.— 

 OCCULTATIONS. 



BY THE EEV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., P.E.A.S, 



We recently described the northern division of the lunar range 

 denominated Taurus, and have now to proceed to its southern 

 region, which lies between the S.W. angle of the Mare Sereni- 

 tatis (E) and the N.W. of the M. Tranquillitatis (D). The 

 direction of the ridges which compose it is so exclusively 

 S.S.W., that it even flattens two sides of the considerable 

 craters Littrow (a double formation, next on the S. to Lemon- 

 nier, the bay described in our last paper), and Maraldi (a 

 little further S.W.). S. of Littrow and S.E. of Maraldi lies a 

 more conspicuous crater, Vitruvius, nineteen miles across, 

 remarkable for its contrast of reflective power, the interior 

 having only 2°, the ring 7° to 8° of brightness. Its E. side is 

 4500 feet above the bottom. Lohrmann remarks that it has a 

 beautiful central hill. " The neighbourhood of Vitruvius/ 7 

 say B. and M., Ci is, in respect of colouring and luminosity, 

 one of the most remarkable in the lunar surface, and its aspect 

 alone quite sufficient to set aside the idea that the moon is 

 nothing but a wide field of ice and snow, or, generally speak- 

 ing, thoroughly homogeneous in its component parts. 

 The sea is here considerably dark, and this dark colouring 

 extends itself in one of the narrow bays as far as the N. edge 

 of Vitruvius. Other portions, on the contrary, show a mixture 

 of brighter and darker points, compared with which the rest 

 possesses an almost bluish aspect." Among the many island- 

 like hills, which reach out from Vitruvius into the sea, B. and 

 M. observe that a high mountain, rising furthest to the east, 

 " elevates itself 8384 feet above the E. surface, and 5850 feet 

 above the bay to the W. At its broad southern foot stand 

 two craters — one large but barely perceptible, and another 

 small, very distinct, 6° bright in full moon." Lohrmann 

 considers this ridge, with some curious hills and valleys on its 



