Mare Vaporum and the Lunar Clefts. 55 



found a place there, the traces of its smaller receptacles would 

 be of a very different character. The river-systems of a dried- 

 up Earth, as contemplated from the Moon, would have a wholly 

 dissimilar aspect, with their confluent branches, and their 

 regular increase from end to end. The lunar cleft, on the 

 contrary, often begins and ends on a high level, without ever 

 reaching lower ground : or runs from mountain to mountain 

 through a plain : it does not grow broader towards one end : 

 it very seldom receives branches : it is very frequently straight : 

 its proportional depth is too great, especially with the slight 

 force of lunar gravity, to have been excavated by currents of 

 water : it is often only ten or twelve times longer than it is 

 broad : it frequently reappears on the farther side of mountains 

 which have interrupted it : or it keeps a regular curvature in 

 passing through obstacles lying in every direction : occasionally 

 it goes through craters of considerable size. All this — as well 

 as the absence of any noticeable atmosphere — is inconsistent 

 with the hypothesis of water- currents of any assignable date. 

 The supposition of life in the Moon thus seems negatived. 

 But why, ask our authorities, should we assume, as alone 

 possible, the existence of that one form of life with which we 

 are acquainted on our planet ? Even with us the most extra- 

 ordinary differences in climates and modes of life are found, 

 co-existent with the same ultimate elements, with an uniform 

 force of gravity, and an unvaried general density : why, then, 

 should not entirely new arrangements as to life and motion 

 have place under totally different conditions of existence in 

 other worlds ? To these very sensible questions, the spirit of 

 which had been in many points anticipated by Schr., may be 

 added some reflections of the latter to the effect that our 

 speculations ought to be confined to what is deducible in the 

 strictest sense from observation, and that there is no necessity 

 that we should denominate the Moon " an entirely dry mass of 

 chalk, and that therewith at the same time every substitute for 

 water, so beneficial to us, should be denied to those who, as 

 well as ourselves, are indebted to the Universal Father of 

 nature for the enjoyment of an active life. With the largest 

 telescopes we still see the great works of God always in a 

 remote background, and can only keep ourselves to sure obser- 

 vations and their immediate consequences/' He goes on to 

 suggest (but in a very modest and rational manner) the possi- 

 bility of some transparent fluid on the Moon, bearing an 

 analogous proportion to her atmosphere, in point of density, 

 to that existing between our water and air, and that it may 

 perform a similar function in point of utility with regard to the 

 needs of such organized life as may exist there. Till of late it 

 might have been said that the analysis of aerolites, in the 



