220 Gruithuisen's City in the Moon. 



gradually down : but those on the other side formed, with a 

 second oblique rampart, lying as it would seem N.W. and 

 S.E., enclosed spaces, which in his view would be thus 

 sheltered from the N.N.W. polar wind. From 3 to 4 years 

 later he and Schwabe detected external prolongations of several 

 of these S.W. walls, that were in like manner stopped by 

 another closing ridge. In 1826 Schwabe saw 5 fresh walls of 

 this kind, some only of which Gr. could make out. The latter 

 considered it remarkable that previous to the discovery of these 

 new ramparts, a small ring was distinctly visible on their site, 

 occasionally almost obscured by fog, of which not a trace could 

 be subsequently perceived ; and it was equally remarkable that 

 in 1822 he always saw a small rampart completing the outline 

 on the E., which afterwards disappeared, and beyond the E. 

 ramparts a hill, the centre of 5 radiating ridges like a star, 

 which have so totally vanished since, that the slight vestige of 

 a roundish height alone remains. The regular figure itself he 

 often found so covered with what seemed foggy clouds, that 

 only unconnected traces of the ramparts could be seen, and the 

 general form was lost ; and such he supposed must have been 

 the case at the time when Lohrm. drew the region before he 

 heard of Gr/s discovery. On the contrary the surrounding 

 natural features have always remained the same ; the high hill on 

 the N. which terminates the central wall (r, of B. and M.) ; the 

 somewhat smaller hill by which the great closing rampart 

 running from S.E. to N.W. is cutoff; and the little ring (a of B. 

 and M.) in which the straight central rampart and the closing 

 rampart terminate — though within this ring he had perceived 

 many variations. Such was the curious figure which was at the 

 time so celebrated in Germany, and which was seen by many con- 

 tinental observers, including Prince Metternich, who perceived 

 it on the first news of its discovery, while " on the other hand 

 the learned John Bull here went away empty, and behaved 

 himself about it as his nature inclined him •/' a somewhat ill- 

 natured criticism, for which, however, there certainly was some 

 foundation in the inattention of our observers ; at the present 

 day, it is satisfactory to feel assured that no such taunt could 

 be with justice directed against us. This was the figure of 

 which B. and M. could not find a trace, when they constructed 

 their Map — though it is somewhat singular that the ridges 

 Avliich they have drawn on this spot are not unlike it in cha- 

 racter — a circumstance which seems to have quite escaped them. 

 At a later day, however, the comparative accuracy of Gr. as an 

 observer was to be established, even on their own not very 

 willing testimony. They state that, 1838, May 2 and 3, a long 

 and hitherto vainly expected opportunity arrived of examining 

 this curious region, in which, from the longitude and latitude 



