NOTES AND QUERIES. 



113 



the volume of the moon is only about ^th, its surface is nearly ^gth that 

 of the earth. 



This cooling of the mass of the moon must, according to all analogy, 

 have been attended with contraction, which can scarcely be conceived as 

 occurring without the development of a cavernous structure in the in- 

 terior. Much of this cavernous structure would doubtless communicate 

 by means of fissures with the surface, and thus there would be provided 

 an internal receptacle for the ocean, from the depths of which even the 

 burning sun of the long lunar day would be totally unable to dislodge 

 more than traces of aqueous vapour. A globe of wax was exhibited which 

 had been cast under water ; it was highly cellular, and the water had been 

 forced into the hollow spaces, completely filling them. Assuming the 

 solid mass of the moon to contract on cooling at the same rate as granite, 

 its refrigeration through only 180° F. would create cellular space equal 

 to nearly 14| millions of cubic miles, which would be more than sufficient 

 to enguif the whole of the lunar ocean, supposing it to bear the same 

 proportion to the mass of the moon as our own ocean bears to that of the 

 earth. 



If such be the present condition of the moon, we can scarcely avoid the 

 conclusion that a liquid ocean can only exist upon the surface of a planet 

 so long as the latter retains a high internal temperature. The moon then 

 becomes to us a prophetic picture of the ultimate fate which awaits our 

 earth, when, deprived of an external ocean and of all but an annual rota- 

 tion upon its axis,* it shall revolve round the sun an arid and lifeless 

 wilderness, — one hemisphere exposed to the perpetual glare of a cloudless 

 sun, the other shrouded in eternal night. 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



CxEOLOGY or Shaepness. — The following passages, from a paper by Mr. 

 John Jones, of Gloucester, read before the Cotteswold Club, are inter- 

 esting : — " The district to which we shall chiefly direct attention at present 

 is that which lies between Sharpness Point and the Hock Crib, at Fre- 

 therne (the ' Seearp-JNesse,' 4 Acute Promontory,' and the * Hock Crib,' or 

 ' curved lying-place '), comprising the ' New Grounds' so called from 

 their having been formed and reclaimed from the Severn at a very recent 

 period. . . . 



" Crossing the wooden bridge, over the sluice which allows the waste 

 waters of the canal to escape, we approach the place at which the ferry- 

 boat from Pyrton, on the opposite side, lands its passengers ; the names of 

 both being probably derived from the same Anglo-Saxon elements of Per- 

 tun, ' the dwelling on the pier,' and evidencing the antiquity of the ferry, 

 the rights pertaining to which are still strictly enforced by the lessee. An 

 interesting chapter in practical geology may be read by the initiated from 

 this spot. 



* Mayer has recently proved that the action of the tides tends to arrest the motion 

 of the earth upon its axis. And although it has been proved that since the time of 

 Hipparchus the length of the terrestrial day has not increased by the one-hundredth 

 part of a second, yet this fact obviously leaves untouched the conclusion to which Mayer's 

 reasoning leads. 



"VOL. VII. Q 



