194 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the lunar planet. We confess that even if the hook were to consist of 
these enlarged views alone it would still be a work admirable in its way, and 
strikingly attractive from the fact that it presents features that are altogether 
unknown to the English world at large. It is true that of late years we 
have, through Mr. Proctor, been presented with enlarged photographs of the 
moon’s structure ; but then though they may be more truthful in every 
minute detail, than the wondrous drawings in the book before us, they could 
not, unless they were fifty times enlarged, convey so good an idea as the 
plates which Messrs. Carpenter and Nasmyth have given to the world. 
The authors to a certain extent apologise for the absence from the book of 
the customary astronomical facts, stating that they have been rather at 
pains to give the moon’s physiography, i.e. u the causative phenomena of the 
features, broad and detailed, that the surface of our satellite presents for 
study.” But they need offer us no apology, for whilst such matter is to be 
found amply given in the hundred and one treatises on astronomy, there is 
not one which gives us the excellent graphic account that they have 
furnished. They have, in the first place, done very wisely ; that is, they 
have given us bird’s-eye views of the scenery of V esuvius and its neighbour- 
hood, and side by side a view on the same scale apparently of a portion of 
the moon’s surface. We think this idea is a very happy one ; for there is 
nothing that could more distinctly convince anyone that the moon’s surface 
is chiefly made up of volcanic masses than the view from above downwards 
of portions of our own plutonic region. Anything more distinctly alike than 
the two surfaces it is absolutely impossible to conceive. There are twenty- 
five plates in the volume, besides numerous woodcuts, and it is impossible to 
say which of the former is the best. To be sure the photograph of the moon 
is immensely inferior to the splendid picture that was published by Mr. 
Proctor some time since ; but then the views, almost stereoscopic, of the 
lunar scenery are certainly wondrous, and they give us quite a different 
notion of lunar scenery from that which is generally adopted. It seems to us 
that the authors are not unfrequently mistaken in some of their original 
ideas — more especially is this the case in the attempted explanation of the 
peculiar cracks and streaks which are so well known in lunar features. They 
have tried several experiments on a glass globe, on which they have caused 
considerable internal pressure to be exerted, and they fancy that this when 
cracked in a peculiar manner illustrates the mode in which the phenomenon 
of cracks appears on the lunar surface. But we think they are wrong*; 
for the globe shows its cracks all in one direction, and from the north pole 
(let us say) towards the equator, whereas the lunar cracks are arranged 
round each volcano ; and we cannot imagine that in such a planet the force 
which produced volcanoes was in a separate series of circles. However, this 
is a very trifling objection to raise. Tout entier we are immensely pleased 
with our authors’ labours, and we wish them every success in the sale of 
their excellent book. 
