26 
REPORT— 1854 . 
achromatic of the Liverpool Observatory— and other light pictures commumca'.. 1 
for the occasion by Dr. Lee and Mr. Nasmyth. He called attention in particular 
to three large drawings of the Mare Crisium, after sunrise on that part of the lunu 
surface, at mid-day on the same, and before sunset, executed by Frof. Smyth; and 
to diagrams of Plato and the regions around it by Prof. Challis. In commenting 
on the results of the labours of the Committee during the past year. Prof. Phillip* 
drew attention to the methods employed by Prof. Smyth and Prof. Challis which 
combined instrumental measures, eye sketches, and finished deatgna, and presented 
the varied aspects of the lunar surface, depending on the angle of illumination which 
had been expressly indicated by the Committee. lie remarked on the continually 
growing exactness with which the telescope was applied to the delineation nf the 
lunar scenery, which, to inferior instruments appearing smooth and even, rcvww 
itself to more powerful scrutiny as altogether uneven, mostly rugged land, deep! 
cut by chasms, and soaring into angular pinnacles. The so-called .seas, under 
scrutiny, appear destitute of water, add their surface, under low angles of ibci « 
light, becomes roughened with little points and minute craters, or undulated ‘ 
winding ridges of very small elevation, comparable to the gravel ridges o a 
and Scandinavia. On the question thus and in other ways raised for discu--. ^ 
whether the moon, now devoid of water on the face she presents to us, con-' 
traces of ancient watery movement, Prof. Phillips called attention to tkc' J 
straight rifts and winding “ Killen,” as the Germans call them, which, » 
telescopes only, reveal themselves in many tracts of the lunar land. ne 
Marc Nubium, is really a fault line, 45 miles long, the vertical moveraen g ^ 
at one end than the other — others cross several craters diametrical) ; 
rugged ravines-many only a few hundred feet across. And turning to 
the mountain which, in connexion with Mare TIumorum, had been a . 
self for his survey, he described its long encircling wall, broken tlirougn ja 
Mare Humorum, duplicate in one part, crossed by three deep narro u 
another, and partly interrupted by u great, oval craterifurra lii; 
broken down ordeficient on the side against the great crater of Gw*” 01 * 
concentrating to, or diverging from, the smaller cratcriform append^- 
but only with good instruments, many branching ridges and ho1 m 0 U n!a 
are towards the small crater, and whose extremities reach to\va nnt t er pourri 
m the middle of Gassendi. If these are branching tracts ol V0,caI ‘ ,' t0 »)|u'^ 
°ut from the smaller crater, their slope will be from it ; if , i. a p 5 cao - 
action, their slope will be towards it; and this is a test wW c P ^cbfil 
accurately applied in this situation, by carefully delineating the s 
in morning and evening from the lofty walls of the crater. ^ 54 , 8 n d ! ' 
In speaking of the progress made by himself since the light-p' !rui 7* 
t ^ e .i^' 0rnmit:tee an< ^ Liverpool Photographic Society in obta 6 i era tion ol 
of the moon, lie remarked as of good augury, in his own case, the 3 1 " 
process, so that 30" were now more than sufficient for a 2-mc P . : ver pool 
were employed in 1853 on a picture only H inch across- The JbeW 
graphers had novr obtained many good pictures, and had been s 
ments by daylight. ’ * ' . O hotogr*pb? J 
Attention was further called to the augmented blackness in r br igbtnr^ 
certain shadows of the moon, and the fidelity with which the _ c jrcuni5t BDC, '.!i 
the mountains and radiating light spaces were rendered in JJf®,fl eC tingP 01,tr * 
unportance, as likely to lead hereafter to some good idea of the 
° * ler peculiarities of the lunar surface. 
Hesearchcs in Meteoric Astronomy- _ v 
By Daniel Vaughan, Cincinnati, Onut. 0 in ion tb';. 
Astronomical observations have lately furnished grounds i° r there'll- 
planets do not revolve in an absolute vucuum, and that they can > br j 0 gs u> _ 
ln the ‘ r l'r escnt condition. Every return of Enc T k f, £ in what m ore 
£!£!»£* ra re medium disseminated through space ; but I thi orbits 0 ^ 
indications of this subtle fluid may be derived from its effects on th IotrJ ^ 
meteors which are now recognized as members of the s° lar s £^ osta ina^ 
any fluid with tho same rapidity, spheres of different magnitude 
