We View The Lunar Scenery In The Northern Hemisphere

: To Mars Via The Moon

"Now, Professor," exclaimed M'Allister, jumping up with a shrug of the

shoulders, "you've given our friend John a considerable amount of

information on a wee bit dry subject, so, mayhap, you will now give us

something more interesting, and go on with the description of the

natural features of the moon down yonder."



"Yes do, please, Professor," said John; "M'Allister's own temperature is

evidently r sing rapidly. Strange, isn't it, that a douche of cold facts

should make our friend so warm!"



"Well, not altogether," I replied laughingly; "there should always be a

healthy reaction after a cold douche. Much depends on the intensity of

the cold applied, and you know that if you touch extremely cold metal it

burns you like hot iron!"



"Professor," chimed in M'Allister, "maybe I was a bit warm, but really

your facts were not so cold as to make me hot."



"I'm glad to hear you say so," I answered.



"At all events, Professor," continued John, "whatever may be

M'Allister's actual temperature, I'm simply burning to know something

about that very striking formation with the steel-grey coloured

flooring which is situated not very far down from the North Pole, and a

little to the east of the central meridian."



"That," I said, "is a large walled plain called Plato, and, being on a

receding curve of the moon, it is seen from the earth foreshortened, so

that it appears to be elliptical in shape. It is about sixty miles in

diameter, and encloses an area of 2700 square miles, which is just about

the area of Lincolnshire. The general height of the mountain walls is

over 3600 feet; one mountain on the east is nearly 7500 feet high, and

others on the north and west are but little lower.



"You will notice that there are several breaks in the walls, and a large

one on the south-west; whilst on the inner slope of the mountains you

can see where a great landslide has occurred.



"It is rather singular, John, that in your first selection you have

chosen a formation which is one of the lunar mysteries!"



"Ah! Professor," said John, smiling, "I always was lucky! What is this

dreadful mystery?" he asked, with an assumed expression of awe.



"Oh, it's not a ghost story, John, nor anything to make your flesh

creep," I said rather grimly. "Usually the floor of a walled plain

becomes brighter as the sun rises higher and higher in the sky, but

Plato actually becomes darker under a high sun. By some it has been

thought that this is merely the effect of contrast with the very bright

surroundings of this formation, and that there is no actual darkening of

the tint. This is certainly not the case, for I have examined it

carefully myself with the telescope-shutting out all the bright

surroundings from the field of view, but the floor still appeared

equally dark.



"Others have suggested that the hot sun causes the growth of some kind

of vegetation all over the plain, the ripening of which makes the floor

darker in tint. As regards this suggestion, it is the fact that upon

Mars the old sea-beds are the places where vegetation is most luxuriant

at the present time; so, if Plato were at one time an enclosed sea, it

might not be impossible that vegetation in some low form might grow and

be nourished by the crude gaseous remains of a former atmosphere. A

greenish tint has occasionally been noticed by some observers, also

several light streaks across the floor, as well as several small

craterlets, which have been duly noted on the maps.



"But before we go any further we will have a better means of seeing, for

it is rather uncomfortable looking directly down upon the moon. So,

John, just lend a hand and we'll fetch one of those large mirrors."



This was done, and the mirror suspended with the upper part projecting

forward, so that when adjusted at the proper angle we could sit and look

straight into the mirror before us and see the reflection of all that

was below. We could still look down at the objects, if we wished to do

so, without shifting our position.



"There, John," I remarked, as we completed this arrangement, "I have

already arranged mirrors in the proper positions at the windows in the

forepart of the vessel, so that in future M'Allister will be able to see

what is nearly straight ahead of him. Now you will understand that I had

a scientific use for the mirrors I provided, and did not require them

merely to admire my beautiful face in as you suggested."



John laughed as I recalled his suggestion, saying, "All right,

Professor, I know you generally have a good reason for what you do."



Now, being more comfortably seated, I drew their attention to some small



isolated mountains on the area to the south of Plato, pointing out Pico,

an isolated mountain over 8000 feet in height, and another with three

peaks not very far from it. To the north-east of these, some distance

away, are the Teneriffe and Straight Ranges; also isolated groups.



"You will remember," I remarked, "that I said there were several

formations which seemed to me to owe their present appearance to the

action of water. Now look well at all this district before us-does it

not seem to bear out my contention? Those numerous small mountains and

isolated groups were not, I think, originally isolated, but connected

with the adjoining ranges. If we assume that Plato was once an enclosed

sea, or lake, which burst through the mountain walls-possibly owing to

their being weakened or broken by volcanic action-there would have been

a tremendous outrush of water, which must have carried away a good deal

of the softer material of these hills and mountains; whilst, in after

years, the continual wash of the waters, combined with aerial

denudation, would gradually have worn away all but the hardest parts of

these formations.



"Most probably the whole of the surrounding area was also at some time a

sea, though volcanic action has since altered its surface conformation,

and in places it bears evidence of having been covered with lava. It is

not unusual on our world for volcanoes to burst up from under the sea,

so even the evidence of volcanic action does not, as some seem to think,

negative the possibility of water ever existing here; and it may not be

inappropriate to point out that our hydrographers have proved that our

ocean-beds are not always smooth, but are often diversified by high

hills and deep valleys."



M'Allister here interjected: "Professor, would you kindly tell us

something about that fine range of mountains over yonder, just to the

right hand?"



"Oh yes," I replied; "I was just about to mention that mountain range,

which is called the Alps after those in Switzerland; and that peak on

the front portion, just south of the great valley you see, is named Mont

Blanc, and is about 12,000 feet in height.



"You will notice a very large number of peaks in this and the other

neighbouring ranges-in fact, several thousands have been marked on our

large maps.



"Cutting diagonally in a north-westerly direction, completely through

the Alps, you will notice a long and deep valley. This is known as the

'Great Alpine Valley,' and is over eighty miles long, and varies from

about three miles to six and a half miles in width. At the eastern end

it is some 11,000 feet deep, debouching on to the plain in several

comparatively narrow passes, whilst at its north-western extremity it is

very shallow, and emerges on to what is known as the Sea of Cold, which

covers an area of about 100,000 square miles. This valley seems to

afford another example of formation by the action of water.



"Amongst the three thousand peaks comprised in the Apennine range just

below the Alps, are several mountains of considerable altitude," I

remarked, pointing out Mount Huygens, nearly 20,000 feet high, Mount

Hadley, 15,000 feet, and Mount Woolf, 12,000 feet in height. "This range

curves round towards the east, and finishes with a fine ring-plain

called Eratosthenes-some thirty-seven miles in diameter, with a floor

depressed 8000 feet below the lunar surface. It encloses a central

mountain, and on the east wall there is one peak which rises 16,000 feet

above the floor.



"The ranges in this part of the moon are, perhaps, more like those on

our earth than others to be found on its surface, but much more wild and

rugged.



"Eastward and northward of these ranges is the Sea of Showers, on which

there are several fine ring-mountains and walled plains-notably

Autolychus and Aristillus, two very perfect ring-mountains some 9000

feet high.



"One of the most striking, on account of its size and situation, is that

large one which is called Archimedes, and is about fifty miles in

diameter; and you will notice that a rugged mass of mountains and high

hills extends from it to a distance of over a hundred miles on the

south. The floor of this walled plain is only about 600 feet below the

general level, and the mountain walls average about 4000 feet in height;

but there is at least one peak some 7000 feet high.



"You will see a little below and westward of Archimedes the commencement

of a system of large cracks or crevasses in the lunar surface which are

known as 'rills.' Many such systems are found in various parts of the

moon; some of the cracks are comparatively shallow, but, according to

Professor Langley, others are known to be at least eight miles deep, and

may be infinitely deeper, though I cannot say I understand how these

great depths have been arrived at. The length of the cracks varies from

a few miles to over three hundred miles, and from a few hundred yards to

some miles in width. They are attributed partly to volcanic action, but

mainly to the contraction of the crust of the lunar globe as it became

cold. Being so much smaller, the moon would cool much more rapidly than

the earth, and the disruptive effects would necessarily be greater."



John here touched my arm, and pointing to some mountains on the borders

of a large elongated oval area, close to the north-western terminator

where the sun was setting, asked me what they were. I explained that the

dark area was known as the Mare Crisium, or Sea of Conflicts, and is

possibly the deepest of the large lunar depressions.



"It is about 280 miles long from north to south, and 355 miles wide from

east to west, but, owing to its position, the width is seen from the

earth very much foreshortened, so that it really looks nearly twice as

long as it is wide. It contains an area of about 75,000 square miles,

thus being as large as the combined area of Scotland and Ireland, and

the five largest northern counties of England. It is surrounded by

mountains, some being over 11,000 feet high, reckoning from the dark

floor."



I drew their attention to Proclus-a ring-mountain on the eastern side

of this sea-which is about eighteen miles in diameter, and the second

brightest of the lunar formations. "From its neighbourhood several

bright streaks diverge in different directions, two extending a long way

across the dark area, and there is a longer one striking towards the

north and another towards the south at an angle of about 120 degrees

with each other.



"Seen through the telescope, these ray-streaks often appear very

brilliant under a high sun, looking in fact very like electric

search-lights; though I notice that the Rev. T.W. Webb has rather

curiously remarked that these particular streaks are not very easily

seen. Similar ray-streaks, many enormously longer than these, are found

in various parts of the lunar surface, but their exact nature and origin

has never yet been definitely settled. They only come into view when the

sun is beginning to be high up in the lunar sky, and the higher the sun,

the brighter the rays appear. Some of the shorter ones are ridges, but

this is evidently not the case with the others, for they cast no

shadows, as ridges would when the sun is low. Very many radiate from a

large ring-mountain called Tycho, in the southern hemisphere; and one of

them extends, with some breaks, nearly three thousand miles, passing

northward over the Sea of Serenity and finally disappearing on the

moon's north-western edge, or 'limb,' as it is termed.



"Professor Pickering assumes that these rays were caused by volcanic

dust or other light reflecting material emitted from a series of small

craters, and states that they are really made up of a series of short

rays placed or joined end to end. What I have observed myself seems to

bear out this latter statement; but the opinion I have formed as to

their origin differs from the theory of Professor Pickering. It seems to

me more probable that the volcanic dust was carried by a strong wind,

split up into two or more separate currents by a succession of peaks.

The wind currents swept clean the area over which they actually passed,

but dust fell or drifted in the lines between the currents. Exactly the

same thing may be observed in connection with snow-storms on our earth

when accompanied by a high wind. One part of the earth's surface will be

swept clean by the wind current, whilst a long line of the adjoining

surface is covered with a thick deposit of snow. I have also noticed

that where the ray-streaks impinge upon a mountain, or ring, there is an

appearance of spreading out and heaping up of the bright material very

much as snow would be spread out or drifted up in similar situations on

the earth."



M'Allister here interrupted with the remark that, when we were

approaching the moon, he had particularly noticed that all appearance of

the face of the "man in the moon" had vanished. He said he had expected

to see that more distinctly as we got nearer.



"That would not be the case, M'Allister," I answered. "The resemblance

to a human face which we see from the earth is caused by the combined

effect of the bright and dusky areas on the lunar surface as seen from a

distance. The depressed dark areas, which we call seas, form the eyes,

nose, and mouth of the face, but when we had approached nearer to the

moon the details of the surface configuration stood out so much more

distinctly that they entirely obliterated the general effect of the

markings as seen from a distance."



"Professor," exclaimed John, "I have read that before telescopes were

invented it was thought by many that the markings seen on the moon were

really the features of our own earth reflected by the moon as in a

mirror. Is that correct?"



"Oh yes, John," I said. "It seems to have been a fairly general belief

in many parts of the world, and travellers tell us that, even within

very recent times, they have found in some of the more out-of-the-way

parts of the world that the same idea is still held by uneducated

people!"



Objects of interest being so numerous on the lunar surface we could only

give a comprehensive glance at many of them, and as we had so many

places to inspect, I now gave M'Allister the order to steer eastward.



He accordingly moved his switches and the Areonal quickly passed over

the Sea of Tranquillity, which has an area of 140,000 square miles; then

over the Sea of Vapours, a smaller area, parts of which have a dusky

green tint, from whence to the northward we had a view over the Sea of

Serenity, another deep depression nearly as large as the Sea of

Tranquillity, and much of which is a light green colour.



Then we came again to the Sea of Showers, a large "sea" having an area

of 340,000 square miles; and, still moving eastward, the great lunar

"Ocean of Storms" soon came into view. This covers a very large portion

of the eastern and north-eastern part of the moon's surface, and, with

all its bays and indentations, is estimated to be two million square

miles in extent.



I, however, again reminded them that, although these areas are termed

seas and oceans, no water exists there now, whatever may have been the

case in the long distant past. They are now only large depressions, and

not often level but intersected by hills, ridges, and even mountains.



As we passed along I called their particular attention to the

magnificent "Bay of Rainbows" on the north-eastern coast of the Sea of

Showers. "From Cape Laplace (9000 feet high) on the western extremity,

to Cape Heraclides (4000 feet high) on the eastern extremity, this great

bay is about 140 miles across, the depth of its curvature being over

eighty miles. It bears a very strong resemblance to many large bays on

our sea-coasts in various parts of the world, but I am not aware of any

such bay which is bordered by a mass of such lofty mountains as this is.



"We are looking at it now under a high sun, but when the sun has only

just risen sufficiently high to illuminate all those high mountains,

whilst the lower surroundings are still in shadow, the great bay

presents in the telescope the appearance of a brilliant luminous arch

springing from the lighted part of the moon and extending far out over

the dark part of the disc.



"Farther eastward, and lower down on the Ocean of Storms, you will

observe what is admitted by all to be the very brightest large formation

upon the moon, viz. Aristarchus-a ring-plain nearly thirty miles in

diameter, the floor of which is 5000 feet below the surface level. It

possesses a central mountain, very difficult to measure on account of

the general brightness, but believed to be about 1300 feet high.

Well-defined terraces are seen on the mountain walls enclosing the area,

and many external ridges are connected with the walls, especially to the

south. This formation is evidently covered with some substance which

reflects light to a greater extent than that on similar formations;

indeed it appears so bright that when the moon is new and the whole of

this part of the disc is dark, Aristarchus can still be seen with a

telescope, and this gave rise in the past to the idea that it was a

volcano in actual eruption. The explanation is, however, more prosaic,

because the mountain is really brought into view by earthshine on its

bright covering. When the moon is new the earth is almost fully lighted

on the side toward the moon, and sheds a faint light on the dark portion

of its disc, thus producing the phenomenon known as 'the old moon in the

new moon's arms.'



"Close to Aristarchus you will notice another ring-plain, which is

called Herodotus, about twenty-three miles in diameter, with a floor

7000 feet depressed; but this formation is not nearly so bright as its

neighbour. That high plateau between them is notable on account of the

T-shaped cleft in it, which runs into that other long zig-zag cleft (in

some parts two miles wide and 1600 feet in depth), whose direction

changes abruptly several times in its length of over one hundred miles.



"Turning from this towards the south-west you will see the most majestic

formation to be found upon the moon-the great ring-plain called

'Copernicus,' after the founder of our present system of astronomy. It

is about sixty miles in diameter, only roughly circular in shape, and as

it stands isolated upon the great ocean-bed it is most favourably

situated for observation. A large number of very high ridges, separated

by deep valleys, radiate from it in all directions to a distance of

hundreds of miles, presenting the appearance of a grand system of

buttresses to the mountain walls. These walls are high, and contain a

very large number of peaks which, when seen through the telescope as

they catch the sunlight, look like a string of bright pearls shining on

the border of the ring. A peak on one side is 12,000 feet in altitude,

on the other side is one only 1000 feet lower, whilst, rising from near

the central part of the floor, are no less than five small mountain

peaks. Owing to its size, brightness, and isolated position, this

splendid ring-mountain can be seen from the earth without the aid of a

glass; but even a field-glass will reveal much in this and similar

formations which cannot be detected by the unaided eye.



"The Rev. T.W. Webb has termed Tycho, in the southern hemisphere, 'the

Metropolitan Crater of the Moon,' but, in my opinion, Copernicus is,

owing to its position and grandeur, much more worthy of that dignity.

Tycho is fine in itself, but is not so favourably situated, being

surrounded by other formations somewhat in the same way as St. Paul's

Cathedral is surrounded and shut in, for the most part, by other and

meaner buildings.



"How much more should we appreciate the splendid proportions and majesty

of our Metropolitan Cathedral if we could view it as an isolated

building with a fine open space all around it!"



"I quite agree with that, Professor," remarked John, "and I have always

thought it a great pity that Sir Christopher Wren was not allowed to

carry out his original plan in this respect."



We were looking at the Carpathian range of mountains just to the

northward of Copernicus, when M'Allister touched my arm, exclaiming,

"Look, Professor, at all those tiny craters near the western side of

Copernicus. Why, there are so many of them that the ground for miles

round looks like a honeycomb, and in some places there are straight rows

of them!"



"Yes," I said, "this part of the lunar surface is simply riddled with

tiny craterlets, and some of them are utilised as tests for the

definition of our telescopes. I have heard it remarked that a map of

this part of the moon presents almost the appearance of the froth on a

glass of stout when it has settled down, the very numerous tiny

air-bubbles of different sizes representing the craterlets; and really

it does bear such a resemblance.



"Almost due east of Copernicus is another bright and isolated ring-plain

named Kepler, after the celebrated astronomer. This is some twenty-two

miles in diameter and surrounded by very bright streaks of light,

extending in some directions over seventy miles, the whole nimbus of

light covering an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. These really

are streaks, not ridges, for, as you will see, nearly all the surface

surrounding this formation is flat and level.



"Some of the streaks from Kepler radiate in the direction of

Aristarchus, others towards Copernicus, cutting right through the rays

from those formations. From this it is gathered that Copernicus was

formed first, then Aristarchus, and Kepler still later on in the moon's

history.



"The surrounding wall of Kepler is comparatively low with respect to

the lunar surface level, but the depth of the crater is nearly ten

thousand feet below the mountain peaks. The whole formation is covered

with the same light-reflecting material as the streaks which surround

it."