New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-04-21
LIFE ON TIE MOON.

Until quite recently the surface OF the moon has been
supposed 10 be a vast hfeless desert- Astronomers
have abused the moon in every possible way. They
have said there was heat in moonshine. They have
denied the moon an atmosphere a, consequently wa
ter and organic life. They have made US bseve that
residence in the moon would be exceedingly undesira
be. The old faith in the Goddess of the Night WAS
quite overturned in scientific Circles and the fascina
ticns of moonlight were departing day by day.
But this is all changed Knox and Mslloni have
shown, by very exact observations that there is heat
in the moons rays Zsntsdsschi has discovered that
this heat produces sensible effect upon the mimosa
An English philosopher has found that the earth is
colder during the first quarter of the than 1t is in
the second.
Upon the growth of plants the exercises re-
msrkable influence The chemical action of Light is
necessary to their principal work. the absorption OF
carbon from the carbonic acid gas Of the atmosphere
This work all plants carry daring the day, and 10
the night they sleep-e2cept when the moon shines.
SIZE wakes them and sets them at work. So the farm
ers who plant onyiust before the full right,
and the scoAers who call them supersttious are them
selves the foolish ones For if sown before near
new moon the young plants get above ground just at
the full, when the tender things need sleep. Bat if
sown Just before the full, they come up about new
MOON pass their babybood under the soothing nfusn-
ces of dark nights. and when the full comes are
sturdy urshinF, able to work night and day.
The moon-worshipers are right also, in regard TO
the influence of the moon uponthe weather. Herschel
ArsVo and Whewell recognized that the moon had
some slight power in dispensing clouds The sailors go
further, and cay the eats up the clouds. at the
last meeting of the British Association, it was shown
that the weather through long series of years osnd-
ed le-a very little upon the phases of the moon,
and now Queteet, the Director Of the Brussels OBJ
servaory has shown that between the first and last
quarters of the moon and not less rain falls than
during the remainder of the time. However, fine
weather ard greater rainfall may 90 together.
Finally Webb, after a careful comparison of the
present appearance of the with the very precise
maps made by Nader some twenty years ago, has
shown that there have been considerable changes
Some of the small craters in particular have notably
different form from what they had when hddler OBJ
served them. These changes show the existence OF
water and an atmosphere Father Secchi, Director OF
the oman Observatory, after much observation has
come to the conclusion that the peaks of the highest
mountains on the moon are covered with snow. And,
TO make us s more at home the moon, De la Rive,
the owner of the observatory at Crawford, near Lon
don, gives as his opision that what were at drst
marked down as seas, and afterward supposed to be
barren plains are in fact extensive forests Ia support
of this comes up great asrononic authority Sehwa-
be- the discoverer of the periodic times of the suns
spots Besides these great smooth plains, which were
called seas there are number of burrows or wrn-
kles, nearly hundred the nature of which was en-
tirely unknown. Their length varies from three to
thirty-ve miles and their grestsst breadth ia about
five thousand feet; most of them are considerably mar
rover. Their sides are parallel and smooth; some run
in strait lines and some are gently curved. Ordinarily
they ere separate but sometimes they cross each other
often they cross craters but occasionally they eeem TO
be cut off by them They found all over the sur
face of the moon, except on the highest mountain
chains.
OF these furrows Schwabe has made careful study at
various times He found them to consist of very fine
parallel dark lines, separated by clear spaces. few
months LATER the lines streaks had disappeared, but
after while they returned, again to disappear. In
this periodic change he thinks that he uds proof that
bese lines are rows Of trees and the clear sreaks be-
tween them are the bare ground when the trees
are leahess. When the trees in full leaf the ground
is so covered as to produce uniform shade and the
lines disappear.
Nothing is more natural than TO suppose that the dark
spots on the moon are forests but how shall we ac-
count for the growth of these treesiu right lnes7 This
hypothesis we must for the present consider 10 be only
a hypothesis. With the aid of photography, which
will secure for us accurate pictures Of the moon from
time TO time, we may hope that the question will be
solved and that we may really find out what is going
on upon the surface of our satellite.