The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1863-11-06

constitution OF the moon nave been revealed
BIZ the telescope within tie last few years
The lunar surface has been measured and
mapped by several observers. and It's fea.
lures laid down with as much exactness a.
If the sublectof Jelneafion was some noun.
famous region Of our own planet. The
moons surface presents a wondrous scene
OF lofty. isola,ed heights, cra,ers Of cnor-
nous volcanoes. rampant and broad plains
that look like the beds Of former seas. which
present remarkable contrast to the rugged
character of the rest OF the surface. That
what we look upon are really mountains
and mountainous ranges; is sufficiently cyl
dent from the fac. tLa, the shadows they
cast have the exact proportion. as 10 length,
which they ought To have from the inclna-
ton Of the suns rays 10 their position on
the moons surface.
The convex outlines Of the moon, as
turned toward the SUP, is always circular,
and hearly smooth /; but the opposite border
Of the enlightened part, instead OF being az
exac, and sharply defined ellpse, is always
observed to DO extremely rugged, and in
dented with deep recesses aud promin en-,
points.
The mountains near the border cast long
black shadows, as they should evidently do,
inasmuch as the sun is rising or setting to
those parts of the moon. But as the en-
lightened edge gradually advances beyond
them, or in other words, as the sun to them
gaius altitude. their shadows shorten and
at the full moon, when al the light falls in
our line of sight, no shadows are seen. BY
micrometrical measurement Of the length OF
.be shadows, the height OF the more con-
conspicuous mountains can be calculated.
Before the ear e 50 the heights OF no few
er than one thousand and ninety five lunar
mountains had been computed, and among
them occur all degrees OF altitude up to
nearly tweaty-t three thousand feet-higher
by more than thousand feet; that Of Chin
borazo in the Andes. 1t is a remark able
circumstance that the range Of lunar Ape
nipes, as they have been called. presents q
long slope on one side and precpices on the
other, rs in the H:ms va mountains During
The increase Of the moon its mountains ap.
pear as small points or islands of light. be-
yond the extreme edge of the enli ghtened
part, those points being the summit ilumi-
mated by tafe sunbeams before the iaterme-
date plains bu, grad ually, as the light ad-
yances, they connect themselves with it,
and appear as prominences detached from
the dark border.
The moon, unlike the earth, has many
isolated mountains, that is TO say, moun-
taius not connected with a group or chain
the mountain named Tycho, which has
the appearance Of sugar loaf. is an exam
pie Of this. The uniformity Of aspect which
the lunar mountains for the most part pre-
cent is singular and striking feature
They are wonderfully numerous, especially
towards the Southern disc, occupying quite
The larger part of the moons surface. and
are, as Sir John Herschell remarks, almost,
of an exactly circular or Gene
shaped form. foreshortened, however. into
ellIpscs towards the limb. The larger of
tte5e elevations have for the most Pars, fla.
plains within, from which small, steep,
conical bill rises centrally. They offer, in
teed tho very tyre Of the truly volcanic
character, as il may be seen IN the Graf eli of
Iesuvius. but with the remarkable reculi
,rify that the bottom Of The crater is, in .
many instances. very deeply depressed be- I
ow The general surface OF the moon, the .
nterDal depth being ofen two or three I
lines the external height. 1t has been .
that profound csvitics. regarded
IS craters, occupy two-fiths of the surface
# the moon. One of the most remarkable ,
Il these torma lions is fifty five miles 10 d.
.meter and to give some idea OF its mag
litude, the late Professor Nicoll used to say
could visitor approach it. he would see ri
ing before him q solid wall of rock twelve !
hundred feet high, like the precipiccs of
sehahallion, in Perthshire and on mount.
ng thi. height, would look down decliv-
ty or slope OF thirteen thousand feet. to y
edge or terrace, and below this would see
! lower deep of four thousand feet more-a
.avity exceeding, thsrefcre. the height Of
dons Blanc, and large enough 10 hold
hat mountain, besides Chinborszo and Ten
ritf.
Again. the inner crater, called Saussure,
, tea thousand feet in depth. These as v
ounding calculations are founded on the
observation of the suns light falling Oh the
dge, and Illuminating the sides of these
iganiic depths. The Dead Sea. the great. I
st known depression on the earth. is thir-
cen hundred and forty feet below the level
{ the Mediterranean.
STRIFE, or lines OF light, which appear
ks ridges. radiate from many of these
normous craters, and might be taken for
IVA currents streaming upwards. as they e
0 in all directions, like rays. The ridges =
nat stream from the mountain called Tycho
,smed to be formed of matter that has
reater power of rejecting light than thsi
,ck around it; the crater uamed Coperni-
Us is equally distinguished by these rays
he ridges, in some instances, cross Ike .;
all both valleys and elevations. and ira
erse tho plains as well IS the rocky slopes
the lunar mountains from which fact, !
I'D from the great distance they extend, it
ould seem that they are not such lava T
resms as have flowed, for example, from 8
tina. 1t has been supposed that 8 force :.
ting, as it were, centriiugally or expio-
vely, and therefore differsnuy from the T.
rec which We attribute to the upbeaval Oft
ountain cLsins on the earth, has formed :,
. luaar craters and overspread the ada p
Mt surface with the ridges or rays IN ques-
N. FsesE 81
la Professor Philips's recent coutribu- %
ms TO a report on the Ply sicsi Aspect Of -
e Moon, he notices asother class Of pie eh
mems, certain remarkable rils to the
cuu,ains mapped as AristaIchus, Archin
les aud Plato. THE last exhibits lar-ef =