Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-06-12

enough, perhaps, if we were at them)
without any name at all. The names as
signed have been those of men distin-
guished in science and literature in an
cient and modern times; such as Plato,
Pliny, Copern1cus, Tycho, Linn@us, Mer-
Gator, Descartes, and so OH. Even to the
seemingly flat spaces called seas there
are names in Latin, as Mare Tranquillita-
tbs, Mare Nubium, etc. A range OF
mountains is named after the Apennines,
and another range is called the Caucasus.
In this way proper map of the moon is
abOutlas full of names as map of the
| world. -.-.
About two-thirds down from the top OF
the moon, and nearer the side opposite
our right than the middle, there is a pc
culiarly grand crater, finely rounded,
measuring forty-six miles in diameter,
and having sides rising to height of
12, 900 feet. There are wider and higher
craters, but none stands out so beautifully
1t is distinct to the naked eye, but is well
defined by telescopes of small power.
In a clear moonlight night anyone
may have good view of it with
field- glass. This volcano is named
Copernicus. Radiating from it are bright
streaks more than hundred miles long,
which are thought to represent cracks or
chasms in the solid crust of the moon,
through which, at some terrible upheaval,
molten matter had been poured. Copper
nicus was evidently the center of a vast
amphitheater of volcanic action, for the
district around it is for great distance
dotted over with small craters, which had
given relief to the internal disturbance.
Tycho, standing in the midst of a crowded
group near the upper limb, is also mag
nificent crater, fifty-four miles in diameter,
with bright radiating streaks. Lower
down there are craters close on each
other, of considerably greater dimensions,
one of them being upward of hundred
miles across, alongside of which any vol
canic opening in the earth would be insig-
nificant.
To have produced these phenomena the
moon must originally have been in a
molten state, or, at least, in state of
intense heat, with hardened crust. From
the prodigious number of craters, eruptive
forces had at one time ragged throughout.
When they ceased, and the moon cooled
down into the cold mass it has now be-
come, science does not explain. Nor are
we acquainted with the nature of the heat
that produced the volcanic action, further
than that it might be due to that cOncen-
tration of nebulous matter that we spoke
of in relation to the sun. However it
may have come, it has long since radiated
off into space, to such an extent as to leave
the surface rigid and dead. We called
the earth cooling cinder. The moon is
a cinder cooled, like a bit of dry Stag
turned out of furnace. A<
Devoid of water and air, the moon has
no moisture lowering about it, no clouds !;
it accordingly has notwilight. When the
sun sets upon it there is utter darkness.
There being no air to convey vibrations
there can be no sound. Eternal silence
reigns over its surface. With such priva-
tions there is necessarily an absence of
animal life. There can be no inhabitants
where there is no food to eat, no water to
drink, no air to breathe. Were there any
inhabitants they would require to be
strangely constituted On the earth cur
day of four-and d-twenty hours affords us in
a general way twelve hours light for Or
dinary occupations, and twelve hours
darkness, which we may appropriate for
nocturnal rest. AS in the moon the length
of day is whole month, the people In
it, if there were any, would have alternate
ly fortnight for work and a fortnight for
sleep. Their physical constitution, their
habits, would be all different from ours.
What a contrast between the condition OF
the earth and its sub-planet! Associated
together by an inexorable law, and both
partaking of sunshine, one of the spheres
teens with life, has its grateful vicissi-
tudes of atmospheric. influence, and its
varying seasons; the other naked and bare
of any trace of organization, with an alter
nation of glare and gloom never varying
in its dread monotony.
From all this one is naturally led to
speculate on the reasons for the moons
existence. To what good purpose was a
spherical mass of volcanic rock sent
spinning round the world? 1t would be
as presumptuous to say what were all the
objects of creation as to define positively
what was the special origin of the moon.
According to the cosmogony which we
sketched in speaking of the sun, the
earth, while yet revolving globe of fire.
mist, threw off, or in cooling and con-
tracing left behind it, portion of its
own substance, which became the moon;
Just as the earth itself and the other
primary planets were left behind by the
shrinking of the central mass-the sun.
All this, however, is only more or less
probable theory. Be this as it may, there
| the moon is, sub. planet, on which there
has been impressed certain servile office
of a double and far from unimportant
purpose. Its first and most obvious use
is to give moonlight. This has been un-
derstood from the earliest age and is duly
recorded in the Scripture narrative. The
more important, but less recognizable, OF
its uses is to create the tides, and thereby
cause continual and wholesome agita-
ton in the waters of the ocean. Its dis
tance, its size, its density, are nicely ad,
justed to produce this result. Were there
no moon, tides, except the comparatively
slight rise and fall produced by the sun,
would cease, and seas might suffer de.
gree of stagnation detrimental TO human
life. While influencing the ocean by Its
powers of attraction, and even In some
degree affecting great inland fresh water
seas like Lake Ontario, the moon is now
understood to exert no physical influence
on the mental condition of man or beast
The term lunatic might very properly be
dropped. Whether the moons pertaining
| to some of the other planets-Ju jupiter hav
| ing four, and Saturn being provided with
eight--play the same part regarding tides
as the earth's satellite, we need not here
inquire. Our own single moon is clearly
a valuable appendage, and let us be thank
full for its gratuitous and beneficial ser
| vices.-Ch0nbers' Journal.
The total value OF dry goods imported
into New York during the month of Apri
amounted to $S,505, ,351. As compared
| with corresponding periods in former
years there is decline of $94,4S in com
parison with April, 1878; of So, ,726, ,356 a:
compared with 1879, and of $2,557, 108 il
1871. The total importations of dry
! goods during the first four months Of the