The Western advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1872-1874, 1874-06-13

ut,with several large craters here and
there down to the lower limb. It NAV
not be generally known that, III course OF
time, astronomers have given names to
the " hole Of the 228 craters above men
toned, leaving many smaller ones (big
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, Copernlcus, Tycho, Linnnus, Mer.
Gator, Descartes, and SO on. Even to the
seemingly fiat spaces called seas there
are names in Latin. as Mare Tranquillita.
tis, Mare Nubium, etc. A range OF
mountains Is named after the Apennines
and another range is called the Caucasus
In thl way a proper map of the moon is
aboutas full of names as a map Of the
world.
About two.thirds down from the top OF
| the moon, and nearer the side opposite
our right thsn the middle, there is a pc.
culiarly grand crater, finely rounded,
measuring forty-six miles in diameter,
and having sides rising to height OF
$4,000 feet. There are wider and higher
craters, but none stands out 50 beautifully.
It is distinctto the naked eye, but is we'll
defined by telescopes OF small power
In clear moonlight night anyone
may have good view of it with
a fleld-glass. This volcano is named
Corcrnicus. Radiating from it are bright
streaks more than a 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 cratcrs, which had
given relief to the internal disturbance.
Tycho, standing inthe midst Of a crowded
group near the upper limb, is also a mag
niticent 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 a 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 a cooling cinder. The moon is
cinder cooled, like a bit of dry Stag
turned out of furnace.
Devoid of water and air, the moon has
no moisture lowering about it, no clouds
it accordingly has no twilight. 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.twenty hours affords us in
general way twelve hours light for or
binary occupations, and twelve hours
darkness, which we may appropriate for
nocturnal rest. AS in the moon the length
of day is a whole month, the people in
1t, if there were any, would have alternate
ly fortnight for work and fortnight for
sleep. Their physical constitution, their
habits, would be all different from ours
What contrast between the condition of
together by an inexorable law, and both
ri NJ nf annShinn nf tho nh
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
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 oft, 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, a sub.planet, on which there
has been impressed a 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
n ~