The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-02-08
The Lunar Wonders Revealed by the
Advancing Sunlight.

thochesJer Express.I
A Rochester journalist who visited
Professor Swift the other evening. and
had view of the moon, says: The tele-
scope, with power of thirty-six di-
ameters, was turned upon the moon. At
first the food of light was binding, and
the view was but curscfy. The moon
looked like shield of embossed silver
the shield of Achilles-hung by his
goddess mother in the azure of the
heavens. Professor Swift looked over
the field, and noted as he looked MANY
OF the interesting points, and suggested
that we follow the sunrise on the moon.
On the moon the dawn advanced at the
rate of ten miles an hour, lighting up
new fields and furnishing to him an ever
changing panorama. Still, there is
naught but desolation, yawning craters,
and sharp peaks of volcanic fires. No
water laves the desolate and rugged
shores of its great sea bottoms. But in
the gray plains, where some astronomers
think an ocean once spread, craters are
seen with perpendicular walls The
gray plains can be seen with the naked
eye, forming what is called /" the man
in the moon," on map like the Eastern
Continent. Under the telescope we
could trace what seemed at fl rst to be
shore lines on the borders of this plain.
On closer inspection, instead of wave
washed sand, these lines appeared to be
but rounded steps formed by successive
lava bursts spreading over the plain and
making, by the lessening flow, the grad
ual exhausting of the volcanic force.
From one of the largest craters rise
three volcanic cones, the SUBMITS of
which are tipped with sunlight before
the floor of the crater is lighted. In
another large crater two cones arise.
From the larger crater rays spread out,
as though the volcanic force cracked
the firm crust in its upheaval, injecting
through the broken surface ridges of
dazzling white lava, that spread out like
the arms of cuttle-fsh covering a vast
surface.
The grandest phenomena are to be OBJ
served by following the sun on the moon.
The advancing dawn forms ragged
crescent line upon the surface still in
darkness. The suns rays pass over
dark chasms and low fields, lighting up
ragged mountain tops far in advance.
They appear like little islands of light
lying off the coast of an illuminated
sea. High mountains and crater walls
near.the shore of light cast deep shadows.
The circular rims of crater are illumi-
mated, and shine like rings of silver,
glittering upon cushion of darkness.
The advancing dawn now lights up the
bases of the outlying mountains that
but moment ago showed but a speck
of light, and still new mountain tops
are tipped with silver far in advance.
The sunlight strikes upon the side of a
circular wall of crater, and there is
silver crescent, with black space be-
tween it and the sea of light. Slowly the
summit OF other portions of the circular
wall are lighted up, and then the sun
light invades the depths of the crater,
while the shadow of the wall nearest
the sun stretches half across the floor of
the chasm. Frequently great gaps are
broken in the crater walls, and streaks
of light stream across the floor. The
jagged rocks, in calm, cold beauty, shine
and glitter in the fierce white light
The mountains are mountains of desc
lation, and the valleys are valleys of
silence and death. They are wrinkled
with the flow of lava and torn with up
heavals. The moon is dead No air, no
sea, no forest shade, or living thing. The
moon is never-failipg source of delight.
1t is also awful in its suggestions of
power and in it's loneliness Of utter DESC
lation.