The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-12-28
LUNAR LANDSCAPES.
The Wonderfully Beautiful Scenery
In the Mountains Of the Moon.

The scenery of the moon is not only
wonderful, but exceedingly beautiful,
when viewed from the lofty perch that
the observer with telescope seems to
occupy. This is especially true of the
mountains. There being no air on
those rocky heights, there is no gradi-
ton of light, and the shadows are alb
solutely black. Therefore, night and
day confront one another without any
intervening twilight. If one could
stand upon lunar mountain he might
be in the full blaze of the sun on the
summit, while ten feet below all
would be buried in the blacklist
night. The scene recalls the plague
of darkness that was sent upon Egypt
when the habitationS of the IsraeliteS
were filled with light. while the adj
joining lands of the Egyptians were
walled up in night. The effect of this
sharp contrast of light and shadow IN
the moon is wonderfully beautiful. A
chain of mountains just at the edge of
the Illuminated portion lies under the
telescope pictured in silhoutte upon
the adjacent plains by the long shad-
Ows that are as sharp in outline as if
cut from black paper. Yet more beau
tiful are the circular mountains or
craterS that are the characteristic
features of lunar scenery. Some of
these are forty or fifty miles in dame
ter, and in the centre of the fiat floor,
inclosed by the ring-mountain, rise
one or more high peaks. The effects
of the light and shade among these
craters are almost endless in diversity
WITH A GOOD THREE-INCH TELEs-
COPE
and little practice in the manage
ment of the magnifying powers one
may easily see all the famous noun
tainS of the moon. and most of the OBJ
jects that at times have been taken
for Notifications, roads, and other
works of man. There are a number
of excellent maps of the moon, by
whose aid every conspicuous object
may be recognized. The point of
greatest interest to the observer is the
long, Jagged line, called the termina-
tor, that makes the sharp division be
tween day and night. If you watch
that line for an hour or two you will
be aStOnished at the changes that
have taken place under your eye.
You will see the sunshine creeping
down the steep, inner side of ringed
mountain, until the floor of the vast
basin, which before had been perfectly
black, looking like hole right through
the moon, is reached and lighted up,
while the rocky flanks of the central
peak, or cluster of peaks, come into
view and begin to cast long, spiry
shadows over the crater floor. A
lofty mountain, whose summit, gilded
10y the sunlight, has been visible for
an hour, shining out of the dense OBJ
scury that covers the region about it
which is yet stepped in night. like
little island off a sunny coast, gradu-
ally swings into view, and the line of
the sunshine goes sweeping up its
craggy sides, chasing the shadows, and
revealing precipitous gorges deeper
than the valley of the Mer de Glaze.
THE VAST, DARK PLAINS,
which were formerly supposed to be
real seas, but in which modern astron-
omers see only the bottoms of seas,
whose waters disappeared ages ago,
retain their old, romantic names,
There is the Ocean of Storm, covering
a vast region in the eastern hemis-
phere. With its equatorial situation,
and surrounded by some of the most
gigantic mountains in the moon, it
may have been, before its waters were
stolen away, as tempestuous as it's
name implies. On the south of the
Ocean of Storms projects a large bay
of remarkable green hue, which is
called the Sea of Moisture; while on
the north the ocean runs into the
narrow Bay of Dew. Then there is
the Sea of Showers, the largest
of the moons seas, or
sea bottoms. Between the
Sea of Showers and that brilliant por..
ton of the moon called the Land of
Hoar Frost. lies the Bay of Rainbows,
which, as the celebrated observers,
Beer and Nader, thought, furnishes
the most magnificent landscape in the
moon. 1t is surrounded by lofty, shin
ing cliffs. In the center of the moon
are the Sea of VaporS and the Bay of
Tides. In the north are Plato. or the
Greater Black lake. the Sea of Gold
and the Marsh of Sleep, the latter be-
ing remarkable for its reddish hue.
In the east are the Sea of Serenity the
Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Fertil-
| ity, the Sea of Nectar and the dark
| Christian Sea. The last-named, judg-
ing from its unusual depression, was
probably the deepest of all the lunar
seas, although its greatest length is
| Onlv ahOut $50 miles =