Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-16

we can in many places see the corruga
tons themselves into which the crust wa!
crumpled in the process Of contraction.
On the moon sgain we find an immense
number Of craters, ranging IN size from
mere saucer shaped depressions less thar
half mile wide TO gigantic craters hay
ing span Of more than 100 miles. In
height the crater rings range from few
hundred yards to 1000 or 5000. Now, or
the earth there are many craters, bui
none which either resemble the
great lunar craters In form OF
can be compared with them for
size. Yet we cannot really doubt that In
J earth had such craters as still remain on
the moon. There are In iced parts Of the
earth where the traces Of such craters
stance On the Inner Hebrides), there is
the basal wreck of q great volcanic ring
which must have been thirty miles Wide
and 12 900 or $4,000 feet deep. I ought
rather, perhaps, to say that the Isle Of
Null itself is the basal wreck of that
crater, long since reduced to q mere
ring OF hills by the oenudiDg forces OF
air and water.
And while the moon is thus interesting
and instructive in regard to the past, she
has much to tell US also respecting the
future of our earth.
To begin with, 1t is clear that the moon
once had seas We can see the floors Of
those ancient seas in the regions still
called seas, whose uniformity Of level
and peculisrities Of tint can b. explained
in no other way. The mere fact of course
thst certain tracts Ct the moon are
smoother and darker than others would
mean little. But when we notice that
these broad, dark and relatively smooth
tracts ell lie at lower levels than the
brighter or whittier tracts, we see this
cannot be q mere coincidence. II water
we're poured upon the moon now In suf-
dcient quantity, the water would
occupy just those parts of the
moon which are dark, and leave
uncovered just those parts which
are light. No reasonable explanation Of
this peculiarly can be found except the
superstition that seas formerly existed on
the moon, occupying those regions which
thus attest by their darker tints, By their
uniformity Of surface, and by their lower
level, that they were formerly the floors
OF ancient lunar seas. From these regions
the seas have retreated, soaked up, as II
were within the moons Interior. But the
process must have been slow one, last
ing doubtless for millions Of years, during
which the lunar air Slso slowly (out 10
such long periods effectively diminished
in amount. When at length the
process was comp eted, the moon had be-
come the scene Of desolstion and Of death
which she presents now. she "being
dead yet speaketh," however, and the
lesson which she teaches is that cur earth
must likewise die. The moon Is heav-
enly record, telling us that all created
things, planet and sun as well Gs plant
and animal, can last but for awhile,
though the measure Of the lives OF some
be longer than the measure of the lives Of
others.
It may be objected that we have no
evidence to show that some forms of life
may not still exist upon the moon, though
none Of the higher forms of life knoT n
upon the earth could endure under con-
ditione so uEfsvorsble. This, Of course,
must be admitted as q pCssibilt2. Bug
since the theory of biological evolution
has been established, there is g limit to
the play Of fancy in this direction We
are not to i'm CINE beings specially
crested to be fitted for life on such a
world as is our moon at present. All we
can allow ourselves to conceive is the
possibility that creatures msy exist upon
the moon who are The exceedingly remote
descendants Of creatures which existed
on her surface or in her seas ~, the time
when she WAS miniature world. We
may ask ourselves whether as
ORR EARTH GROWa COIN
and dry and almost sirless with advsnc-
ing ages, the various forms of life exist
ing on her surface, even man himself,
might not steadily change to correspond,
until at last, when every trace of water
had disappeared ard the cir had become
SO thin that no creatures known to US
now could breathe it and live, races
utterly unlike those now existing, though
descended from them would people the
earth with countless millions Of living
creatures, while possibly many forms Of
vegetable life corresponding with ths
changed conditions would have come in,o
existence.
But though this Is possible 1t cannot be
regarded as probable. We know that
there sre limits to the possibilities Of life
upon this earth, and that beyond those
ILullS GtSH buO oLie&luS HOHcGb u U0-
given to the various forms Of
animal and vegetable life cannot avail to
keep them IN existence; and we csnnot
but believe that these possibilities lie far
within the range Of those seemingly de-
cisive and life destructive changes Of
which the moons de solste surface spesks.
Assuredly we can CLEAN no hope from the
fancy, once supported by astronomers OF
repute, that though the moons
hitler side be desd her farther side
may be dotted with air and water,
and SO may be the abode of life.
This theory never had any Sufficient evi.
deDcc even for its bare possibility when
considered only with reference to the ex-
istence of wster. Bat when the question
of ar atm sphere is considered, the theory
OF an inhabited farther side to the moon
is seen to be wholly untensble. Such an
atmosphere could not be concealed from
our ken, even II the moon did not librate
but when we consider how the moons
iorEtions bring large parts her farther
hemisphere into view, ineomuch that in
stead of seeing but one-halt ne see about
four-sevenths Of her surface, we perceive
that an atmosphere even Of the most mod
crate density, could not by any possibility
be so limited to part of the moons
farther hemisphere that no trace Cf its ex-
istence would be recognized from the