Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-16
TIE MOON.
What Il Has Beer, Is and VIII Be,
What 1t Does Do and
What II
Does Not Dc for the Earth-The Hunter.
Moon, the harvest Moon and
Various Other Moons.
Boston Globe,

The moon, regarded as an object o
physical study occupies unique position
among the members of our solar system
Some Of the other planets, for the moor
be it remembered is planet, a compan'
lon world Of the e2rth's, no mere sattel.
nte-tell US of the past of our eErth's
career; others agsin tell US Of the future
but the moon speaks Of both the past snC
future of world life. We can study hel
surface to learn what our earth will bt
when old age aud desth overtake her;
put we can also study the moons sur
face to learn something about our esrth'i
condition in the psst.
She retains the record OF stsges Of life
through which she passed millions Of
years ago, and through which our earth
has also passed, but from the earth's face
the records of these past stages have
been in great degree removed, or blurred
and defaced uutil we are unable to read
them Alright.
Let us consider the moon in both as
pects, beginning with the lessons she
JeEcaes US respecting the past.
Il is easy TO see why the moons sur
face should be much less Affected by at
mospherlc aud aqueous wear and tear,
during the past ages when she had an at.
uosphere and when she mad seas. In the
first place the period of time during
which she was thus clothed with air and
water, must have been much shorter than
the corresponding period for the earth.
As much the smaller orb, having in fact
but the eighty first part of the esrth's
mass, she would necessarily cool far more
rapidly-probAbly Ctoougn l will not here
enter on the calculations which indicate
the probabilities) about six times
faster than the earth; so that II we
set the past duration of the earth's
fitness for life at 60, 900 900 years, which
geOlogists would regard as q mod q.
crate estimate fer The duration Of the
ArchS n, primary, secondary, tertiary
and recent erGs, We should have to regard
i0, 1000 600 Of years as the duration Of the
corresponding part of the moons life
The work of denudation which has gone
OF upon the earth duriHg the past go, 000,-
800 of years could Hot possibly have been
accomplished upon the moon during To-,
009, 900 years, even though the work had
proceeded, century by century, at the
same rate. But it could not proceed
nearly so fast on the moon
as on the earth. To begin with,
there must have been much less
sir and water per square mile OF the
moons surface than on the e&rth's in cor
responding portions of the life of each
Assuming the sir and water to be the
same proportions of the total mass of
each planet, the earth hsd eighty-one
times as much air and water as the moon,
and the earlh's atmosphere and water
covered 9 surface not elghtY-one times,
but only thirteen and one-h0i times the
surface Of the moon, so that or our reason
able assumption as to the quantity Of cir
and wate= present on the two planets,
she earth held six timss IS much air and
water over each square mia Of her sur
face 60 the moon I'd at the correspond
ing stages Of her life IS world. With
sixth part only Of these,
The INSTRUMENTS OF DEEUDATIoN.
TIE moon had also DusR six part Of
the energy with which to work them.
Gravity on the earth is six times as strong
as gravity on the moon, and gravity on
each planet was the hand bY which air
and Wsler, the tools of denudation, are
worked. With tools having but one-sixth
the efficiency, the force Of lunar gravity
having but ODe-siXth the energy of ter-
yestrial gravity, aud working for but s
sixth part of the time, could do no such
WORK in destroying The pumeval features
OF the planet as has been accomplished on
our earth. We may then expect to fnd
N the crust OF the mooD, stripped as 1t
now is I the air and water which once
surrounded it, The CORDS Of the original
rock surface corresponding to the Arch
can rocss OF cur esrth.
Biologists sCmit that the condition Of
the eArth's surface before the primary
strata began to be formed cannot be sat-
isiactorily determined. Although certain
parts of the still remaining crust are
cSIIed Arch @sp, 1t is very doubtful
whether they Re all, represent the primeval
crust. Tnere is much better chsncei
that in portions Of the moons surface the
primeval rock will still remain in some
thing like Its primeval condition; so that
we may be able to read a portion OF the
past history of the earth better in our
neighbor world, the moon, than in our
own, Just as We can form better ides Of
the nature Of cur savsge ancestry by.
studying the ways and manners Of less
civilized races Of to-day than from any
evidence that we cen obtain from the
study Of the records Of our own race.
Thus studying the moon we see the
traces If the earlier fulcaDisn stsges OF
her career, stsges such ss our earth and
every planet pFsses through. We see
Arst how the still plastic crust was riven
for distances OF many hundreds Of miles
by the action of The interior forces; and
We csn see y here molten matter flowed
through those riffs and spread in ribbon
like strips over the hidden seams, Later,
ss the process Of contraction began
chiefly TO affect the crust, while the
nuGleAr matter refreshed from If, we see
how immense c0rrugatiors were formed,
akin 10 those OF a wrinkled skin or of q
sbriyelled apple.
OF these stages OF earth-liie traces still
remain. Geoloeists had indeed already
shown that the eArth must have passed
through them. But the evidence 10 tho
ssrth's case is reconcile and obscure;
In the moons 1t is striking snd obvious
Biologists had to STUDY the structure OF
strata deep down below those which form
the main portions Of mountain masses,
before they came on evidence OF that
primeval riftipg, followed by the overflow
of molten matter, which led to the sink-
ing Of the crusts IN the parts thus broken
and overloaded and TO their receiving
large supplies Of matter deposited on
The trOugh-like portions OF the
sea door thus formed. OF the origi-