The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-29
PGIO0ESOF The NOON
Finest Ever Seen Have Been
Recently Secured
BY FRENCH ASTRONOMERS
What They Show as to Luna's
Availability.
BY FRENCH ASTRONOMERS

| Serviss, in the Journal, writes:
Amid the wars and runners of wars now
shaking the world, astronomers, labor
/ ing quietly and almost Un-noticed, have
/ been uncovering a story in the heavens
! Of more dramatic interest than the con-
! quest of continent. 1t is a story writ
ten on the barren rocks OF the moon. and
photography has been principal agent
| in its decipherment-
For some four years past the great
| equatorial condo, or elbo telescope of the
| Paris observatory, has been employed IN
| making the finest photographs Of lunar
/ scenery that have ever yet been produced.
These photographs have improved in ex-
( cellence from month to month until now
they reveal to the astronomer things
whichthe largest telescope is powerless
TO show.
They have the advantage over all mere
telescope views that they picture * Sne
stroke the face of the moon as it appears
under any particular Illumination. The
advance Of sunrise on the moon brings
continually thousands of new objects into
sight, while the aspect of thousands Of
objects previously seen IS so greatly
changed that in some cases they can hard
ly be recognized. The most skilful drau-
shtsman cannot represent their shifting
scenes, and they pass before the eyes of
the telescope observer as moving pan
Drama whose minuter details escape when
he attempts to combine them into a COM
prehensive view of the whole
But the photograph instantly pictures
everything in its true relations. and a Sc
rles of photographs taken at chosen in
tervals reveals a multitude of details
which would otherwise be missed. Then,
too owing to some effect of light, many
lunar features which the eve alone hard
ly notices stand out boldly and Distinctly
in a photograph.
From the study Of the unequalled IL
mar photographs made at Paris most in
teresting conclusions have been reached
concerning the past history as well as
the present condition of the lunar world
1t has long been supposed that the moon
might once have been inhabited, although
that conclusion has been vigorously com
bated. The new photographs throw fresh
light on this interesting question.
To begin with. they seem 20 prove that
the moon not only had oceans in former
times, but that those oceans were formed
in practically the same manner as the
oceans of the earth. 1t is well known 10
geographers that some of the greatest
depths that the oceans attain are close
along the borders Of the continents, and
that the sea bottom is characterized by
convex surfaces, an effect OF the process
of shrinking TO which the crust of the
earth has been subjected. Now photo
graphs of the great lunar sea beds, such
as The Mare Imbrium, or ''Sea of Show
ers,' and the Mare Crisium, or Sea of
CriseS'' reveal the same peculiarities
there.
Moreover, the contours Of the vast en-
PITY ocean basins on the moon shrikingly
resemble those of the similar depressions
yet filled with water on the earth Study
ing some of the photographs one seems
TO see clearly the marks of sedimentadon
and the lines of beaches where the waves
once broke upon the sands or along the
bases of vast cliffs.
Facing the great range Of mountains
known as the Lunar Apennines, some Of
whose peaks soar to an elevation OF 1900
tn 5000 feet, and skrting the eastern edge
OF the Sea Of Showers" is a broad de-
preston through which runs an enormous
crevasse, or chasm, visible with Iele
scopes. and showing where the lunar rock
gave way under the strain produced by
the settling of the ocean bed. a similar
chasm is believed to exist in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast OF Japan, and last
year a fearful catastrophe, In which whole
villages were swept off by a tidal wave,
was the result. as biologists think, OF the
slipping down of the rocky strata poised
on the precipitous edge of that chasm.
Earthquakes are often caused by similar
slips, or breaks. occurring at the edges Of
oceanic pits bordering a continent.
In addition t3 the new light which the
photographs afford on the former exist
euce OF lunar oceans evidence Is also
presented by them as TO a lunar atmos-
phere. The moon is streaked over nuc1
OF It's surface with wh.tish trails -sd;at-
inS huge volc2s'H Orators Around
some o. the craters the soil is evidently