Yukon Valley news., 1909-07-13
The Moon ......
 The Tides, and the Seasons

The powerful 1nHuenCe eNeIleu upon our earth it it's solid as well as it's liquid parts by our satellite, the moon, is be- coming better known and it's importance better realized, says a writer in a cur rent magazine. Some recent eXperl- ments and observations made by Pro- lessor Hecker, the German astronomer, in an underground chamber at Potsdam Observatory, near Berlin, have demon strated conclusively the truth of the long-disputed contention that the appa- rently solid earth, responding to the in- huence of the sun and moon, is subject to dailp oscillations analogous to the tides of the ocean. While these move ments are not noticeable to the earth's inha bitants any more than is the action of the tides to those on board a ship at sea, they take place beyond doubt. Professor Hecker has demonstrated that these land tides rise and fall during tWenty-four hours to the extent of some twenty centimeters, or approximately eight inches. The French astronomer, Camille Flammarion, contends that some fixed relation can be demonstrated between this periodic land tide and the violent oscillations of the ealths bed, known as earthquakes.
 Sir George H. Darwin, in a recent noteworthy speech before a scientific congress in London, commenting upon the observations of Professor Hecker, called attention to the fact that in all tidal motion, particularly that of the ocean, there is friction,-very slight and vet sufficient to act as a slow brake on the earth's rotation. This friction, due principally to the action of the moon, must have reaction on the satellite, the effect of the reaction being to drive the moon farther and farther from the earth. Arguing backward and forward, then, Sir George went on to say that there was time when, science believes, the moon was very close to the earth's surface and, at still earlier period, act ually part of the earth's body. The combined mass spun around so fast that 1t broke in two and the smaller body, the moon, was driven off by tidal fric tion to where we now see it. Referring with respect, but without comment, to the suggestion of the French astronomer that the Pacific ocean may be the hole left by the moon, Sir Charles declared that the tidal friction will, in the distant future, cause the earth to spin more and more slowly and the moon to recede farther and farther until it, perhaps, comes within the compelling gravitatiOn attraction of some larger planet. Then will permanently leave our skies.
 These are interesting astronomical speculations, which, perhaps, are not possible of scientific demonstration. They indicate, however, how much more extensive and definite is our modern knowledge of the relations between the earth and it's satellite.
 A further interesting evidence of the now general recognition that the moon exercises highly important influence upon our climate and seasons is found in the oft-repeated attempts to reform the-calendar and bring our scheme of the measurement of time down to its only really rational basis, the lunar month. An interesting project for re- forming the Gregorian calendar, which is observed by all the western nations,