Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-01-06


tacles. From the great crater Copper
nicus they branch as the spokes of a
wheel radiate from the hub. The
great walls of the crater COpernicus
are separated by diameter of more
than fifty miles. They rise in a great
jagged rim to over $4,000 feet in
height.
All over the weird face of Luna are
indications of a wonderful volcanic
activity, and the astronomers of the
earth are wondering If we are to wit
ness the surface Of our neighbor once
again in cosmic agony. Seams
and cracks, CHASTITY evidences of a
cataclysm more rending than any in
dictated on the surface of the earth,
show something of the moons travail
in past ages. These cracks, tiny fis-
sures in the field of view Of the big
gest telescopes. cross and recross the
surface and zigzag along the beds of
the primeval seas
Craggy and irregular pyramids
break the monotony of the moons sky
line, but an earth dweller wandering
in these ancient sea beds would be
stricken dumb with the utter desola-
ton that would surround him. The
worst of the waste places of the earth,
the Bad Lands, the Clay Cliffs Of
western China, the windswept passes
of the Tibetan mountains, the Sa-
hara, Death Valley itself, would all
be fertile and greatly to be desired
areas in comparison with the chin
neys of dead volcanoes set in a Mil
tonian region paved with cinders and
scoria of long extinct craters.
Place of Awful Silence.
II men should visit the moon. grant
ing they were able to live for mo-
ment in it's wonderful atmosphere,
they would find some weird conditions
existing. Nothing could be seen un-
less the rays of the sun were falling
directly upon the surface of the OBJ
ject. There would be no diffused light
and the long twilights of the earth
would be unknown. When the suns
rays faded from a peak or a rock.
that instant the rock or the mountain
top would be swallowed up in black
ness. The instant a member of the
party stepped into the shadow of a
lunar crag he would be lost to view
Utter silence would brood over the
face of the desolate country and no
sound could be heard no matter how
loud 1t might be. An avalanche, or
the rolling of a rock down the mile
! long wall Of a lunar crater would not
| cause a sound.
The earth would loom up in the sky
| four times greater in size than the
moon ever appears to the earth
! lovers who marvel at it's size on mid
summer night. Its white polar caps
of ice and snow would be plainly visi-
BILE, the great dark oceans and the
| shifting cloud areas would be con-
spicuous on its glowing disk. The
suns rays reflected from the broad
face of the earth would give a faint
heat, but neither the reflected rays
nor the direct beams of the sun him
self would be able to warm the cold
luna rocks to a temperature ap.
preaching that Of the earth.
The unknown side Of the moon has
always exercised great power over
the more imaginative of the astron
omers. Theories have been advanced
that on this unknown face entirely
different conditions might be found
smiling areas in which the traces OF
lunar volcanoes and forgotten seas
would be missing from the lunar land
scape. The absence of air and water
in any quantities on the earth side Of
the satellite has always led the stu
dents to the conclusion. however, thai
the moons period Of habitation. IL 1,
ever had such an era. was in the din
and remote past.