Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-01-06
u OR generation astronomers
a amateur and professional, have
y unquestioningly accepted the
statement that the moon was

amateur and professional, have
unquestioningly accepted the
statement that the moon was
nothing more than burned-out
world, a dead planet. without atmos-
phere, water or soil, alternately
frozen in a cold more intense than
any known to the earth, and sizzling
in a heat greater many times than
the burning atmosphere of Port Said.
the worlds most torrid spot. The
pale disk had ceased to hold anything
of interest for the men who sit at
great eye-pieces of the great glasses
that sweep the heavens nightly. The
dead ,craters of the lunar volcanoes
had all been mapped and located time
after time. They were universally be-
lieved to be extinct. The moon was
looked upon as an exhausted field for
the astronomer.
The great astronomical societies
are not SO sure about the moon now
as they were a few months ago. Away
down on. the lower limb of the big
silver disk something is happening.
Just what IL Is the astronomers do
not know. There is a brilliant spot
almost visible to the naked eye, an
ominous glowing ulcer, that seems to
be growing brighter Years ago the
great Herschel stoutly maintained
that there was still volcanic activity
on the moons surface. Two great
craters, old Procuus and the great
Aristarchus, great holes in the bat
tered surface of the moon, were point
ed out by Herschel as examples of
the wrath of internal, pent-up forces
that might some day make che pale
satellite an awful object in the
heavens.
Moon An Ancient Wonder.
The moon was the subject of the
first astronomical observations ever
made by mankind. Even the red In
dian counted his time by the waxing
and waning Of the shining disk. The
moon of little leaves, of green corn.
Of falling leaves and the moon of
SHOWS were his names for the chang
ing phases of the earth's satellite
The Babylonians, Chaldeans and Egyp-
tians constructed their first rude cal
endar from the swinging of the moon
in its sweeping. spiral path about the
earth.
Modern telescopes have shown the
seas and CULTS to be great depressions
filed with dreary craters, reminiscent
Of terrible volcanic activity. In case
the indica:ed disturbances should de-
velop into a general catacysm the
worlds astronomers would be- given a
wonderful spectacle. Photographs of
the moon. made through the great
Lick and others of the worlds big
gest glasses. show a terribly SCARED
and battered surface. There is some.
thing inexpressibly dreary and desc
late in a photograph of many of the
regions of the moon. Great craters of
unknown depth lie in the midst of
mountain peaks that would stand
shoulder high above the greatest
peaks of the Andes or the Himalayas.
The so-ca!led seas" were undoubted.
ly the beds of primeval oceans in the
long ago, but they are bare as the
Sahara Ht present, and have possibly
been so for millions of years. They
are not at all at the same level, but
the beds Of many of them seem 10
have been twisted and warped by
some titanic force. There are far more
craters than there are mountains over
all its surface They seem to be
for the most part, ruins Of terrible
fiery mountains. but some of them
were undoubtedly the rim walls @,
molten lakes that have dubbed and
seethed and steamed when the moon
and its parent earth were young.
The true craters are remarkably
similar TO those of the Mediterranean
volcanoes. having the same abrup,
depths and sloping sides gradually
rising from level plain of cooled
lava Forty OF the lunar peaks are
higher than Mont Blanc. the highest
mountain of Europe. The greatest
peak in the Leibnitz mountains on the
moon rises to the tremendous height
of ~ 600 feet Mount Everest, in the
Himalayas. earth's highest peak
pushes its way but $4,000 feet above
the level OF the sea. These luna,
peaks have been measured with won
derful accuracy. as the clearness o
the mons attn csphere and the free
dom OF its surface from clouds and
haze make the operation an easy ant
exact ore with the aid of the mi
cror'e',r
The bright streaks that radiatt
fro = geI' lunar craters at the
time OF The full moon are among the