Year: 1874

Last night friend and myself were
crossing the North River just as the
moon was rising in great majesty and
beauty, and our conversation turned ON
that planet.


1T is settled, suppose" said I, that
no living things exist in the moon."


1t is not settled to my satisfaction"
replied my friend.


"Well, but there is no water and no
atmosphere there. How can there be
living, breathing creatures in such con-
ditions as that? Then look at the alter
ations of ftemperaturc-during the lunar
day the heat on the surface must be
equal to furnace, while at night it falls
to about l40 degrees below Zero"


eyes, don't suppose that there are
any men or animals living on the surface
of the moon, but my theory is that there
is population of troglodytes in the
planet. You know the latest speculation
in regard to the moon is that the surface
was formerly diversified with seas and
oceans but that all the waters and the
atmosphere have been sucked into the
immense cavities in her interior. The
fact that the moon did formerly have an
atmosphere is proved by the extinct vol
canoes; how could these have burned
without air? Air is as necessary to COM
bustion as it is to life, and combustion
always produces water. My opinion is
that there exists immense caves in the
moon, with subterranean rivers, lakes,
and oceans; that these caves are inhabit-
ed by tribes similar to our cave men of
the prehistoric period and that when
our telescopes are sufficiently improved
we shall be able to detect evidence of hui
man occupancy in our satellite. Of
course, in these vast caverns the men
and animals are equally protected from
the intense heats, as well as the rigorous
colds of the surface"


"Butwhat can they live upon? What
can they eat?"


Edible fungi and lichens. We know
that most of these cryptogamous plants
flourish best in the dark. The finest
mushrooms in the world are artificially
raised in the catacombs of Paris. Truf-
fes grow under ground. We can readily
imagine that in the damp atmosphere of
the lunar caves, forests of fungi of i'm
mense size flourish and supply ample
food for both men and animals


Are there any animals that eat
fungi?"


"Why shouldn't there be? I know
that rats do. There used to be pretty
little nook in the Central Park where
they cultivated most curious ferns and
lichens. | went there one day to see
them, as it was very charming, quiet
spot, when, to my regret, | found the
workmen cutting it up as if for the pur-
pose of remodeling it. l asked one of
the workmen why this was so, and he
told me that they were obliged to give
up the attempt at cultivating the lich-
ems, as the rats ate them all up. You
see there may be large species of rodents
in the lunar caves which feed upon the
fungi, and are in their turn eaten by the
lunar cave men. Besides that, the lunar
forests may swarm with edible snails, the
conditions of the cave atmosphere being
peculiarly favorable to the multiplica-
ton of that species of animal. And
then, no doubt, the subterranean waters
contain numbers of fish. So there is
plenty of food. The lunarians, too, may
have learned to brew an intoxicating tip
pie with some species of lichen, as the
Esquimaux do. Altogether l am in
clined to think that they have good
time Off


"Do you suppose they ever come to
the surface ?'


"That depends upon the question
whether they have sight or not. Ifthey
are like the blind rats of the Mammoth
Cave or the blind fish of subterranean
rivers they probably do not-being re-
PEELED by the frightful heats and colds of
the surface. But if they have sight,
should think it most probable that they
do occasionally come to the surface, es-
pecially when the earth is at the full
moon, as it were, in regard to the moon.
The earth must form an object of as
founding magnificence as viewed from
the moon, and as it would reflect con-
siderable amount of the suns heat as
we'll as light, the lunar night is probably
tempered to something like mild win
ter day of ours"