The moon hoax; or, A discovery that the moon has a vast population of human beings

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<ii.j:/i/7

..« ™- -'*

THE

MOON HOAX?;

OR, i

A DISCOYEKT THAT THE I

HAS A VAST POPULATION OP

HUMAN BEINGS.

BY

EICHAED ADAMS LOCKE.

inustral£& initfj a Tkhs of th JlXoon,
AS SEEiX BY LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPE.

"The clouds still rested on one lialf of it, insomuoli that I could discover nothing in it ; but the otlier appeared to me a |
vast ocean planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven witli a thousand j
little shininir seas that ran among them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads, S
passing among the trees, lying down by the' sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers ; and could hear a confused
harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery j
of so delightful a scene. I wished for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats ; but the genius (
told me there was no passage to them except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment \ipon tlie bridge." l

ADDISON. i

i

NEW YORK:
WILLIAM GO WANS.

1859.

I

THE

MOON HOAX;

I OR,

I A DISCOVERT THAT THE

Moojsr

I HAS A VAST POPULATION OF

HUMAN BEINGS.

I BY

I EICHAED ADAMS LOCKE.

illustralflj bitf) a Tkia jof tit iEooit,
AS SEEN BY LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPE.

"The clouds still rested on one half of it, insomuch that I could discover nothing in it j but the other appeared to n
! Ta8t ocean planted with innumerable islands, that were covered with fruits and flowers, and interwoven with a thousand !
j little shining' seas that ran amonf; them. I could see persons dressed in glorious habits with garlands upon their heads,
passing among the trees, lying down by the sides of fountains, or resting on beds of flowers ; and could hear a confused \
harmony of singing birds, falling waters, human voices, and musical instruments. Gladness grew in me upon the discovery
! of so delightful a scene. I wislied for the wings of an eagle, that I might fly away to those happy seats ; but the genius
( told me there was no passage to them except through the gates of death that I saw opening every moment upon the bridge."

ADDISON.

NEW YORK:
"WILLIAM GOWANS,

1859.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

WILLIAM GOWANS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of
New York.

i

^^ ^ ^^^

PS

ADVERflSEIENT.

It appears to be as natural for the liiiman mind to be craving
after the wonderful, the mysterious, the marvellous, and the
new discoveries, as it is for the physical appetite to desire food,
drink, and sleep, and thereby as it were constantly attempting
to lift up the veil that hides incomprehensibilities from our
vision.

This interposition was, no doubt, wisely ordained, for the
gazing upon such mysteries might strike us blind, and rob us
of the little stock of happiness allotted to us while probationers
here. May this longing not be the germ of the proof of our
immortality ?

The history of the human race is not only filled with instan-
ces of this kind of craving, but it is universal, from the loftiest
minds as approach nearest the deity, such as K"ewton, La Place,
and Mrs. Somerville, down to the most untutored savage that
roams the forest wilds. Hence the key to the popularity of
these charming productions which facinate our youth and con-
tinue to dehght our manhood by letting us into the supposed
mysteries of an enchanting fairy land, with a grace of narrative
that quite takes us captive, while our curiosity and wonder is
raised to the highest pitch in watching the developements
unfolded in the narratives of these authors, and quite impatient
till we learn the result of the plot, or discovery.

ADVERTISEMENT.

I allude to such productions as the Arabian ISTights, Sir
Thomas More's Utopia, Bishop Berkeley's Adventures of
Signior Gaudentio Di Lucca, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, De
Foe's Robinson Crusoe, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and Lord
Erskine's Armata, besides numerous others of a similar cha-
racter but of a less celebrated reputation.

Among this class of extraordinary fictitious narratives and
supposed discovery, may be placed the renowned Moon Hoax,
by Richard Adams Locke. When it first made its appearance
from day to day in one of the morning papers, the interest in
the discovery was intense, so much so that the circulation of
the paper augmented five fold, and in fact, was the means of
giving the journal a permanent footing as a daily newspaper.
Kor did this multiplied circulation of the paper satisfy the
public appetite. The proprietors of the journal had an edition
of 60,000 published in pamphlet form, which were sold oif in
less than one month ; and of late this pamphlet edition has
become so scarce that a single copy was lately sold at the sale
of Mr. Haswell's Library for $3.75.

The book is still in demand. As an instance of this the fol-
lowing will give some idea at what pains and cost some will go
to procure it. I lately had a letter from a Gentleman residing
in Wisconsin, making inquiry if I had such a book, he further
informed me that his attention had been called to my book
establishment in consequence of having sent to the Sunday
Times^ published in this city, the following query, " Can you
inform me if such a book can be procured, and if so where, as
' The celebrated Moon Hoax?' " The answer was that if it could
be procured at all, it would be at 85 Centre Street, ITew York.
By this circuitous method, this dilligent far- west bookcollector
procured his copy of the " Moon Hoax" to his great satisfaction.

Angu8t 1,1859. . PUBLISHER.

THE MOON,

AS SEEN BY

LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPE.

1856.

GREAT

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES

LATELT MADE

BY SIK JOHiq- HEKSCHEL, L.L., D.F.E.S., &c.;

AT THE

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE NEW TORK SUN IN AUGUST AND SEFTEMBER, 1835, FROM THE
SUPPLEMENT TO THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF SCIENCES

lisr this unusual addition to onr Journal, we have the happi-
ness of making known to the British public, and thence to the
whole civilized worid, recent discoveries in Astronomy which
will build an imperishable monument to the age in which we
live, and confer upon the present generation of the human race
a proud distinction through all future time. It has been poeti-
cally said, that the stars of heaven are the hereditary regalia of
man, as the intellectual sovereign of the animal creation. He
may now fold the Zodiack around him with a loftier conscious-
ness of his mental supremacy.

It is impossible to contemplate any great Astronomicah dis-
covery without feelings closely allied to a sensation of awe, and
nearly akin to those with which a departed spirit may be sup-
posed to discover the realities of a future state. Bound by the
irrevocable laws of nature to the globe on which we live, crea-
tures " close shut up in infinite expanse," it seems like acquir-
ing a fearful supernatural power when any remote mysterious
works of the Creator yield tribute to our curiosity. It seems

<JREAT liUJfAE

almost a presumptuous usurpation of powers denied us by the
divine will, when man, in the pride and confidence of his skill,
steps forth, far beyond the apparently natural boundary of his
privileges, and demands the secrets and familiar fellowship of
other worlds. We are assured that when the immortal philo-
sopher to whom mankind is indebted for the thrilling wonders
now first made known, had at length adjusted his new and stu-
pendous apparatus with a certainty of success, he solemnly
paused several hours before he commenced his observations,
that he might prepare his own mind for discoveries which he
knew would fill the minds of myriads of his fellow-men with
astonishment, and secure his name a bright, if not transcendant
conjunction with that of his venerable father to all posterity.
And well might he pause ! From the hour the first human
pair opened their eyes to the glories of the blue firmament
above them,, there has been no accession to human knowledge
at all comparable in sublime interest to that which he has been
the honored agent in supplying; and we are taught to believe
that, when a work, already preparing for the press, in which
his discoveries are embodied in detail, shall be laid before the
public, they will be found of incomparable importance to some
of the grandest operations of civilized life. Well might he
pause ! He was about to become the sole depository of won-
drous secrets which had been hid from the eyes of all men that
had lived since the birth of time. He was about to crown
himself with a diadem of knowledge which would give him a
conscious pre-eminence above every individual of his species
who then lived, or who had lived in the generations that are
passed away. He paused ere he broke the seal of the casket
which contained it.

To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will state at once,
that by means of a telescope of vast dimensions and an entirely
new principle, the younger Herschel, at his observatory in
the Southern Hemisphere, has already made the most extra-
ordinary discoveries in every planet of our solar system ; has
discovered planets in other solar system,s ; has obtained a dis-
tinct view of objects in the moon, fully equal to that which the
unaided eye commands of terrestrial objects at the distance of

OS!

ASTEONOMICAL DISCOVERIES,

a hundred yards ; has affirmatively settled the question whether
this satellite be inhabited, and by what order of beings ; has
firmly established a new theory of cometary phenomena ; and
has solved or corrected nearly every leading problem of mathe-
matical astronomy.

For our early and almost exclusive information concerning
these facts, we are indebted to the devoted friendship of Dr.
Andrew Grant, the pupil of the elder, and for several years
past the inseperable coadjutor of the younger Herschel. The
amanuensis of the latter at the Cape of Good Hope, and the
indefatigable superintendent of his telescope during the whole
period of its construction and operation, Dr. Grant has been
enabled to supply us with intelligence equal, in general interest
at least, to that which Dr. Herschel himself has transmitted to
the Royal Society. Indeed our correspondent assures us that
the voluminous documents now before a committee of that in-
stitution contain little more than details and mathematical
illustrations of the facts communicated to us in his own ample
correspondence. For permission to indulge his friendship in
communicating this invaluable information to us, Dr. Grant
and ourselves are indebted to the magnanimity of Dr. Herschel,
who, far above all mercenary considerations, has thus signally
honored and rewarded his fellow-laborer in the field of science.
The engravings of lunar animals and other objects, and of the
phases of the several planets, are accurate copies of drawings
taken in the observatory by Herbert Home, Esq., who accom-
panied the last powerful series of reflectors from London to the
Cape, and superintended their erection ; and he has thus re-
corded the proofs of their triumphant success. The engravings
of the belts of Jupiter is a reduced copy of an imperial folio
drawing by Dr. Herschel himself, and contains the results of
his latest observation of that planet. The segment of the inner
ring of Saturn is from a large drawing by Dr. Grant.

We first avail ourselves of the documents which contain a
description and history of the instrument by which these stu-
pendous discoveries have been made. A knowledge of the
one is essential to the credibility of the other.

10 GREAT LUNAR

THE YOUKGER HERSCHEL'S TELESCOPE.

It is well known that the great reflecting telescope of the late
elder Herschel, with an object-glass four feet in diameter, and a
tube forty feet in length, possesses a magnifying power of more
than six thousand times. But a small portion of this power was
ever advantageously applied to the nearer astronomical objects ;
for the deficiency of light from objects so highly magnified, ren-
dered them less distinct than when viewed with a power of a
third or fourth of this extent. Accordingly the powers which
he generally applied when observing the moon or planets, and
with which he made his most interesting discoveries, ranged
from 220, 460, ^50, and 900 times \ although, when inspecting
the double and treble fixed stars, and the more distant nebulae,
he frequently applied the full capacity of his instrument. The
law of optics, that an object becomes dim in proportion as it is
magnified, seemed, from its exemplification in this powerful
telescope, to form an insuperable boundary to further disco-
veries in our solar system. Several years, however, prior to the
death of this venerable astronomer, he conceived it practicable
to construct an improved series of parabolic and spherical reflec-
tors, which, by uniting all the meritorious points in the Grego-
rian and Kewtonian instruments, with the highly interesting
achromatic discovery of Dolland, would, to a great degree,
remove the formidable obstruction. His plan evinced the most
profound research in optical science, and the most dexterous
ingenuity in mechanical contrivance ; but accumulating infir-
mities, and eventually death, prevented its experimental appli-
cation. His son, the present Sir John Herschel, who had been
nursed and cradled in the observatory, and a practical astrono-
mer from his boyhood, was so fully convinced of the value of
the theory, that he determined upon testing it, at whatever
cost. Within two years of his father's death he completed his
new apparatus, and adapted it to the old telescope with nearly
perfect success. He found that the magnifying power of 6,000
times, when applied to the moon, which was the severest
criterion that could be selected, produced, under these new

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 11

reflectors, a focal object of exquisite distinctness, free from
every achromatic obscurity, and containing the highest degree
of light which the great speculum could collect from that
luminary.

The enlargement of the angle of vision which was thus
acquired, is ascertained by dividing the moon's distance from
the observatory by the magnifying power of the instrument ;
and the former being 240,000 miles, and the latter 6,000 times,
leaves a quotient of 40 miles as the apparent distance of that
planet from the eye of the observer. 'Now it is well known
that no terrestrial objeets can be seen at a greater distance
than this, with the naked eye, even from the most favorable
elevations. ' The rotundity of the earth prevents a more distant
view than this with the most acute natural vision, and from the
highest eminences ; and, generally, objects seen at this distance
are themselves elevated on mountainous ridges. It is not pre-
tended, moreover, that this forty miles telescopic view of the
moon presented its objects with equal distinctness, though it
did in equal size to those of this earth, so remotely stationed.

The elder Herschel had nevertheless demonstrated, that with
a power of 1,000 times, he could discern objects in this satel-
lite of not more than 122 yards in diameter. If therefore the
full capability of the instrument had been elicited by the new
apparatus of reflectors constructed by his son, it would follow,
in mathematical ratio, that objects could be discerned of not
more than 22 yards in diameter. Yet in either case they would
be seen as mere feeble, shapeless points, with no greater conspi-
. cuity than they would exhibit upon earth to the unaided eye at
the distance of forty miles. But although the rotundity of the
earth presented no obstruction to a view of these astronomical
objects, we believe Sir John Herschel never insisted that he
had carried out these extreme powers of the telescope in so full
a ratio. The deficiency of light, though greatly economised
and concentrated, still maintained some inverse proportion to
the magnitude of the focal image. The advance he had made
in the knowledge of this planet, though magnificent and
sublime, was thus but partial and unsatisfactory. He was, it
is true, enabled to confirm some discoveries of former observers.

12 GKEAT LUNAR

and to confute those 'of others. The existence of volcanoes dis-
covered by his father and by Scbroeter of Berlin, and the
changes observed by the latter in the volcano in the Mare
Orisium or Lucid Lake, were corroborated and illustrated, as
was also the prevalence of far more extensive volcanic pheno-
mena. The disproportionate height attributed to the lunar
mountains was corrected from careful admeasurement ; whilst
the celebrated conical hills, encircling valleys of vast diameter,
and surrounding the lofty central hills, were distinctly per-
ceived. The formation which Professor Frauenhofer unchari-
tably conjectured to be a lunar fortification, he ascertained to
be a tabular buttress of a remarkably pyramidical mountain ;
lines which had been whimsically pronounced roads and canals,
he found to be keen ridges of singularly regular rows of hills ;
and that which Schroeter imagined to be a great eity in the
neighborhood of Marius^ he determined to be a valley of dis-
jointed rocks scattered in fragments, which averaged at least a
thousand yards in diameter. Thus the general geography of
the planet, in its grand outlines of cape, continent, mountain,
ocean, and island, was surveyed with greater particularity and
accuracy than by any previous observer ; and the striking dis-
similarity of many of its local features to any existing on our
own globe, was clearly demonstrated. The best enlarged maps
of that luminary which have been published were constructed
from this survey ; and neither the astronomer nor the public
ventured to hope for any great accession to their developments.
The utmost power of the largest telescope in the world had
been exerted in a new and felicitous manner to obtain them,
:and there was no reasonable expectation that a larger one
would ever be constructed, or that it could be advantageously
used if it were. A law of nature, and the finitude of human
skill, seemed united in inflexible opposition to any further im-
provement in telescopic science, as applicable to the known
planets and satellites of the solar system. For unless the sun
could be prevailed upon to extend a more liberal allowance of
light to these bodies, and they be induced to transfer it, for the
generous gratification of our curiosity, what adequate substitute
could be obtained ? Telescopes do not create light, they can-

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 13

not even transmit unimpaired that which they receive. That
anj^thing further could be derived from human skill in the
construction of instruments, the labors of his illustrious prede-
cessors, and' his own, left the son of Herschel no reason to
hope. Huygens, Fontana,, Gregory, Kewton, Hadley, Bird,
Short, Dolland, Herschel, and many others, all practical opti-
cians, had resorted to every material in any wise adapted to
the composition either of lenses or reflectors, and had exhausted
every law of vision which study had developed and demon-
strated. In the construction of his last amazing specula. Sir
John Herschel had selected the most approved amalgams that
the advanced stage of metallic chemistry had combined ; and
had watched their growing brightness under the hands of the
artificer with more anxious hope than ever lover watched the
eye of his mistress ;; and he had nothing further to expect than
they had accomplished. He had the satisfaction to know that
if he could leap astride a cannon ball, and travel upon its wings
of fury for the respectable period of several millions of years,
he would not obtain a more enlarged view of the distant stars
than he could now possess in a few minutes of time ; and that
it would require an ultrarrailroad speed of fifty miles an hour,
for nearly the live-long year, to secure him a more favorable
inspection of the gentle- luminary of night. The interesting
question, however, whether this light of the solemn forest, of
the treeless desert, and of the deep blue ocean as it rolls ; whe-
ther this object of the lonely turret, of the uplifted eye on the
deserted battle-field, and of all the pilgrims of love and hope,
of misery and despair, that have journeyed over the hills and
valleys of this earth, through all the eras of its unwritten his-
tory to those of its present voluminous record ; the exciting
question, whether this " observed " of all the sons of men, from
the days of Eden to those of Edinburgh, be inhabited by beings
like ourselves, of consciousness and curiosity, was left for solu-
tion to the benevolent index of natural analogy, or to the severe
tradition that it is tenanted only by the hoary solitaire whom
the criminal code of the nursery had banished thither for col-
lecting fuel on the Sabbath-day.

The limits of discovery in the planetary bodies, and in this

14 GREAT LUNAR

one especially, thus seemed to be immutably fixed ; and no
expectation was elevated for a period of several years. Bat,
about three years ago, in the course of a conversational discus-
sion with Sir David Brewster upon the merits of some ingeni-
ous suggestions by the latter, in his article on optics in the
Edinburgh Encyclopedia (p. 644), for improvements in the
Kewtonian Keflectors, Sir John Herschel adverted to the con-
venient simplicity of the old astronomical telescopes that were
without tubes, and the object-glass of which, placed upon a
high pole, threw its focal image to a distance of 150, and even
200 feet. Dr. Brewster readily admitted that a tube was not
necessary, provided the focal image were conveyed into a dark
apartment^ and there properly received by reflectors. Sir John
then said that, if his father's great telescope, the tube alone of
which, though formed of the lightest suitable materials, weighed
3,000 lbs., possessed an easy and steady mobility with its heavy
observatory attached, an observatory moveable without the in-
cumbrance of such a tube, was obviously practical. This also
was admitted, and the conversation became directed to that all-
invincible enemy. The paucity of light in powerful magnifiers.
After a few moments' silent thought. Sir John diflidently in-
quired whether it would not be possible to eff'ect a transfusion
of artificial light through the focal ohject of vision ! Sir David,
somewhat startled at the originality of the idea, paused awhile,
and then hesitatingly referred to the refrangibility of rays, and
the angle of incidence. Sir John, grown more confident, ad-
duced the example of the I^ewtonian Reflector, in which the
refrangibility was corrected by the second speculum, and the
angle of incidence restored by the third, " And," continued
he, " why cannot the illuminated microscope, say the hydro-
oxygen, be applied to render distinct, and, if necessary, even to
magnify the focal object ?" Sir David sprung from his chair in
an ecstacy of conviction, and leaping half-way to the ceiling,
exclaimed, " Thou art the man !" Each philosopher anticipated
the other in presenting the prompt illustration that if the rays
of the hydro-oxygen microscope, passed through a drop of
water containing the larvae of a gnat and other objects invisible
to the naked eye, rendered them not only keenly but firmly

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 15

magnified to dimensions of many feet ; so could tlie same arti-
ficial light, passed through the faintest focal object of a tele-
scope, both distinctifj (to coin a new word for an extraordinary-
occasion) and magnify its feeblest component members. The
only apparent desideratum was a recipient for the focal image
which should transfer it, without refranging it, to the surface on
which it was to be viewed under the revivifying light of the
microscopic reflectors. In the various experiments made
during the few following weeks, the co-operative philosophers
decided that a medium of the purest plate glass (which it is
said they obtained, by consent, be it observed, from the shop
window of Mons. Desanges, the jeweller to his ex-majesty
Charles X., in High street) was the most eligible they could
discover. It answered perfectly with a telescope which
magnified 100 times, and a microscope of about thrice that
power.

Sir John Plerschel then conceived the stupendous fabric of
his present telescope. The power of his father's instrument
would still leave him distant from his favorite planet nearly
forty miles, and he resolved to attempt a greater magnifier.
Money, the wings of science as the sinews of war, seemed the
only requisite, and even the acquisition of this, which is often
more difficult than the task of Sisyphus, he determined to
achieve. Fully sanctioned by the high optical authority of Sir
David Brewster, he laid his plan before the Royal Society, and
particularly directed to it the attention of His Royal Highness
the Duke of Sussex, the ever munificent patron of science and
the arts. It was immediately and enthusiastically approved by
the committee chosen to investigate it, and the chairman, who
was the Royal President, subscribed his name for a contribu-
tion of £10,000, with a promise that he would zealously sub-
mit the proposed instrument as a fit object for the patronage of
the privy purse. He did so without delay, and his Majesty,
on being informed that the estimated expense was iJ 70,000,
naively inquired if the costly instrument would conduce to any
improvement in navigation f On being informed that it un-
doubtedly would, the sailor King promised a carte hlancTi for the
amount which might be required.

16 GREAT LTJNAE

Sir John Herscliel had submitted his plans and calculations
in adaptation to an object-glass of twenty -four feet in diameter:
just six times the size of his yenerable father's. For casting
this ponderous mass, he selected the large glass-house of
Messrs. Hartlj and Grant, (the brother of our invaluable
friend Dr. Grant) at Dumbarton. The material chosen was an
amalgamation of two parts of the best crown with one of flint
glass, the use of which, in separate lenses, constituted the great
achromatic discovery of Dolland. It had been found, howerer,
by accurate experiments, that the amalgam would as com-
pletely triumph over every impediment, both from refrangi-
bility and discoloration, as the separate lenses. Five furnaces
of the metal, carefully collected from productions of the
manufactory, in both the kinds of glass, and known to he
respectively of nearly perfect homogenous quality, were
united, by one grand conductor, to the mould ; and on the
third of January, 1833, the first cast was effected. After
cooling eight days, the mould was opened, and the glass found
to be greatly flawed within eighteen inches of the centre.
I^fotwithstanding this failure, a new glass was more carefully
cast on the 27th of the same month, which on being opened
during the first week of February, was found to be im-
maculately perfect, with the exception of two slight flaws so
near the line of its circumference that they would be covered
by the copper ring in which it was designed to be en-
closed.

The weight of this prodigious lens was 14,826 lbs. or nearly
seven tons after being polished ; and its estimated magnifying
power 42,000 times. It was therefore presumed to be capable
of representing objects in our lunar satellite of little more than
eighteen inches in diameter, provided its focal image of them
could be rendered distinct by the transfusion of artificial light.
It was not, however, upon the mere illuminating power of the
hydro-oxygen microscope, as applied to the focal pictures of
this lens, that the younger Herschel depended for the realiza-
tion of his ambitious theories and hopes. He calculated
largely upon the almost illimitable applicability of this instru-
ment as a second magnifier, which would supersede the use,

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 17

and infinitely transcend the powers of the highest magnifiers in
reflecting telescopes.

So sangninely indeed did he calculate upon the advantages
of this splendid alliance, that he expressed confidence in his
ultimate ability to study even the entomology of the moon, in
case she contained insects upon her surface. Having witnessed
the completion of this great lens, and its safe transportation to
the metropolis, his next care was the construction of a suitable
microscope, and of the mechanical frame- w'ork for the horizontal
and vertical action of the whole. His plans in every branch of
his undertaking having been intensely studied, even to their
minutest details, were easily and rapidly executed. He awaited
only the appointed period at which he was to convey his mag-
nificent apparatus to. its destination.

A correspondence had for some time passed between the
Boards of England, France, and Austria, Math a view to im-
provements in the tables of longitude in the southern hemi-
sphere ; which are found to be much less accurate than those
of the northern. The high opinion entertained by the British
Board of Longitude of the principles of the new telescope, and
of the profound skill of its inventor, determined the govern-
ment to solicit his services in observing the transit of Mercury
over the sun's disk, which will take place on the 7th of No-
vember in the present year : and which, as it will occur at 7h.
4:Tm. 55s. night, conjunction, meantime ; and at 8h. 12m. 22s.
middle, true time, will be invisible to nearly all the northern
hemisphere. The place at which the transits of Mercury and
of Yenus have generally been observed by the astronomers of
Europe, when occurring under these circumstances, is the Cape
of Good Hope; and no transit of Yenus having occurred since
the year 1769, and none being to occur before 1874, the accu-
rate observation of the transits of Mercury, which occur more
frequently, has been found of great importance both to
astronomy and navigation. To the latter useful art, indeed, the
transits of Mercury are nearly as important as those of Yenus;
for although those of the latter planet have the peculiar
advantage of determining exactly the great solar parallax, and
thence the distances of all the planets from the sun, yet the

2

18 GREAT LUNAR

transits of Mercury, by exactly determining the place of its
own node, independently of the parallax of the great orb, de-
termine the parallax of the earth and moon ; and are therefore
especially valuable in lunar observations of Longitude. The
Cape of Good Hope has been found preferable, in these obser-
vations, to any other station in the hemisphere. The expedi-
tion which went to Peru, about the middle of the last century,
to ascertain, in conjunction with another in Lapland, the. true
figure of the earth, found the attraction of the mountainous
regions so strong as to cause the plum-line of one of their large
instruments to deflect seven or eight seconds from the true per-
pendicular ; whilst the elevated plains at the Cape unite all the
advantages of a lucid atmosphere with an entire freedom from
mountainous obstruction. Sir John Herschel, therefore, not
only accepted the appointment with high satisfaction, but
requested that it might commence at least a year before the
period of the transit, to afford him time to bring his ponderous
and complicated machinery into perfect adjustment, and to ex-
tend his knowledge of the southern constellations.

His wish was immediately assented to, and his arrangements
being completed, he sailed from London on the 4th of Sep-
tember, 1834, in company with Dr. Andrew Grant, Lieutenant
Drurnmond, of the Koyal Engineers, F.R.A.S., and a large
party of the best English mechanics. They arrived, after an
expeditious and agreeable passage, and immediately proceeded
to transport the lens, and the frame of the large observatory, to
its destined site, which was a piece of table-land of great extent
and elevation, about thirty-five miles to the north-east of Cape-
town ; and which is said to be the very spot on which De la
Caille, in 1750, constructed his invaluable solar tables, when he
measured a degree of the meridian, and made a great advance,
to exactitude in computing the solar parallax from that of Mars
and the Moon. Sir John accomplished the ascent to the plains
by means of two relief teams of oxen, of eighteen each, in about
four days ; and, aided by several companies of Dutch boors,
proceeded at once to the erection of his gigantic fabric.

The ground plan of the structure is in some respects similar
to that of the Herschel telescope in England, except that

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 19

instead of circular foundations of brickwork, it consists of
parallel circles of railroad iton, upon wooden framework ; so
constructed that the turn-outs, or rather turn-ins, from the
largest circle, will conduct the observatory, which moves upon
them, to the innermost circle, which is the basis of the lens-
works ; and to each of the circles that intervene. The diameter
of the smallest circle is twenty-eight feet : that of the largest
our correspondent has singularly forgotten to state, though it
may be in some measure computed from the angle of incidence
projected by the lens, and the space occupied by the observa-
tory. The latter is a wooden building fifty feet square and as
many high, with a flat roof and gutters of thin copper. Through
the side proximate to the lens, is an aperture four feet in
diameter to receive its rays, and through the roof another for
the same purpose in meridional observations. The lens, which
is inclosed in a frame of wood, and braced to its corners by
bars of copper, is suspended upon an axis between two pillars
which are nearly as high as those which supported the celebrated
quadrant of Uleg Beg, being one hundred and fifty feet. These
are united at the top and bottom by cross-pieces, and strengthened
by a number of diagonal braces ; and between them is a double
capstan for hoisting the lens from its horizontal line with the
observatory to the height required by its focal distance when
turned to the meridian ; and for elevating it to any intermediate
degree of altitude that may be needed. This last operation is
beautifully regulated by an immense double sextant, which is
connected and moves with the axis of the lens, and is regularly
divided into degrees, minutes, and seconds ; and the horizontal
circles of the observatory being also divided into 360 degrees,
and minutely subdivided, the whole instrument has the powers
and regularity of the most improved theodolite. Having no
tube, it is connected with the observatory by two horizontal
levers, which pass underneath the floor of that building from
the circular basis of the pillars ; thus keeping the lens always
square with the observatory, and securing to both a uniform and
simple movement. By means of these levers, too, a rack and
windlass, the observatory is brought to any degree of approxi-
mation to the pillars that the altitude of an observation may

20 GREAT LUNAE

require ; and although, when at its nearest station it cannot
command an observation with tlie great lens within about
fifteen degrees of the meridian, it is supplied with an excellent
telescope of vast power, constructed by the elder Herschel, bj
which every high degree can be surveyed. The field of view,
therefore, whether exhibited on the floor or on the w^all of the
apartment, has a diameter of nearly fifty feet, and, being cir-
cular, it has therefore an area of nearly 1875 feet. The place
of all the horizontal movements having been accurately levelled
by Lieut. Druramond, with the improved level of his invention
which bears his name, and the wheels both of the observatory
and of the lens-works being facilitated by friction-rollers in patent
axle-boxes filled with oil, the strength of one man applied to
the extremity of the levers is sufficient to propel the whole
structure upon either of the railroad circles ; and that of two
men applied to the windlass is fully adequate to bring the ob-
servatory to the basis of the pillars. Both of these movements,
however, are now effected by a locomotive apparatus com-
manded within the apartment by a single person, and showing,
by means of an ingenious index, every inch of progression or
retrogression.

We have not thus particularly described the telescope of the
younger Herschel because we consider it the most magnificent
specimen of philosophical mechanism of the present or any
previous age, but because we deemed an explicit description of
its principles and powers an almost indispensable introduction
to a statement of the sublime expansion of human knowledge
which it has achieved. It was not fully completed until the
latter part of December, when the series of large reflectors for
the microscope arrived from England ; and it was brought
into operation during the first week of the ensuing month and
year. But the secresy which had been maintained with regard
to its novelty, its manufacture, and its destination, was not less
rigidly preserved for several months respecting the grandeur of
its success. Whether the British Government were sceptical
concerning the promised splendor of its discoveries, or wished
them to be scrupulously veiled until they had accumulated a
a full-orbed glory for the nation and reign in which they origi-

ASTRONOMICAL DISCO VEEIES. 21

nated, is a question whicli we can only conjecturally solve.
But certain it is that the astronomer's royal patrons enjoined a
masonic taciturnity upon him and his friends until he should
have officially communicated the results of his great experi-
ment. Accordingly^, the world heard nothing of him or his
expedition until it was announced a few months since in the
scientific journals of Germany, that Sir John Herschel, at the
Cape of Good Hope, had written to the astronomer-royal of
Yienna, to inform him that the portentous comet predicted for
the year 1835, which was to approach so near this trembling
globe that we might hear the roaring of its tires, had turned
upon another scent, and would not even shake a hair of its tail
upon our hunting-grounds. At a loss to conceive by what
extra authority he had made so bold a declaration, the men of
science in Europe who were not acquainted with his secret,
regarded his " postponement," as his discovery was termed,
with incredulous contumely, and continued to terrorize upon
the strength of former predictions.

KEW LUNAE DISCOVERIES.

Until the 10th of January, the observations w^ere chiefly
directed to the stars in the southern signs, in which, without
the aid of the hydro-oxygen reflectors, a countless number of
new stars and nebula were discovered. But we shall defer
our correspondent's account of these to future pages, for the
purpose of no longer withholding from our readers the more ge-
nerally and highly interesting discoveries which were made in
the lunar world. And for this purpose, too, we shall defer Dr.
Grant's elaborate mathematical details of the corrections which
Sir John Herschel has made in the best tables of the moon's
tropical, sidereal, and synodic revolutions, and of those pheno-
mena of syzygies on which a great part of the established
lunar theory depends.

It was about half-past nine o'clock on the night of the 10th,
the moon having then advanced within four days of her mean
libration, that the astronomer adjusted his instruments for the

22 GREAT LUNAR

inspection of her eastern limb. The whole immense power of
liis telescope was applied, and to its focal image about one half
of the power of liis microscope. On removing the screen of
the latter, the field of view was covered throughout its entire
area with a beautifully distinct, and even vivid representation
of hasaltio rock. Its color was a greenish brown, and the
width of the columns, as defined by their interstices on the
canvass, was invariably twenty-eight inches. ISTo fracture
whatever appeared in the mass first presented, but in a few
seconds a shelving pile appeared of five or six columns width,
which showed their figure to be hexagonal, and their articula-
tions similar to those of the basaltic formation at Stafia. This
precipitous shelf was profusely covered with a dark red flower,
" precisely similar," says Dr. Grant, " to the Papaver Khoeas, or
rose-poppy of our sublunary cornfields ; and this was the first
organic production of nature, in a foreign world, ever revealed
to the eyes of men."

The rapidity of the moon's ascension, or rather of the earth's
diurnal rotation, being nearly equal to five hundred yards in a
second, would have eflTectually prevented the inspection, or even
the discovery of objects so minute as these, but for the admi-
rable mechanism which constantly regulates, under the guid-
ance of the sextant, the required altitude of the lens. But its
operation v^as found to be so consummately perfect, that the
observers could detain the object upon the field of view for
any period they might desire. The specimen of lunar vegeta-
tion, however, which they had already seen, had decided a
question of too exciting an interest to induce them to retard its
exit. It had demonstrated that the moon has an atmosphere
constituted similarly to our own, and capable of sustaining-
organized, and therefore, most probably, animal life. The
basaltic rocks continued to pass over the inclined canvass
plane, through three successive diameters, when a verdant
declivity of great beauty appeared, which occupied tw^o more.
This Avas preceded by another mass of nearly the former height,
at the base of which they were at length delighted to perceive
that novelty, a lunar forest. " The trees," says Dr. Grant, " for
a period of ten minutes, were of one unvaried kind, and unlike

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 23

any I have seen, except the largest kind of yews in the English
churchyards, wliich they in some respects resemble. These
were followed by a level green j)lain, which, as measured by
the painted circle on our canvass of forty-nine feet, must have
been more than half a mile in breadth ; and then appeared as
fine a forest of firs, unequivocal firs, as I have ever seen che-
rished in the bosom of my native mountains. Wearied with
the long continuance of these, we greatly reduced the magni-
fying power of the microscope, without eclipsing either of the
reflectors, and immediately perceived that we had been in-
sensibly descending, as it were, a mountainous district of a
highly diversified and romantic character, and that we were on
the verge of a lake, or inland sea ; but of what relative locality
or extent, we were yet too greatly magnified to determine. On
introducing the feeblest acromatic lens we possessed, we found
that the water, whose boundary we had just discovered,
answered in general outline to the Mare Nubiiim of Riccoli, by
which we detected that, instead of commencing, as we sup-
posed, on the eastern longitude of the planet, some delay in
the elevation of the great lens had thrown us nearly upon the
axis of her equator. However, as she was a free country, and
we not, as yet, attached to any particular province, and more-
over, since we could at any moment occupy our intended posi-
tion, we again slid in our magic lenses to survey the shores of
the Mare IN^ubium. Why Eiccoli so termed it, unless in ridi-
cule of Cleomedes, I know not ; for fairer shores never angels
coasted on a tour of pleasure. A beach of brilliant white
sand, girt with wild castellated rocks, apparently of green
marble, varied at chasms, occurring every two or three hun-
dred feet, with grotesque blocks of chalk or gypsum, and fea-
thered and festooned at the summit with the clustering foliage
of unknown trees, moved along the bright wall of our apart-
ment until we were speechless with admiration. The water,
wherever we obtained a view of it, was nearly as blue as that
of the deep ocean, and broke in large white billows upon the
strand. The action of very high tides was quite manifest upon
the face of the clifts for more than a hundred miles ; yet diver-
sified as the scenery was during this and a much greater dis-

24 GEE AT LUNAR

tance, we perceived no trace of animal existence, notwithstand-
ing we could command at will a perspective or a foreground
view of the whole. Mr. Holmes, indeed, pronounced some
white objects of a circular form, which we saw at some dis-
tance in the interior of a cavern, to be bona fide specimens of
a large cornu ammonis ; but to me they appeared merely large
pebbles, which had been chafed and rolled there by the tides.
Our chase of animal life was not yet to be rewarded.

Having continued this close inspection nearly two hours,
during which we ]3assed over a wide tract of country, chiefly
of a rugged and apparently volcanic character ; and having
seen few additional varieties of vegetation, except some spe-
cies of lichen, which grew everywhere in great abundance,
Dr. Herschel proposed that we should take out all our lenses,
give a rapid speed to the panorama, and search for some of
the principal valleys known to astronomers, as the most likely
method to reward our first night's observation with the dis-
covery of animated beings. The lenses being removed, and
the efiulgence of our unutterably glorious reflectors left undi-
minished, we found, in accordance with our calculations, that
our field of view comprehended about twenty-five miles of the
lunar surface, with the distinctness both of outline and detail
which could be procured of a terrestrial object at the distance
of two and a half miles ; an optical phenomenon which you
will find demonstrated in Note 5. This afforded us the best
landscape views we had hitherto obtained, and although the
accelerated motion was rather too great, we enjoyed them with
rapture. Several of those famous valleys, which are bounded
by lofty hills of so perfectly conical a form as to render them
less like works of nature than of art, passed the canvass before
we had time to check their flight ; but presentlj^ a train of
scenery met our eye, of features so entirely novel, that Dr.
Herschel signalled for the lowest convenient gradation of
movement. It was a lofty chain of obelisk-shaped, or very
slender pyramids, standing in irregular groups, each composed
of about thirty or forty spires, every one of which was per-
fectly square, and as accurately truncated as the finest speci-
mens of Cornish crystal. They were of a faint lilac hue, and

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 25

very resplendent. I now tbonglit tliat we had assuredly fallen
on productions of art ; but Dr. Herscliel slirewdly remarked,
that if the Lunarians could build thirty or forty miles of such
monuments as these, we should ere now have discovered others
of a less equivocal character. He pronounced them quartz
formations, of probably the wine-colored amethyst species, and
promised us, from these and other proofs which he had
obtained of the powerful action of laws of crystallization in this
planet, a rich field of mineralogical study. On introducing a
lens, his conjecture was fully confirmed ; they were monstrous
amethysts, of a diluted claret color, glowing in the intensest
light of the sun ! They varied in height from sixty to ninety
feet, though we saw several of a still more incredible altitude.
They were observed in a succession of valleys divided by lon-
gitudinal lines of round-breasted, hills, covered with verdure
and nobly undulated ; but what is most remarkable, the valleys
which contained these stupendous crystals were invariably bar-
ren, and covered with stones of a ferruginous hue, which were
probably iron pyrites. "We found that some of these curiosi-
ties were situated in a district elevated half a mile above the
valley of the Mare Foecunditatis, of Mayer and Riccioli ; the
shores of which soon hove in view. But never was a name
more inappropriately bestowed. From "Dan to Beersheba"
all was barren, barren — the sea-board was entirely composed of
chalk and flint, and not a vestige of vegetation could be dis-
covered with our strongest glasses. The whole breadth of the
northern extremity of this sea, which was about three hundred
miles, having crossed our plane, we entered upon a wild moun-
tainous region abounding with more extensive forests of larger
trees than we had before seen — the species of which I have
no good analogy to describe. In general contour they resem-
bled our forest oak ; but they were much more superb in
foliage, having broad glossy leaves like that of the laurel, and
tresses of yellow flowers which hung, in the open glades, from
the branches to the ground. These mountains passed, we arrived
at a region which filled us Math utter astonishment. It was an
oval valley, surrounded, except at a narrow opening towards
the south, by hills, red as the purest vermilion, and evidently

26 GREAT LUNAR

crystallized ; for wherever a precipitous chasm appeared — and
these chasms were very frequent, and of immense depth — the
perpendicular sections presented conglomerated masses of
polygon crystals, evenly litted -to each other, and arranged in
deep strata, which grew darker in color as they descended to
the foundations of the precipices. Innumerable cascades were
bursting forth from the breasts of every one of these cliffs, and
some so near their summits, and with such great force, as to
form arches many yards in diameter. I never was so vividly
reminded of Byron's simile, " the tale of the white horse in the
Revolution." At the foot of this boundary of hills was a per-
fect zone of woods surrounding the whole valley, which was
about eighteen or twenty miles wide, at its greatest breadth,
and about thirty in length. Small collections of trees, of every
imaginable kind, were scattered about the whole of the luxuri-
ant area ; and here our magnifiers blest our panting hopes
with specimens of conscious existence. In the shade of the
woods on the south-eastern side, we beheld continuous herds of
brown quadrupeds, having all the external characteristics of
the bison, but more diminutive than any species of the bos
genus in our natural history. Its tail is like that of our bos
grunniens; but in its semi-circular horns, the hump on its
shoulders, and the depth of its dewlap, and the length of its
shaggy hair, it closely resembled the species to which I first
compared it. It had, however, one widely distinctive feature,
which we afterwards found common to nearly every lunar qua-
druped we have discovered ; namely, a remarkable fleshy
appendage over the e^^es, crossing the whole breadth of the
forehead and united to the ears. We could most distinctly
perceive this hairy veil, which was shaped like the upper
front outline of a cap known to the ladies as Mary Queen of
Scots' cap, lifted and lowered by means of the ears. It imme-
diately occurred to the acute mind of Dr. Herschel, that this was
a providential contrivance to protect the eyes of the animal
from the great extremes of light and darkness to which all the
inhabitants of our side of the moon are periodically subjected.
The next animal perceived would be classed on earth as a
monster. It was of a bluish lead color, about the size of a

ASTROKOMICAL DISCOVEEIES. , 2l

goat, with a head and beard like him, and a single horn,
slightly inclined forward from the perpendicular. The female
was destitute of the horn and beard, bnt had a much longer
tail. It was gregarious, and chiefly abounded on the acclivi-
tous glades of the woods. In elegance of symmetry it rivalled
the antelope, and like him it seemed an agile sprightly crea-
ture, running with great speed, and springing from the green
turf with all the unaccountable antics of a young lamb or kit-
ten. This beautiful creature afforded us the most exquisite
amusement. The mimicry of its movements upon our white
painted canvass was as faithful and luminous as that of animals
within a few yards of the camera obscura, when seen pictured
upon its tympan. Frequently when attempting to put our
fingers upon its beard, it would suddenly bound away into
oblivion, as if conscious of our earthly impertinence ; but then
others would appear, whom we could not prevent nibbling the
herbage, say or do what we would to them.

On examining the centre of this dehghtful valley, we found
a large branching river, abounding with lovely islands, and
water-birds of numerous kinds. A species of grey pelican was
the most numerous ; but a black and white crane, with unrea-
sonably long legs and bill, were also quite common. We
watched their pisciverous experiments a long time, in hopes of
catching sight of a lunar fish ; but although we were not grati-
fied in this respect, we could easily guess the purpose with
which they plunged their long necks so deeply beneath the
water. Near the upper extremity of one of these islands we
obtained a glimpse of a strange amphibious creature, of a spheri-
cal form, which rolled with great velocity across the pebbly
beach, and was lost sight of in the strong current which set off
from this angle of the island. We were compelled, however, to
leave this prolific valley unexplored, on account of clouds which
were evidently accumulating in the lunar atmosphere, our own
being perfectly translucent. But this was itself an interesting
discovery, for more distant observers had questioned or denied
the existence of any humid atmosphere in this planet.

The moon being now low on her descent. Dr. ITerschel
inferred that the increasing refrangibility of her rays would

28 GREAT LUjS'AE

prevent any satisfactory protraction of our labors, and our
minds being actually fatigued with the excitement of the high
enjoyments we had partaken, we mutually agreed to call in
the assistants at the lens, and reward their vigilant attention
with congratulatory bumpers of the best " East India Particu-
lar." It was not, however, without regret that we left the
splendid valley of the red mountains, which, in compliment to
the arms of our royal patron, we denominated " the Yalley of
the Unicorn;" and it may be found in Blunt's map, about
■ midway between the Mare Fo3cnnditatis and the Mare Nectaris.
The nights of the 11th and 12th being cloudy, were unfavora-
ble to observation ; but on those of the 13th and IMi further
animal discoveries were made of the most exciting interest to
every human being. We give them in the graphic language
of our accomplished correspondent : —

" The astonishing and beautiful discoveries which we had
made during our first night's observation, and the brilliant
promise which they gave of the future, rendered every moon-
light hour too precious to reconcile us to the deprivation occa-
sioned by these two cloudy evenings ; and they were borne
with strictly philosophical patience, notwithstanding that our
attention was closely occupied in superintending the erection
of additional props and braces to the twenty-four feet lens,
which we found had somewhat vibrated in a high wind that
arose on the morning of the 11th. The night of the 13th
(January) was one of pearly pm-ity and loveliness. The moon
ascended the firmament in gorgeous splendor, and the stars,
retiring around her, left her the unrivalled queen of the hemi-
sphere. This being the last night but one, in the present month,
during which we should have an opportunity of inspecting her
western limb, on account of the libration in longitude which
would thence immediately ensue, Dr. Herschel informed us
that he should direct our researches to the parts numbered 2,
11, 26, and 20- in Blunt's map, and which are respectively
known in the modern catalogue by the names of Endymion,
Cleomedes, Langrenus, and Petavius. To the careful inspec-
tion of these, and the regions between them and the extreme
western rim, he proposed to devote the whole of this highly

ASTRONOmCAL DISCO VEEIES. 29

favorable night. Taking then our twenty-five miles breadth of
her surface upon the field of view, and reducing it to a slow
movement, we soon found the first ybyj singularly shaped
object of our inquiry. It is a highly mountainous district, the
loftier chains of which form three narrow ovals, two of which
approach each other in slender points, and are united by one
mass of hills of great length and elevation ; thus presenting a
figure similar to that of a long skein of thread, the bows of
which have been gradually spread open from their connecting
knot. The third oval looks also like a skein, and lies as if
carelessly dropped from nature's hand in connection with the
other ; but that which might fancifully be supposed as having
formed the second bow of this second skein is cut open, and
lies in scattered threads of smaller hills which cover a great
extent of level territory. The ground plan of these mountains
is so remarkable that it has been accurately represented in
almost every lineal map of the moon that has been drawn ; and
in Blunt's, which is the best, it agrees exactly with ray descrip-
tion. Within the grasp, as it were, of the broken bow of hills
last mentioned, stands an oval-shaped mountain, enclosing a
valley of an immense area, and having on its western ridge a
volcano in a state of terrific eruption. To the north-east of
this, across the broken, or what Mr, Holmes called ' the vaga-
bond mountains,' are three other detached oblong formations,
the largest and last of which is marked F in the catalogue, and
fancifully denominated the Mare Mortuum, or more commonly
, the ' Lake of Death.' ■ Induced by a curiosity to divine the
reason of so sombre a title, rather than by any more philosophi-
cal motive, we here first applied our hydro-oxygen magnifiers
to the focal image of the great lens. Our twenty-five miles
portion of this great mountain circus had comprehended the
whole of its area, and of course the two conical hills which rise
in it about five miles from each other ; but although this breadth
of view had heretofore generally presented its objects as if seen
within a terrestrial distance of two and a half miles, we were,
in this instance, unable to discern these central hills with any
such degree of distinctness. There did not appear to be any
mist or smoke around them, as in the case of the volcano which

30 GREAT LUKAR

we bad left in the south-west, and yet they were comparatively
indistinct upon the canvass. On sliding in the gas-light lens
the mystery was immediately solved. They were old craters of
extinct volcanoes, from which still issued a heated though
transparent exhalation, that kept them in an apparently oscil-
latory or trembling motion, most unfavorable to examination.
The craters of both these hills, as nearly as we could judge
under this obstruction, were about fifteen fathoms deep, devoid
of any appearance of fire, and of nearly a yellowish white color
throughout. The diameter of each was about nine diameters
of our painted circle, or nearly 450 feet ; and the width of the
rim surrounding them about 1000 feet ; yet notwithstanding
their narrow mouths, these two chimneys of the subterranean
deep had evidently filled the whole area of the valley in M-hich
they stood with the lava and ashes with which it was encum-
bered, and even added to the height, if not indeed caused the
existence of the oval ehain of mountains which surrounded it.
These mountains, as subsequently measured from the level of
some large lakes around them, averaged the height of 2,800
feet; and Dr. Herschel conjectured from this and the vast ex-
tent of their abutments, which ran for many miles into the
country around them, that these volcanoes must have been in
full activity for a million of years. Lieut. Drummond, how-
ever, rather supposed that the whole area of this oval valley
was but the exhausted crater of one vast volcano, which in ex-
piring had left only these two imbecile representatives of its
power. I believe Dr. Herschel himself afterwards adopted this
probable theory, which is indeed confirmed by the universal
geology of the planet. There is scarcely a hundred miles of
her surface, not even excepting her largest seas and lakes, in
which circular or oval mountainous ridges may not be easily
found ; and many, very many of these having numerous enclosed
hills in full volcanic operation, which are now much lower
than the surrounding circles, it admits of no doubt that each
of these great formations is the remains of one vast mountain
which has burnt itself out, and left only these wide foundations
of its ancient grandeur. A direct proof of this is afforded in a
tremendous volcano, now in its prime, which I shall hereafter

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 31

notice. What gave the name of 'The Lake of Death' to the
annular mountain I have just described, was, I suppose, the
dark appearance of the valley which it encloses, and whicli, to
a more distant view than we obtained, certainly exhibits the
general aspect of the waters on this planet. The surrounding
country is fertile to excess : between this circle and No. 2
(Endymion), which we proposed first to examine, we counted
not less than twelve luxuriant forests, divided by open plains,
which waved in an ocean of verdure, and were probably
prairies like those of Korth America. In three of these we
discovered numerous herds of quadrupeds similar to our friends
the bisons in the Yalley of the Unicorn, but of much larger
size ; and scarcely a piece of woodland occurred in our pano-
rama which did not dazzle our vision with flocks of white or
red birds upon the wing.

" At length we carefully explored the Endymion. We found
each of the three ovals volcanic and sterile within ; but, without,
most rich, throughout the level regions around them, in every
imaginable production of a bounteous soil. Dr. Herschel has
classified not less than thirty-eight species of forest trees, and
nearly twice this number of plants, found in this tract alone,
which are widely different to those found in more equatorial
latitudes. Of animals, he classified nine species of mammalia,
and five of ovipara. Among the former is a small kind of
rein-deer, the elk, the moose, the horned bear, and the biped
beaver. The last resembles the beaver of the earth in every
other respect than in its destitution of a tail, and its invariable
habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries its young in its
arms like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding mo-
tion. Its huts are constructed better and higher than those of
many tribes of human savages, and from the appearance of
smoke in nearly all of them, there is no doubt of its being
acquainted with the use of fire. Still its head and body differ
only in the points stated from that of the beaver, and it was
never seen except on the borders of lakes and rivers, in
which it has been observed to immerse for a period of several
seconds.

" Thirty ^degrees farther south, in No. 11, or Cleomedes, an

32 GREAT LUNAR

immense annular mountain, containing three distinct craters,
which have been so long extinguished that the whole valley
around them, which is eleven miles in extent, is densely
crowded with woods nearly to the summits of the hills. Not a
rod of vacant land, except the tops of these craters, could be
descried, and no living creature, except a large white bird re-
sembling the stork. At the southern extremity of this valley is
a natural archway or cavern, 200 feet high, and 100 wide,
through which runs a river which discharges itself over a pre-
cipice of grey rock 80 feet in depth, and then forms a branch-
ing stream through a beautiful campaign district for many
miles. Within twenty miles of this cataract is the largest lake,
or rather inland sea, that has been found throughout the seven
and a half millions of sqnare miles which this illuminated side
of the moon contains. Its width, from east to west, is 198
miles, and from north to sonth, 266 miles. Its shape, to the
northward, is not unlike that of the bay of Bengal, and it is
studded with small islands, most of which are volcanic. Two
of these, on the eastern side, are now violently eruptive; but
our lowest magnifying power was too great to examine them
with convenience, on account of the cloud of smoke and ashes
which beclouded our field of view : as seen by Lieut. Drum-
mond, through our reflecting telescope of 2,000 times, they ex-
hibited great brilliancy. In a bay, on the western side of this
sea, is an island 55 miles long, of a crescent form, crowded
through its entire sweep with the most superb and wonderful
natural beauties, both of vegetation and geology. Its hills are
pinnacled with tall quartz crystals, of so rich a yellow and
orange hue that we at first supposed them to be pointed flames
of fire; and they spring up thus from smooth round brows of
hills which are covered as with a velvet mantle. Even in the
enchanting little valleys of this winding island we could often
see these splendid natural spires, mounting in the midst of deep
green woods, like church steeples in the vales of Westmoreland.
We here first noticed the lunar palm-tree, which differs from
that of our tropical latitudes only in the peculiarity of very
large crimson flowers, instead of the spadix protruded from the
common calyx. We, however, perceived no fruit on any speci-

ASTEONOMICAIi DISCOVEEIES. 33

mens we saw : a circumstance wliicli we attempted to account
for from the great (theoretical) extremes in the lunar climate.
On a curious kind of tree-melon we nevertheless saw fruit in
great abundance, and in every stage of inception and maturity.
The general color of these woods was a dark green, though not
without occasional admixtures of everj tint of our forest sea-
sons. The hectic flush of autumn was often seen kindled upon
the cheek of earliest spring ; and the gay drapery of summer
in some places surrounded trees leafless as the victims of winter.
It seemed as if all the seasons here united hands in a circle of
perpetual harmon3^ Of animals we saw only an elegant striped
quadruped about three feet high, like a miniature zebra ; which
was always in small herds on the green sward of the hills ; and
two or three kinds of long-tailed birds, which we judged to be
golden and blue pheasants. On the shores, however, we saw
countless multitudes of univalve shell-fish, and among them
some huge flat ones, which all three of my associates declared to
be cornu ammonas ; and I confess I was here compelled to
abandon my sceptical substitution of pebbles. The clifi's all
along these shores were deeply undermined by tides ; they were
very cavernous, and yellow crystal stalactites larger than a man's
thigh were shooting forth on all sides. Indeed every rood of
this island appeared to be crystallized ; masses of fallen crystals
were found on every beach we explored, and beamed from
every fractured headland. It was more like a creation of an
oriental fancy than a distant variety of nature brought by the
powers of science to ocular demonstration. The striking dis-
similitude of this island to every other we had found on these
waters, and its near proximity to the main land, led us to sup-
pose that it must at some time have been a part of it; more espe-
cially as its crescent bay embraced the first of a chain of smaller
ones which ran directly thither. The first one was a pure
quartz rock, about three miles in circumference, towering in
naked majesty from the blue deep, without either shore or
shelter. Eut it glowed in the sun almost like a sapphire, as
did all the lesser ones of whom it seemed the king. Our
theory was speedily confirmed ; for all the shore of the main
land was battlemented and spired with these unobtainable

3

34 GREAT LU]SrAR

jewels of nature ; and as we brought our field of view to include
the utmost rim of the illuminated boundary of the planet, we
could still see them blazing in crowded battalions as it were,
through a region of hundreds of miles. In fact we could not
conjecture where this gorgeous land of enchantment terminated;
for as the rotarj motion of the planet bore these mountain sum-
mits from our view, we became further remote from their
western boundary.

" We were admonished by this to lose no time in seeking the
next proposed object of our search, the Langrenus, or No. 26,
which is almost within the verge of the libration in longitude,
and of which, for this reason. Dr. Herschel entertained some
singular expectations.

" After a short delay in advancing the observatory upon the
levers, and in regulating the lens, we found our object and
surveyed it. It was a dark narrow lake seventy miles long,
bounded, on the east, north, and west, by red mountains of the
same character as those surrounding the Yalley of the Unicorn,
from which it is distant to the south-west about 160 miles.
This lake, like that valley, opens to the south upon a plain not
more than ten miles wide, which is here encircled by a truly
magnificent amphitheatre of the loftiest order of lunar hills.
For a semicircle of six miles these hills are riven, from their
brow to their base, as perpendicularly as the outer walls of the
Colosseum at Rome ; but here exhibiting the sublime altitude of
at least two thousand feet, in one smooth unbroken surface.
How nature disposed of the huge mass which she thus prodi-
gally carved out, I know not ; but certain it is that there are no
fragments of it left upon the plain, which is a declivity with-
out a single prominence except a billow}^ tract of woodland that
runs in many a wild vagary of breadth and course to the
margin of the lake. The tremendous height and expansion of
this perpendicular mountain, with its bright crimson front con-
trasted with the fringe of forest on its brow, and the verdure of
the open plain beneath, filled our canvass with a landscape un-
surpassed in unique grandeur by any we had beheld. Our
twenty-five miles perspective included this remarkable moun-
tain, the plain, a part of the lake, and the last graduated sum-

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 35

mits of tlie range of hills by whicli the latter is nearly sur-
rounded, "We ardently wished that all the world could view a
scene so strangely grand, and our pulse beat high with the hope
of one day exhibiting it to our countrymen in some part of our
native land. But we were at length compelled to destroy our
picture, as a whole, for the purpose of magnifying its parts for
scientijB.c inspection. Our plain was of course immediately
covered with the ruby front of this mighty amphitheatre, its tall
figures, leaping cascades, and rugged caverns. As its almost
interminable sweep was measured off upon the canvass, we
frequently saw long lines of some yellow metal hanging from
the crevices of the horizontal strata in wild net-work, or
straight pendant branches, We of course concluded that this
was virgin gold, and we had no assay-master to 'prove to the
contrary. On searching the plain, over which we had observed
the woods roving in all the shapes of clouds in the sky, we were
again delighted with the discovery of animals. The first
observed was a quadruped with an amazingly long neck, head
like a sheep, bearing two long spiral horns, white as polished
ivory, and standing in perpendicular parallel to each other.
Its body was like that of the deer, but its fore-legs were most
disproportionally long, and its tail, which was very bushy and
of a snowy whiteness, curled high over its rump, and hung two
or three feet by its side. Its colors were bright bay and white
in brindled patches, clearly defined, but of no regular form. It
was found only in pairs, in spaces between the woods, and we
had no opportunity of witnessing its speed or habits. But a
few minutes only elapsed before three specimens of another
animal appeared, so well known to us all that we fairly laughed
at the recognition of so familiar an acquaintance in so distant a
land. They were neither more nor less than three good large
sheep, which would not have disgraced the farms of Leicester-
shire, or the shambles of Leadenhall-market. With the utmost
scrutiny, we could find no mark of distinction between these
and those of our native soil ; they had not even the appendao-e
over the eyes, which I have described as common to lunar qua-
drupeds. Presently they appeared in great numbers, and on
reducing the lenses, we found them in flocks over a great part

36 GREAT LUNAR

of the valley. I need not say liow desirous we were of finding
shepherds to these flocks, and even a man with blue apron and
rolled np sleeves would have been a welcome sight to us, if not
to the sheep ; but they fed in peace, lords of their own pastures,
without either protector or destroyer in human shape.

" We at length approached the level opening to the lake,
where the valley narrows to a mile in width, and displays
scenery on both sides picturesque and romantic beyond the
powers of a prose description. Imagination, borne on the wings
of poetry, could alone gather similes to portray the wild sub-
limity of this landscape, where dark behemoth crags stood over
the brows of lofty precipices, as if a rampart in the sky ; and
forests seemed suspended in mid air. On the eastern side there
was one soaring crag, crested with trees, which hung over in a
curve like three-fourths of a Gothic arch, and being of a rich
crimson color, its effect was most strange upon minds unaccus-
tomed to the association of such grandeur with such beauty.

" But whilst gazing upon them in a perspective of about half
a mile, we were thrilled with astonishment to perceive four suc-
cessive flocks of large winged creatures, wholly unlike any kind
of birds, descend with a slow even motion from the cliffs on the
western side, and alight upon the plain. They were first
noticed by Dr. Herschel, who exclaimed, ' N"ow, gentlemen,
my theories against your proofs, which you have often found a
pretty even bet, we have here something worth looking at : I
was confident that if ever we found beings in human shape, it
would be in this longitude, and that they would be provided
by their Creator with some extraordinary powers of locomotion:
first exchange for my number D.' This lens being soon intro-
duced, gave us a fine half-mile distance, and we counted three
parties of these creatures, of twelve, nine, and fifteen in each,
walking erect towards a small wood near the base of the
eastern precipices. Certainly they were like human beings, for
their wings had now disappeared, and their attitude in walking
was both erect and dignified. Having observed them at this
distance for some minutes, we introduced lens H b which
brought them to the apparent proximity of eighty yards ; the
highest clear magnitude we possessed until the latter end of

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 37

Marcli, when we effected an improvement in the gas-bnrners.
About half of the first party had passed beyond our canvass ;
but of all the others we had a perfectly distinct and deliberate
view. They averaged four feet in height, were covered, except
on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had
wings composed of a thin membrane, without hair, lying snugly
upon their backs, from the top of the shoulders to the calves of
the legs. The face, which was of a yellowish flesh color, was a
slight improvement npon that of the large orang outang, being
more open and intelligent in its expression, and having a much
greater expansion of forehead. The mouth, however, was very ~^
prominent, though somewhat relieved by a thick beard upon
the lower jaw, and by lips far more human than those of any
species of the simia genus. In general symmetry of body and
limbs they were infinitely superior to the orang outang ; so
much so, that, but for their long wings, Lieut. Drummond said
they would look as well on a parade ground as some of the
old cockney militia ! The hair on the head was a darker color
than that of the body, closely curled, but apparently not woolly,
and arranged in two curious semicircles over the temples of the
forehead. Their feet could only be seen as they were alternately
lifted in walking ; but, from what we could see of them in so
transient a view, they appeared thin, and very protuberant at
the heel.

" Whilst passing across the canvass, and whenever we after-
wards saw them, these creatures were evidently engaged in con-
versation ; their gesticulation, more particularly the varied
action of their hands and arms, appeared impassioned and em-
phatic. We hence inferred that they were rational beings, and
although not perhaps of so high an order as others which we
discovered the next month on the shores of the Bay of Rain-
bows, that they were capable of producing works of art and
contrivance. The next view we obtained of them was still
more favorable. It was on the borders of a little lake, or
expanded stream, which we then for the first time perceived
running down the valley to a large lake, and having on its
eastern margin a small wood.

" Some of these creatures had crossed this water and were

38 GREAT LUKAE

lying like spread eagles on the skirts of the wood. We could
then perceive that they possessed wings of great expansion, and
were similar in structure to those of the bat, being a semi^rans-
parent membrane expanded in curvilineal divisions by means
of straight radii, united at the back by the dorsal integuments.
But what astonished ns very much was the circumstance of this
membrane being continued, from the shoulders to the legs,
united all the way down, though gradually decreasing in width.
The wings seemed completely under the command of volition,
for those of the creatures whom we saw bathing in the water,
spread them instantly to their full width, waved them as ducks
do theirs to shake off the water, and then as instantly closed
them again in a compact form. Our further observation of the
habits of these creatures, who were of both sexes, led to results
so very remarkable, that I prefer they should first be laid before
the public in Dr. Herschel's own work, where I have reason to
know they are fully and faithfully stated, however incredulously
they may be received. — ***** The three families then
almost simultaneously spread their wings, and were lost in the
dark confines of the canvass before we had time to breathe from
our paralyzing astonishment. We scientifically denominated
them the Yespertilio-homo, or man-bat ; and they are doubtless
innocent and happy creatures, notwithstanding that some of
their amusements would but ill comport with our terrestrial no-
tions of decorum. The valley itself we called the Euby Colos-
seum, in compliment to its stupendous southern boundary, the
six mile sweep of precipices two thousand feet high. And the
night, or rather morning, being far advanced, we postj)oned our
tour to Petavius (No. 20), until another opportunity." We
have, of course, faithfully obeyed Dr. Grant^s private injunction
to omit those highly curious passages in his correspondence
which he wished us to suppress, although we do not perceive
the force of the reason assigned for it. It is true, the omitted
paragraphs contain facts which would be wholly incredible to
readers who do not carefully examine the principles and
capacity of the instrument with which these marvellous dis-
coveries have been made ; but so will nearly all of those which
he has kindly permitted us to publish ; and it was for this

ASTRONOMICAI. DISCOVERIES. 39

reason that we considered the explicit description which we
have given of the telescope so important a preliminary. From
these, however, and other prohibited passages, which will be
pnblished b v Dr. Herscliel, with the certificates of the civil and
military autliorities of the colony, and of several Episcopal.
"Wesleyan, and other ministers, who, in the month of March.
last, were permitted, nnder stipulation of temporary secrecy, to
visit the observatory, and become eye-witnesses of the wonders
which they were requested to attest, we are confident his forth-
coming volumes will be at once the most sublime in science,
and the most intense in general interest, thiat ever issued from
the press.

The night of the 14:tli displayed the moon in her mean libra-
tion, or full ; but the somewhat humid state of the atmosphere
being for several hours less favorable to a minute inspection
than to a general survey of her surface, they were chiefly
devoted to the latter purpose. But shortly after midnight the
last veil of mist was dissipated, and the sky being as lucid as
on the former evenings, the attention of the astronomers was
arrested by the remarkable outlines of the spot marked Tycho,
'No. 18, in Blunt's lunar chart ; and in this region they added
treasures to human knowledge which angels might well desire
to win. Many parts of the following extract will remain forever
in the chronicles of time : —

" The surface of the moon, when viewed in her mean libra-
tion, even with telescopes of very limited power, exhibits three
oceans of vast breadth and circumference, independently of
seven large collections of water, which may be denominated
seas. Of inferior waters, discoverable by the higher classes of
instruments, and usually called lakes, the number is so great
that no attempt has yet been made to count them. Indeed,
such a task would be almost equal to that of enumerating the
annular mountains which are f)und upon every part of her sur-
face, whether composed of land or water. The largest of the
three oceans occupies a considerable portion of the hemisphere
between the line of her northern axis and that of her eastern
equator, and even extends many degrees south of the latter.
Throughout its eastern boundary, it so closely approaches that

40 GREAT LUNAR

of the lunar sphere, as to leave in manj places merely a fringe
of illuminated mountains, which are here, therefore, strongly
contra-distinguished from the dark and shadowy aspect of the
great deep. But peninsulas, promontories, capes, and islands,
and a thousand other terrestrial figures, for which we can find
no names in the poverty of our geographical nomenclature, are
found expanding, sallying forth, or glowing in insular indepen-
dence, through all the 'billowy boundlessness' of this magni-
ficent ocean. One of the most remarkable of these is a pro-
montory, without a name, I believe, in the lunar charts, which
starts from an island district denominated Copernicus by the
old astronomers, and abounding, as we eventually discovered,
with great natural curiosities. This promontory is indeed most
singular. Its northern extremity is shaped much like an imperial
crown, having a swelling bow, divided and tied dowm in its cen-
tre by a band of hills which is united with its forehead band
or base. The two open spaces formed by this division are two
lakes, each eighty miles wide ; and at the foot of these, divided
from them by the band of hills last mentioned, is another lake,
larger than the two put together, and nearly perfectly square.
This one is followed, after another hilly division, by a lake of
an irregular form ; and this one yet again, by two narrow ones,
divided longitudinally, which are attenuated northward to the
main land. Thus this skeleton promontory of mountain ridges
runs 396 miles into the ocean, with six capacious lakes, enclosed
within its stony ribs. Blunt's excellent lunar chart gives this
great work of nature with wonderful fidelity, and I think you.
might accompanj^ my description with an engraving from it,
much to your reader's satisfaction. (See plate 4.)

" JSText to this, the most remarkable formation in this ocean
is a strikingly brilliant annular mountain of immense altitude
and circumference, standing 330 miles E.S.E., commonly
known as Aristarchus (No. 12), and marked in the chart as a
large mountain, with a great cavity in its centre. That cavity
is now, as it was probably wont to be in ancient ages, a vol-
canic cr.ater, awfully rivalling our Mounts Etna and Yesuvius
in the most terrible epochs of their reign. Unfavorable as the
state of the atmosphere was to close examination, we could

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVBKIES. 41

easily mark its illumination of the water over a circuit of sixty
miles. If we had before retained any doubt of the power of
lunar volcanoes to throw fragments of their craters so far beyond
the moon's attraction that they would necessarily gravitate to
this earth, and thus account for the niultitude of massive aerolites
which have fallen and been foiind upon our surface, the \new
which we had of Aristarchus would have set our scepticism
forever at rest. This mountain, however, though standing 300
miles in the ocean, is not absolutely insular, for it is cojmected
with the main land by four chains of mountains, which branch
from it as a common centre.

The next great ocean is situated on the western side of the
meridian line, divided nearly in the midst by the line of the
equator, and is about 900 miles in north and south extent. It is
marked in the catalogue, and was fancifully called the Mare
Tranquillitatis. It is rather two large seas than one ocean, for it
is narrowed just under the equator by a strait not more than
100 miles wide. Only three annular islands of a large size,
arnd quite detached from its shores, are to be found within it ;
though several sublime volcanoes exist on its northern boun-
dary ; one of the most stupendous of which is within 120 miles
of the Mare I^ectaris before mentioned. Immediately contigu-
ous to this second great ocean, and separated from it only by a
concatenation of dislocated continents and islands, is the third,
marked D, and known as the Mare Serenitatis. It is nearly
square, being about 330 miles in length and width. But it has
one most extraordinary peculiarity, which is a perfectly straight
ridge of hills, certainly not more than five miles wide, which
starts in a direct line from its southern to its northern shore,
dividing it exactly in the midst. This singular ridge is per-
fectly sui generis, being altogetlier unlike any mountain chain
either on this earth or on the moon itself. It is so very keen,
that its great concentration of the solar light renders it visible
to small telescopes ; but its character is so strikingly peculiar,
that we could not resist the temptation to depart from our pre-
determined adherence to a general survey, and examine it par-
ticularly. Our lens G x brought it within the small distance
of 800 yards, and its whole width of four or five miles snugly

42

GREAT LUKAE

witliiii that of our canvass. Nothing that we had hithferto
seen more highlj excited. our astonishment. Believe it or
believe it not, it was one entire crystallization ! — its edge,
throughout its whole lengtli of 340 miles, is an acute angle of
solid quartz crystal, brilliant as a piece of Derbyshire spar just
brought from a mine, and containing scarcely a fracture or a
chasm from end to end ! "What a prodigious influence must
our thirteen times larger globe have exercised upon this satel-
lite, when an embryo in the womb of time, the passive subject
of chemical aifinity ! We found that wonder and astonishment,
as excited by objects in this distant world, were but modes
and attributes of ignorance, which should give place to elevated
expectations, and to reverential confidence in the illimitable
power of the Creator.

" The dark expanse of waters to the south of the first great
ocean has often been considered a fourth ; but we found it to
be merely a sea of the first class, entirely surrounded by land,
and mucli more encumbered with promontories and islands
than it has been exhibited in any kmar chart. One of its pro-
montories runs from the vicinity of Pitatus (ISTo. 19), in a
slightly curved and very narrow line, to Bullialdus (N"o. 22),
which is merely a circular head to it, 264 miles from its start-
ing place. This is another mountainous ring, a marine volcano,
nearly burnt out, and slumbering upon its cinders. But
Pitatus, standing upon a bold cape of the southern shore, is
apparently exulting in the might and majesty of its fires. The
atmosphere being now quite free from vapor, we introduced
the magnifiers to examine a large bright circle of hills which
sweep close beside the western abutments of this flaming
mountain. The hills were either of snow-white marble or
semi-transparent crystal, we could not distinguish which, and
they bounded another of those lovely green valleys, which,
however monotonous in my descriptions, are of paradisaical
beauty and :fertility, and like primitive Eden in the bliss of
their inhabitants. Dr. ITerschel here again predicated another
of his sagacious theories. He said the proximity of the flaming
mountain, Bullialdus, must be so great a local convenience to
dwellers in this valley during the long periodical absence of

ASTEONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 43

solar light, as to render it a place of populous resort for tlie
inhabitants of all the adjacent regions, more especially as its
bulwark of hills afforded an infallible security against any
volcanic eruption that could occur. We therefore applied our
full power to explore it, and rich indeed was our reward.

" The very first object in this valley that appeared upon our
canvass was a magnificent work of art. It was a temple — a
fane of devotion, or of science, which, when consecrated to the
Creator, is devotion of the loftiest order ; for it exhibits his
attributes purely free from the masquerade, attire, and blasphe-
mous caricature of controversial creeds, and has the seal and
signature of his own hand to sanction its aspirations. It was
an equitriangular temple, built of polished sapphire, or of some
resplendent blue stone, which, like it. displayed a myriad
points of golden light twinkling and scintillating in the sun-
beams. Our canvass, though fifty feet in diameter, was too
limited to receive more than a sixth part of it at one view, and
the first part that appeared was near the centre of one of its
sides, being three square columns, six feet in diameter at its
base, and gently tapering to a hight of seventy feet. The
intercolumniations were each twelve feet. We instantly reduced
our magnitude, so as to embrace the whole structure in one
view, and then indeed it was most beautiful. The roof was
composed of some yellow metal, and divided into three com-
partments, which were not triangular planes inclining to the
centre, but subdivided, curbed, and separated, so as to present
a mass of violently agitated flames rising from a common
source of conflagration and terminating in wildly waving
points. This design was too manifest, and too skilfully exe-
cuted to be mistaken for a single moment. Through a few
openings in these metallic flames we perceived a large sphere
of a darker kind of metal nearly of a clouded copper color,
which they enclosed and seemingly raged around, as if hiero-
glyphically consuming it. This was the roof; but upon each
of the three corners there was a small sphere of apparently the
same metal as the large centre one, and these rested upon a
kind of cornice, quite new in any order of architecture with
which we are acquainted, but nevertheless exceedingly graceful

44 GREAT LUNAR

and impressive. It was like a half-opened scroll, swelling off
boldly from the roof, and hanging far over the walls in several
convolutions. It was of the same metal as the flames, and on
each side of the building it was open at both ends. The
columns, six on each side, were simply plain shafts, without
capitals or pedestals, or any description of ornament ; nor was
any perceived in other parts of the edifice. It was open on
each side, and seemed to contain neither seats, altars, nor offer-
ings ; but it was a light and airy structure, nearly a hundred
feet high from its white glistening floor to its glowing roof, and
it stood upon a round green eminence on the eastern side of
the valley. We afterwards, however, discovered two others,
which were in every respect fac-similes of this one ; but in
neither did we perceive any visitants besides flocks of wild
doves which alighted upon its lustrous pinnacles. Had the
devotees of these temples gone the way of all living, or were
the latter merely historical monuments ? What did the inge-
nious builders mean by the globe surrounded by flames? Did
they by this record any past calamity of their world, or pre-
dict any future one of ours f I by no means despair of ulti-
mately solving not only these but a thousand other questions
which present themselves respecting the objects in this planet;
for not the millionth part of her surface has yet been explored,
and we have been more desirous of collecting the greatest pos-
sible number of n&w facts, than of indulging in speculative
theories, however seductive to the imagination.

" But we had not far to seek for inhabitants of this ' Yale of
the Triads.' Immediately on the outer border of the wood
which surrounded, at the distance of half a mile, the eminence
on which the first of these temples stood, we saw several de-
tached assemblies of beings whom we instantly recognized to
be of the same species as our winged friends of the Euby Colos-
seum near the lake Langrenus. Having adjusted the instru-
ment for a minute examination, we found that nearly all the
individuals in these groups were of a larger stature than the
former specimens, less dark in color, and in every respect an im-
proved variety of the race. They were chiefly engaged in eat-
ng a large yellow fruit like a gourd, sections of which they

ASTR0N05UCAL DISCOVERIES. 45

divided with tlieir fingers, and ate with rather uncoiitli voracity,
throwing away the rind. A smaller red fruit, shaped like a
encumber, which we had often seen pendant from trees having
a broad dark leaf, was also lying in heaps in the centre of
several of the festive groups ; but the only use they appeared
to make of it was sncking its juice, after rolling it between the
palms of their hands and nibbling off an end. They seemed
eminently happy, and even polite, for we saw, in many in-
stances, individuals sitting nearest these piles of fruit, select the
largest and brightest specimens, and throw them archwise
across the circle to some opposite friend or associate who had
extracted the nutriment from those scattered around him, and
which were frequently not a few. "While thus engaged in their
rural banquets, or in social converse, they were always seated
with their knees flat upon the turf, and their feet brought
evenly together in the form of a triangle. And for some mys-
terious reason or other this figure seemed to be an especial
favorite among them ; for we found that every group or social
circle arranged itself in this shape before it dispersed, which
was generally done at the signal of an individual who stepped
into the centre and brought his hands over his head in an acute
angle. At this signal each member of the company extended
his arms forward so as to form an acute horizontal angle with
the extremity of the fingers. But this was not the only proof
we had that they were creatures of order and subordination.
* * ^ ^' We had no opportunity of seeing them actually en-
gaged in any work of industry or art ; and so far as we conld
judge, they spent their happy hours in collecting various
fruits in the woods, in eating, flying, bathing, and loitering
about upon the summits of precipices. * * * * But although
evidently the highest order of animals in this rich valley, they
were not its only occupants. Most of the other animals which
we had discovered elsewhere, in very distant regions, were col-
lected here ; and also at least eight or nine new species of
quadrupeds. The most attractive of these was a tall white stag
with lofty spreading antlers, black as ebony. We several times
saw this elegant creature trot up to the seated parties of the
semi-human beings I have described, and browse the herbage

46 GREAT LUNAR

close beside tliem, without the least manifestation of fear on its
part or notice on theirs. The universal state of amity among
all classes of lunar creatures, and the apparent absence of e very-
carnivorous or ferocious species, gave us the most refined plea-
sure, and doubly endeared to us this lovely nocturnal companion
of our larger, but less favored world. Ever again when I ' eye
the blue vault and bless the useful light,' shall I recall the scenes
of beauty, grandeur, and felicity, I have beheld upon her sur-
face, not ' as through a glass darkly, but face to face ;' and
never shall I think of that line of our thrice noble poet,

' Meek Diana's cresb

Sails through the azure air, an island of the blest,'

without exulting in my knowledge of its truth,"

With the careful inspection of this instructive valley, and a
scientific classification of its animal, vegetable, and mineral
productions, the astronomers closed their labors for the night ;
labors rather mental than physical, and oppressive, from the
extreme excitement which they naturally induced, A singular
circumstance occurred the next day, which threw the telescope
quite out of use for nearly a week, by which time the moon
could be no longer observed that month. The great lens, which
was usually lowered during the day, and placed horizontally,
hadj it is true, been lowered as usual, but had been inconsider-
ately left in a perpendicular position. Accordingly, shortly
after sunrise the next morning, Dr. Herschel and his assistants.
Dr. Grant and Messrs. Drummond and Home, who slept in a
bungalow erected a short distance from the observatory circle,
were awakened by the loud shouts of some Dutch farmers and
domesticated Hottentots (who were passing with their oxen to
agricultural labor), that the "big house" was on fire! Dr.
Herschel leaped out of bed from his brief slumbers, and, sure
enough, saw his observatory enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

Luckily it had been thickly covered, within and without,
with a coat of Roman plaster, or it would inevitably have been
destroyed with all its invaluable contents; but, as it was, a
hole fifteen feet in circumference had been bui*nt completely
through the " reflecting chamber," which was attached to the

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 47

side of the observatory nearest the lens, through the canvass
field on which had been exhibited so many wonders that will
ever live in the history of mankind, and through the outer wall.
So fierce was the concentration of the solar rays through the
gigantic lens, that a clump of trees standing in a line with, them
was set on fire, and the plaster of the observatory walls, all
round the orifice, was vitrified to blue glass. The lens being
almost immediately turned, and a brook of water being within
a few hundred yards, the fire was soon extinguished, but the
damage already done was not inconsiderable. The microscope
lenses had fortunately been removed for the purpose of being
cleaned, but several of the metallic reflectors were so fused as
to be rendered useless. Masons and carpenters were procured
from Cape Town with all possible dispatch, and in about a week
the whole apparatus was again prepared for operation.

The moon being now invisible Dr. Herschel directed his
inquiries to the primary planets of the system, aud first to the
planet Saturn. We need not say that this remarkable globe
has for many ages been an object of the most ardent astronomi-
cal curiosity. The stupendous phenomenon of its double ring
having baified the scrutiny and conjecture of many generations
of astronomers, was finally abandoned as inexplicable. It is
well known that this planet is stationed in the system 900 mil-
lions of miles distant from the sun, and that having the immense
diameter of TO, 000 miles, it is more than nine hundred times
larger than the earth. Its annual motion round the sun is not
accomphshed in less than twenty-nine and a half of our years,
whilst its diurnal rotation upon its axis is accomplished in lOh.
16m., or considerably less than half a terrestrial day. It has
not less than seven moons, the sixth and the seventh of which
were discovered by the elder Herschel in 1Y89. It is thwarted
by mysterious belts or bands of a yellowish tinge, and is sur-
rounded by a double ring — the outer one of which is 204,000
miles in diameter. The outside diameter of the inner ring is
184,000 miles, and the breadth of the outer one being 7,200
miles, the space between them is 28,000 miles. The breadth
of the inner ring is much greater than that of the other, being
20,000 miles ; and its distance from the body of Saturn is more

48 GREAT LUNAK

than 30,000. These rings are opaque, but so thin that their
edge has not until now been discovered. Sir John Herschel's
most interesting discovery with regard to this planet is the de-
monstrated fact that these two rings are composed of the frag-
ments of two destroyed worlds, formerly belonging to our solar
system, and which, on being exploded, were gathered around the
immense body of Saturn by the attraction of gravity, and yet
kept from falling to its surface by the great centrifugal force
created by its extraordinary rapidity on its axis. The inner
ring was therefore the first of these destroyed worlds (the for-
mer station of which in the system is demonstrated in the argu-
ment which we subjoin), which was accordingly carried round
by the rotary force, and spread forth in the manner we see.
The outer ring is another world exploded in fragments, attracted
by the law of gravity as in the former case, and kept from
uniting with the inner ring by the centrifugal force of the lat-
ter. But the latter, having a slower rotation than the planet,
has an inferior centrifugal force, and accordingly the space be-
tween the outer and inner ring is nearly ten times less than that
between the inner ring and the body of Saturn. Having ascer-
tained the mean density of the rings, as compared with the
density of the planet. Sir John Herschel has been enabled to
elFect the following beautiful demonstration, [Which we omit,
as too mathematical for popular comprehension. — Ed. Sun?\

Dr. Herschel clearly ascertained that these rings are com-
posed of rocky strata, the skeletons of former globes, lying in a
state of wild and ghastly confusion, but not devoid of mountains
and seas. ^" * * * The belts across the body of Saturn he has
discovered to be the smoke of a number of immense volcanoes,
carried in these straight lines by the extreme velocity of the
rotary motion. * * * ^ [And these also he has ascertained to
be the belt of Jupiter. — But the portion of the work which is
devoted to this subject, and to the other planets, as also that
which describes the astronomer's discoveries among the stars,
is comparatively uninteresting to general readers, however
highly it might interest others of scientific taste and mathemati-
cal acquirements. — Ed. Sim.']

* 'X- a- -!t a It ^as not until the new moon of the month of

ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVEPaES. 49

March, that the weather proved favorable to any continued
series of hmar observations ; and Dr. Herschel had been too
enthusiastically absorbed in demonstrating his brilliant dis-
coveries in the southern constellations, and in constructing
tables and catalogues of his new stars, to avail himself of the
few clear nights which intervened,

" On one of these, however, Mr. Drummond, myself, and Mr.
Holmes, made those discoveries near the Bay of Rainbows, to
which I have somewhere briefly alluded. The bay thus fanci-
fully denominated is a part of the northern boundary of the
first great ocean which I have lately described, and is marked
in the chart with the letter O. The tract of country which we
explored on this occasion is numbered 6, 5, 8, Y, in the cata-
logue, and the chief mountains to which these numbers are
attached are severally named Atlas, Hercules, Heraclides Verus,
and Heraclides Falsus. Still farther to the north of these is
the island circle called Pythagoras, and numbered 1 ; and yet
nearer the meridian line is the mountainous district marked R,
and called the Land of Drought, and Q, lihe Land of Hoar
Frost ; and certainly the name of the latter, however theoreti-
cally bestowed, was not altogether inapplicable, for the tops of
its very lofty mountains were evidently covered with snow,
though the valleys surrounding them were teeming with the
luxuriant fertility of midsummer. But the region which we
first particularly inspected was that of Heraclides Falsus (JSTo.
7), in which we found several new specimens of animals, all of
which were horned and of a white or grey color ; and the re-
mains of three ancient triangular temples which had long been
in ruins. We thence traversed the country southeastward,
until we arrived at Atlas (N"o. 6), and it was in one of the noble
valleys at the foot of this mountain that we found the very
superior species of the Yespertilio-homo. In stature they did
not exceed those last described, but they were of infinitely
greater personal beauty, and appeared in our eyes scarcely less
lovely than the general representations of angels by the more
imaginative schools of painters. Their social economy seemed
to be regulated by laws or ceremonies exactly like those pre-
vailing in the Yale of the Triads, but their works of art were

4

50 GEE AT LUISTAE ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.

more numerous, and displayed a proficiency of skill quite in-
credible to all except actual observers. I shall, therefore, let
the first detailed account of them appear in Dr. Herschel's
authenticated natural history of this planet."

[This concludes the Supplement, with the exception of forty
pages of illustrative and mathematical notes, which would
greatly enhance the size and price of this work, without com-
mensurably adding to its general interest. — Ed 8uni\

A-FI>ENI3IX:.

THE MOON AS KNOWN AT THE PRESENT TIME.

" Te sacred muses, with whose beauty fir'd,
My soul is ravish'd, and my brain inspir'd.
Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear ;
"Would you your poet's first petition hear ;
Give me the ways of wandering stars to know:
The depths of heav'n above, and earth below.
Teach me the various labours of the moon,
And whence proceed th' eclipses of the sun.
Why flowing tides prevail upon the main.
And in what dark recess they shrink again.
What shakes the solid earth, what cause delays
The summer nights, and shortens winter days."

ViRaiL.

The picture on the title-page is probably tlie best and minutest view of
tbe moon, that lias ever been laid before the public. Most of our readers
are aware that the mountains and hollows of the moon have been accu-
rately and thoroughly mapped by astronomers, and baptized by appropri-
ate names. For the benefit of meritorious students of astronomical geo-
graphy, we subjoin the names of all those which have been christened.
At the present season it will amply repay the possessor of a small tele-
scope to identify the several localities with the aid of the map.

In olden time the moon was a goddess. Whatever the ignorant mind
of the time was incapable of grasping was supernatural. Thus arose
the pale, chaste Deity of the Night, robed in virgin white, roaming
dreamily under the partial shade of trees, loving to see her fair image
reflected in streams, and shedding a complacent light on tender meet-
ings. AVe are not heathens — far from it : but who among us has not

62 APPENDIX.

at some time or other paid homage to the Queen of Night*, and thanked
her for the gentle light which has shown the way to some fair hand.

We say, in blunt scientific terms, that she — or it — is a satellite of the
earth, suspended in her — or its — present position by the contrasted at-
traction of the sun and the earth. This is the nnromantic version of the
naked fact.

There was a time when the earth was an uncomfortable semi-incan-
descent mass, in the act of cooling ofi" for practical purposes. The at-
mosphere was tropical throughout the globe. All things were intensely
impregnated — or, as the philosophers say, supersaturated — with carbon.
Between the dry land and the waters there was no division. There was
no ocean, and consequently no continents. All was hot mud, with here
and there a lake or a short river, and here and there a dry, parched,
torrid eminence. In those days there were animals and plants, but no
human beings. Both animals and plants were like the age in which
they flourished — to our notions monstrous. Monsters were the rule,
both in the vegetable and the animated world. Creatures were born,
and grew to sizes which dwarf the elephant. Plants thrust their heads
above the mud, and, in that carboniferous atmosphere, attained heights

* "As when the Moon,' refulgent lamp of night!
O'er heav'n's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene ;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver ev'ry mountain's head ;
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies."

HOMEK.

The earth is accompanied by a Moon or satellite, whose distance is 237,000 miles,
and diameter 2,160. Her surface is composed of hill and dale, of rocks and moun-
tains, nearly two miles high, and of circular cavities, sometimes five miles in depth
and forty in diameter. She possesses neither rivers^ nor lakes, nor seas, and we can-
not discover with the telescope any traces of living beings, or any monuments of
their hands. Viewing the earth as we now do, as the ifiird j^lanet in order from the
sun, can we doubt that it is a globe like the rest, poised in ether like them, and,
like them, moving round the central luminary ?

1 As when the moon, So. This comparison is Inferior to none in Homer. It is the most beauti-
ful night-piece that can be found in poetry. He presents you with a prospect of the heavens, the
seas, and the earth ; the stars shine, the air is serene, the world enlighten'd, and the moon mounted
in glory.

APPENDIX. 63

which Avould have towered above tlie tallest trees of our forests. But
in propo^on to the rapidity of their growth was the brevity of their
life ; for tb^. o were the days of earttiquakes aiid terrestrial convulsions.
Probabl^^^^ day elapsed Avithout some,earth quake or volcanic eruption.

Thei^g^'b of day was dull and obscured. Masses of opaque matter
f],ii)t,«.-, flnnngh the atmosphere as thickly as dust specks float through a
:p,-ht in a darkened room.* The hot air, thick and dull, hung
H ijMit^Huist over the face of the earth, which was even then almost
without form and void. When the sun went down, dense darkness
covered the earth. There was no lesser light to rale the night ; dim
twinklings in the far distance, hardly piercing the pall which wrapped
our planet, were the only contrasts to the Egyptian blackness of the
dark hours.

But the internal fires which sprung from the vitals of the earth almost
supplied the want of a nocturnal luminary. It is probable that there
were but few spots on the globe which were out of view of some flaming-
volcano. We count the active volcanoes by integers. When we have
enumerated Etna, Vesuvius, Hecla, Jorullo, Colima, and one or two
others, we have reached the end of our list. In the days of Homer the
volcanoes were counted by scores ; in the carboniferous age they may
have, must have, flourished by hundreds and thousands. That vast in-
candescent mass, of which the crust only had cooled, kept boiling up
every few hours, and furiously pouring out the vials of its wrath upon an
earth inhabited by transitory creatures. Go where the traveller may, he
will still find traces of this terrible age. That tell-tale rock — " the trap"
— is pecuhar to no meridian ; and from the Hudson's Bay territories
nearly to Cape Magellan, from Spitzbergen to Borneo, either this, or
some mountain range of volcanic origin, here with scoriae disseminated
through the more regular formations, there with copper or gold held in
a native state in half-decayed quartz, tell a very legible story of the time
when all the component parts of the earth were in a fluid state, and
were thrown off" by the boihng mass beneath as a kettle throws off" froth
and scum.

There came a day when the under crust could no -longer bear the
weight of the mass which, after being thrown off" daily, returned, by the
force of gravitation, to the surface of its parent. A time came when the

* For an account of the sing^ular views which the ancients had entertained on
this subject, see "The Theology of the Phoenicians," hy Sanchoniaiho, who flourished
about the time of the Trojan war. TxColished in a collection o£ Ancient Fragments.
New York. 1835.

54 APPENDIX.

incandescent and inchoate planet — if so daring a figure may be ventured
— felt tlie necessity of unusually strenuous measures. It gathered all its
fiery energies, and mustered all its fearful strength. The effect was uni-
versal, not local. AVith such bodies distances of 25,000 miles must be
trifling, and the earth's meridian — a paltry 8000 miles — not worth men-
tioning. One can imagine the purpose and eft"ort being common to the
entire molten and raging mass.

It came at last. After throes of inconceivable agony, with a roar and
a convulsion which must have destroyed every living thing then existent
upon the face of the planet, in the midst of general chaos, confusion,
and desolation, the earth relieved itself. It tore from its half-cooled sur-
face immense masses, and projected them with monstrous force into
space; not on one side alone, but on all. Lumps of earth four and five
miles in thickness, and thousands of miles long and wide, were in an in-
stant forced upwards with such force as to pass beyond the circle of the
earth's attraction. These various masses, thus launched into space, soon
felt the attraction of each other, and assembled together. They met,
and, agreeably to the sublime law of celestial bodies, remained suspended
in space at the point where the attraction of the earth meets that of the
sun. That other celestial law which forbids the torpidity of any atom
of matter compelled the aggregated mass to revolve, and the revolution
forced the mass into a spherical shape.

Thus the moon came into being. An off'shoot from the earth, it pays
homage to its parent by revolving round it, and reflecting back to it a
part of the sun's light during the period when that luminary is obscured
to us. Had the force with which its substance was expelled from the
body of the earth been less, it would have returned to our surface, just
as those fragments of matter called aerolites do at regular intervals ; had
that force been greater, it would have entered upon the vast area which.
is the domain of the sun, and would have been attracted to that great
cosmical body, and been fused by its intense heat. It was sent abroad
with precisely the force necessary to sustain it in equilibrio between the
earth and the sun, and hence it is " the lesser light which rules the
night."

This is not the only service which it renders us. By its creation it
caused great hollows in the surface of the earth. Into these hollows the
waters which lay on the face of the deep naturally gathered, and became
oceans, lakes, seas, and rivers. The cavities drained the earth of the
moisture which had rendered it unfit for the habitation of the higher
order of vertebrated creatures. Thus by degrees were formed the great

APPENDIX. 55

Atlantic and Pacific, the JSTorthern and the Southern oceans, leaving here
and there tracts of cool, dry land for man to inhabit at the word of his
Creator. N"or did the office of the moon stop here. While it was up-
held in space by the attraction of the earth, it returned the compliment
by exercising a reciprocal attraction upon the waters for which it had
created beds. With the beautiful regularity which is the characteristic
of heavenly bodies, it affected them at uniform intervals, causing the
tides to flow and to ebb, and to vibrate between the spring and the neap
flow. Lastly, it relieved the earth of a vf^st quantity of superincumbent
matter, equal, in fact, to over one-fiftieth of the whole bulk of the planet.
One must imagine the earth in the condition of a gentleman who has
dined copiously, and whose interior is troubled by an unusual burden ;
the convulsion which led to the creation of the moon is similar to the
effect of the dose which the gentleman, if he be wise, will instantly
take.

In departing from us, and setting up for herself, the moon forgot some
articles of baggage which were essential to her future comfort and pros-
perity. Among these were air and water. How we came by these two
useful commodities it were hard to' say.

This is made quite certain by the discoveries of astronomers. Rains,
dews, oceans, lakes, hail, snow, clouds, are all unknown to the moon.
Nothing shields its surface from the burning rays of the sun. Wher-
ever the light of that fierce luminary penetrates the moon's surface is
incessantly hot.

Of volcanic origin, the moon is true to its descent. It is full of volca-
noes, most of which, however, perhaps from a conviction of the useless-
ness of further action — there being nothing to destroy, and no one even
to see their explosions — are now silent and torpid. But they wrought
out their destiny so long and so faithfully, that the surface of the moon
is frightfully disfigured and uneven. Switzerland is a prairie compared
to the smoothest part of the moon's surface. It is nothing but incessant
mountain and hollow. Lunar Alps and Rocky Mountains intersect
every few miles of the surface. The Himalayas would be unnoticed
among the gigantic ranges which ornament the lunar superficies. And
the projections, mighty as they are, are but trifling in comparison with
the hollows. It would seem as though the moon, with apish weakness,
had tried to imitate the earth in throwing off space for rivers and oceans
— forgetting that it contained no water to fill the cavities. Astronomers
have made the most extraordinary discoveries in reference to these lunar
hollows. Some of them appear to be about fifty miles deep, and a hun-

56 APPENDIX.

dred miles or so wide, with precipitous sides. Mitcliell has vividly de-
scribed these terrible places. Those who have looked over a precipice a
few hundred feet in depth may perhaps form some rude idea of what it
must be to gaze down into a hole fifty miles deep — so deep that the bot-
tom would almost escape the eye, were there an intervening atmosphere
—a great, monstrous cave, Avith no vegetation either on the borders or
on the top, or on the sides or on the bottom ; no life of any kind, not
ev.en the least sound, to break the endless monotony of silence — every-
where dull, warm scoriae, lava, and stones of volcanic origin. But even
these are the smallest of the lunar cavities. Latterly, acute astronomers,
with ■ improved instruments, have gazed into holes in the moon's surface,
and estimated them to be no less than two hundred and fifty and three
hundred miles deep, with fissures in them through which the sunlight
penetrated.

Fancy the scene ! Well may it have been termed the abomination of
desolation ! Surely this fair earth, with all its gloomy places and all its
dreary scenes, contains nothing so overwhelming in its terrible despair
as the moon. And who, gazing at its mild white face as it emerges from
the cover of a cloud, would deem it so sad and desolate a sphere?

There are no " men' in the moon." There cannot be, for they could
not exist without air and water. 'Tis a pity, for the sight of this planet
of ours, thirteen times the size which the moon appears to us, as fair,
and bright, and shining as our nightly luminary, would be a sight worth
seeing.

Science has made such progress, and common sense has so far kept
pace with it, that the old idea that this was the only inhabited sphere in
the universe is now completely exploded. There is no reason to believe
that our. planet is the only one in our solar system which is devoted to
a useful career ; nor is there any ground for imagining that our sun is
the only one, of the myriad of suns we see every night, which gives
light, and heat, and happiness to human creatures. On the contrary,
the supreme wisdom of the Deity affords a fair presumption that this
little planet of ours is but as a grain of sand among the worlds which
have been created for the glory of God, and that each planet after its
kind is fitted for the habitation of creatures whose ofiice and purpose it
is to thank and bless Him for their existence. Moons may be an excep-
tion for a time.

Of all this we know but little, and can only conjecture vaguely. As
science advances, we may have telescopic instruments so superior to
those now in use that we shall be able to decipher the moon's surface as^

APPENDIX. 57

plainly as a distant sliore on our own planet. But visits tliither must
ever remain as impossible as they are at present. The story of Hans
Pfall Avill remain a brilliant imagination to the end of time.

" In consequence of the moon having no atmosphere, or but a very
thin one, all celestial objects must be seen with very great distinctness.
The earth, when full, appears to an inhabitant of the moon thirteen
times as large as the moon appears to ns ; that is, its diameter is about
3y\ times as large as our apparent lunar diameter. It is always on the
same part of the heaven, when seen from the same part of the moon.
M. Quetelet, in his Astronomie UUmentaire, Paris, 1826, a very good
work, which ought to be translated, has the following remarks on the
appearance of the earth at the moon, which we would rather quote than
vouch for, though they may possibly be well founded.

" Our vast continents, our seas, even our forests are visible to them ;
they perceive the enormous piles of ice collected at the poles, and the
girdle of vegetation which extends on both sides of the equator ; as well
as the clouds which float over our heads, and sometimes hide us from
them. The burning of a town or forest could not escape them, and if
they had good optical instruments, they could even see the building of
a new town, or the sailing of a fleet."

The lunar day, as we shall afterwards see, is equivalent to our actual
month of 29^ days : though the rotation of the moon on her axis is per-
formed in the sidereal month of 27 days 8 hours nearly. Hence the in-
habitant of the moon sees the sun for 14f of our days together, which
time is followed by a night of the same duration. Of course the ex-
istence of any animal like man is impossible there, as well on this ac-
count as on that of the want of an atmosphere.

The phases which the earth presents to the moon are similar in ap-
pearance to those which the moon presents to the earth, but in a dif-
ferent order. Thus, when it is new moon at the earth, it is full earth
at the moon : and the contrary. "When the moon is in her first quar-
ter, the earth is in its third quarter, and so on ; while half-moon at the
earth is accompanied by half-earth at the moon.

There is no branch of science better fitted to be made the leading-
subject of general instruction than that which relates to the planetary
and sidereal universe. The truths which it reveals are so startling in
their nature, and apparently so far beyond the reach of human intelli-
gence, that men of high literary name have confessed their incapacity
to understand them, and their inability to believe them. There are
few, indeed, we fear, who really believe that they sojourn on a revolving;

68 APPENDIX.

globe, and that each day and year of life is measured by its revolutions.
There are few who believe that the great luminary of the firmament,
whose restless activity they daily witness, is an immovable star, con-
trolling, by its solid mass, the primary planets of our system, and form-
ing, as it were, the gnomon of the great dial which measures the thread
of life and the tenure of empires. Fewer still believe that each of the
million of stars — those atoms of light which the telescope can scarcely
descry — are the centres of planetary systems that may equal or surpass
our own ; and still smaller is the number who believe that the solid
pavement of the globe upon which we nightly slumber is an elastic
crust, imprisoning fires and forces which have often burst forth in tre-
mendous energy, and are, at this very instant, struggling to escape — now
finding an outlet in volcanic fires — now heaving and shaking the earth
• — now upraising islands and continents, and gathering strength perhaps
for, some final outburst which may shatter our earth in pieces, or change
its form, or scatter its waters over the land. And yet these are truths
than which there is nothing truei', and nothing more worthy of our
study.

In order to learn, then, what is the constitution, and what has been
or may be the probable history of the various worlds in our firmament,
we must study the constitution and physical history of our own. The
men of limited reason who believed that the earth was created and
launched into its ethereal course when man was summoned to its occu-
pation, must have either denied altogether the existence of our solar
system, or have regarded all its planets as coeval with their own, and as
but the ministers to its convenience. Science, however, has now cor-
rected this error, and liberated the pious mind from its embarrassments.
The Paleontologist — the student of ancient life — has demonstrated, by
evidence not to be disputed, that the earth had been inhabited by ani-
mals and adorned with plants during immeasurable cycles of time ante-
cedent to the creation of man — that when the volcano, the earthquake,
and the flood, had destroyed and buried them, nobler forms of life were
created to undergo the same fiery ordeal : — and that, by a series of suc-
cessive creations and catastrophes, the earth was prepared for the resi-
dence of man, and the rich materials in its bosom elaborated for his use,
and thrown within his grasp. In the age of our own globe, then, we see
the age of its brother planets, and in the antiquity of our own system
we see the antiquity of the other systems of the universe. In our catas-
■ trophes, too, we recognise theirs, and in our advancing knowledge and
progressive civilization, we witness the development of the u.niversal

APPENDIX.

59

mind — the marcli of the immortal spirit to its final destiny of glory or
of shame.

The following are the names which have been given to the mountains
and valleys, or hollows, in the moon, and which are referred to in the
accompanying picture [See title page].

MOUNTAINS.

1.

The Apennines.

6. The Altai Mountains.

2.

The Caucasus.

Y. The Cordilleras.

3.

The Alps,

8. The Riphaj Mountains.

4.

Taurus.

9. The Carpathians.

o.

risemus.

10. The Hercynian Mountains,

HOLLOWS, OR VALLEYS.

A.

The Crisian Sea.

L. The Middle Bay.

B.

The Sea of Fertility (!!).

M. The Sea of Clouds.

C.

The Sea of Nectar.

K The Sea of Mist.

D.

The Tranquil Sea.

0. TheBay of Epidemics,

E.

The Serene Sea.

P. The Stormy Ocean. .

F.

The Sea of Dreams.

Q. The Showery Sea.

G.

The Sea of Death,

R. The Sea of Rainbows.

H.

The Dreamy Marsh.

S. The Sea of Dews.

I.

The Cold Sea.

T. Humboldt's Sea.

K.

The Sea of Yapors.

As will be seen, astronomers have done what they could to relieve the
dreariness of nature by a free indulgence in fanciful names.

Dr. Chalmers, speaking of the advantages derived from the discovery
of the telescope and microscope, says, " The one led me to see a system
in every star. The other leads me to see a world in every atom. The
one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its
people, and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of
immensity. The other teaches me that every grain of sand may harbor
within it the tribes and families of a busy population. The one told
me of the insignificance of the world I tread upon. The other redeems
it from all its insignificance; for it tells rae that in the leaves of every
forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in the waters of every
rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless as are the
glories of the firmament. The one has suggested to rae that beyond

60 APPENDIX.

and above all that is visible to man, there may lie fields of creation
whicli sweep immeasurably along^ and carry the impress of the Al-
mighty's hand to the remotest scenes of the universe. The other sug-
gests to me, that within and beneath all that minuteness which the
aided eye of man has been able to explore, there may lie a region of
invisibles ; and that, could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which
shrouds it from our senses, we might there see a theatre of as many
wonders as astronomy has unfolded ; a universe within the compass of
a point so small, as to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where
the wonder-working God finds room for the exercise of all bis attributes,
where he can raise another mechanism of worlds,, and fill and animate
them all with the evidences of his glory."

Opinions of the American Press Respecting the Foregoing Discovery.

" Hbrschel's Great Discoveries. — We are too much pleased with
the remarks of the sensible, candid, and scientific portions of the public
press upon the extracts which we have published relative to these won-
ders of the age, to direct our attention very severely to-day to that
sceptical class of our cotemporaries to whom none of these attributes
can be ascribed. Consummate ignorance is always incredulous to the
higher order of scientific discoveries, because it cannot possibly compre-
hend them. Its mental thorax is quite capacious enough to swallow
any dogmas, however great, that are given upon the authority of names ;
but it strains most perilously to receive the great truths of reason and
science. We scarcely ever knew a very ignorant person who would be-
lieve in the existence of those myriads of invisible beings which inhabit
a drop of water, and every grain of dust, until he had actually beheld
them through the microscope by which they are developed. Yet these
very persons will readily believe in the divinity of Matthias the prophet,
and in the most improbable credenda of extravagant systems of faith.
The Journal of Commerce, for instance, says it cannot believe in these
great discoveries of Dr. Herschel, yet it beheves and defends the innocence
of the murderer Avery. These who in a former age imprisoned Galileo
for asserting his great discoveries with the telescope, and determined
upon sentencing him to be burnt alive, nevertheless believed that Simon
Magus actually flew in the air by the aid of the devil, and that w^hen that

APPENDIX. 61

aid was withdrawn he fell to the ground and broke his neck. The great
mechanical discoverer, Worcester, obtained no credence for his theories
in his day, though they are now being continually demonstrated by prac-
tical operation. Happily, however, those who impudently and ignorantly
deny the great discoveries of Herschel, are chiei3y to be found among
those whose faith or whose scepticism, would never be received as a
guide for the opinions of other men. From among that portion of the
public press whose intelligence and acquirements render them competent
judges of the great scientific questions now before the community, 'we
extract the following frank declarations of their opinions." — New York
Sun, Sep. 1, 1835.

" No article, we believe, has appeared for years, that will command so
general a perusal and publication. Sir John has added a stock of know-
ledge to the present age that will immortalize his name, and place it
high on the page of science." — Daily Advertiser.

"Discoveries ik the Moon. — We commence to-day the publication
of an interesting article which is stated to have been copied from the
Edinburgh Journal of Science, and which made its first appearance here
in a cotemporary journal of this city. It appears to carry intrinsic evi-
dence of being an authentic document." — Mercantile Advertiser.

" Stupendous Discovery in Astronomy. — We have read with un-
speakable emotions of pleasure and astonishment, an article from the
last Edinburgh Scientific Journal, containing an account of the recent
discoveries of Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope." — Albany
Daily Advertiser.

" It is quite proper that the Sun should be the means of shedding so
much light on the Moon. That there should be winged people in the
Moon does not strike us as more wonderful than the existence of such a
race of beings on earth ; and that there does or did exist such a race rests
on the evidence of that most veracious of voyagers and circumstantial
of chroniclers, Peter Wilkins, whose celebrated work not only gives an
account of the general appearance and habits of a most interesting tribe
of flying Indians, but also of all those more delicate and engaging traits
which the author was enabled to discover by reason of the conjugal re-
lations he entered into with one of the females of the winged tribe." —
iV. Y. Evening Post.

"We think we can trace in it marks of transatlantic origin." — iV. Y:
Commercial Advertiser.

"■ The writer (Dr. Andrew Grant) displays the most extensive and ac-
curate knowledge of astronomy, and the description of Sir John's

62 APPENDIX.

recently improved instrnments, the principle on which the inestimable
improvements were fonnded, the account of the wonderful discoveries in
the moon, (fee, are all probable and plausible, and have an air of intense
verisimilitude." — JV. Y. Times.

" Gkeat Astronomical Discoveries ! — By the late arrivals from
England there has been received in this country a supplement to the
JSdinburffh Journal of Science containing intelligence of the most as-
tounding interest from Prof. Herschel's observatory at the Cape of Good

Hope The promulgation of these discoveries creates a new era

in astronomy and science generally." — New Yorker.

" Our enterprising neighbors of the Sun, we are pleased to learn,
are likely to enjoy a rich reward from the late lunar discoveries. They
deserve all they receive from the public — ' they are worthy.' " — N. Y.
Spirit of '16.

" After all, however, our doubts and incredulity may be a wrong to
the learned astronomer, and the circumstances of this wonderful dis-
covery may be correct. Let us do him justice, and allow him to tell
his story in his own w^ay." — JV. Y. Sunday News.

" The article is said to be an extract from a supplement to the Edin-
burgh Journal of Science. It sets forth difficulties encountered by Sir
John, on obtaining his glass castings for his great telescope, with mag-
nifying powers of 42,000. The account, excepting the magnifying power,
has been before published " \i. e., in the Supplement to the Edinburgh
Journal of Science. — Ed. Sun\ — U. S. Gazette.

" It is not worth while for us to express an opinion as to the truth or
falsity of the narrative, as our readers can, after an attentive perusal of
the whole story, decide for themselves. Whether true or false, the
article is written with consummate ability, and possesses intense inte-
rest." — Philadelphia Inquirer.

" These are but a handful of the innumerable certificates of credence,
and of complimentary testimonials with which the universal press of the
country is loading our tables. Indeed, we find veiy few of the public
papers express any other opinion. We have named the Journal of Com-
merce as an exception, because it not only ignorantly doubted the authen-
ticity of the discoveries, but ill-naturedly said that we had fabricated
them for the purpose of making a noise and drawing- attention to our
paper.

" Col. Webb of the Courier and Inquirer has said nothing upon the
subject; but he only feels the more, and we are this moment assured
that he has made arrangements with the proprietors of the Charleston

APPENDIX. 63

steam-packets to take the splendid boat William Gibbons of that line,
and charter her for the Cape of Good Hope, -whither he is going with
all his family— including Hoskin.

" We yesterday extracted from the celebrated Supplement, a mathema-
tical problem demonstrating an entirely new, and the only true method
of measuring the height of the lunar mountains. We were not then
aware of its great importance as a demonstration, also, of the authenti-
city of the great discoveries. But several eminent mathematicians have
since called and assured us, that it is the greatest mathematical dis-
covery of the present age. Now, that problem was either predicated by
us, or by some other person, who has thereby made the greatest of all
modern discoveries in mathematical astronomy. We did not make it,
for we know knothing of mathematics whatever ; therefore, it was made
by the only person to whom it can rationally be ascribed, namely,
Herschel the astronomer, its only avowed and undeniable author." —
Editor of the Sun.

THE STORY OF

je

ViVL

A NEWSPAPER IS ,THE MOST NEARLY HUMAN OF ALL INANIMATE THINGS —
"THE STORY OF THE SUN" IS A ROMANCE FASCINATING,

ILLUMINATING, DELIGHTFUL

By Frank M. O'Brien

EDITORIAL NOTE — This is the second of a series of articles narrating the
history of the New York Sun, and giving a vital, intimate view of New York life during
more than eighty eventful years. The first article, printed last month, told of the found-
ing of the Sun by Benjamin H. Day in September, 1833, of its rapid rise to success, and
of the stirring days when Horace Greeley, William Cullen Bryant, and James Watson
Webb were among the active journalists of New York.

THE young man whom Day met at
the murder trial in White Plains
was Richard Adams Locke, a re-
porter who v;as destined to kick up more
dust than perhaps any other man of his
profession. As he comes on the stage,
we must let his predecessor, George W.
Wisner, pass into the wings.

Wisner was a good man, as a reporter,
as a writer of editorial articles, and as
part owner of the paper. His campaign
for Abolition irritated Mr. Day at first,
but the young man's motives were so pure
and his articles so logical that Day rec-
ognized the justice of the cause, even as
he realized the foolish methods employed
by some of the Abolitionists. Wisner set
the face of the Sun against slavery, and
Day kept it so, but there were minor mat-
ters of policy upon which the partners
never agreed, never could agree.

When Wisner's health became poor, in
the summer of 1835, he expressed a desire
to get away from New York. Mr. Day

paid him five thousand dollars for his
interest in the paper — a large sum in
those days, considering the fact that
Wisner had won his share with no capital
except his pen. Wisner went West and
settled at Pontiac, Michigan. There his
health improved, his fortune increased,
and he was at one time a member of the
Michigan Legislature.

When Day found that Locke was the
best reporter attending the trial of
Matthias the Prophet, he hired him to
write a series of articles on the religious
fakir. These, the first " feature stories "
that ever appeared in the Sun, were
printed on the front page.

A few weeks later, while the Matthias
articles were still being sold on the streets
in pamphlet form, Locke went to Day
and told him that his boss. Colonel Webb
of the Courier and Enquirer, had dis-
charged him for working for the Stin " on
the side." Wisner was about to leave
the paper, and Day was glad to hire

100

MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

Locke, for he needed a good editorial
writer. Twelve dollars a week was the
alluring wage, and Locke accepted it.

THE AUTHOR OF THE MOON HOAX

Locke was then thirty-five — ten years
senior to his employer. Let his contem-
porary, Edgar Allan Poe, describe him:

He is about five feet seven- inches in height,
symmetrically formed; there is an air of dis-
tinction about his whole person — the air noble
of genius. His face is strongly pitted by the
smallpox, and, perhaps from the same cause,
there is a marked obliquity in the eyes; a cer-
tain calm, clear luminousness, however, about
these latter amply compensates for the defect,
and the forehead is truly beautiful in its in-
tellectuality. I am acquainted with no person
possessing so fine a forehead as Mr. Locke.

Locke was nine years older than Poe,
who at this time had most of his fame
ahead of him. Poe was quick to recognize
the quality of Locke's writings; in-
deed, the poet saw, perhaps more clearly
than others of that period, that America
was full of good writers — a fact of which
the general public was neglectful. This
was Poe's tribute to Locke's Hterary gift:

His prose style is noticeable for its concision,
luminosity, completeness — each quaHty in its
proper place. He has that method so generally
characteristic of genius proper. Everything he
writes is a model in its peculiar way, serving
just the purposes intended and nothing to spare.

The Sun's new writer was a collateral
descendant of John Locke, the English
philosopher of the seventeenth century.
Born in New York in 1800, he was edu-
cated by his mother and by private tutors
until he was nineteen, when he went to
England and entered Cambridge. While
still a student he contributed to the Bee,
the Imperial Magazine, and other Eng-
lish publications. In his political beliefs
he was thoroughly American, and when
he left Cambridge he had the hardihood
to start the London Republican, the title
of which describes its purpose. This was
a failure, for London declined to warm
to the theories of American democracy,
no matter how scholarly their expression.

Abandoning the Republican, young
Locke devoted himself to literature and
science. He ran a periodical called the
Cornucopia for about six months, but it
was not a financial success, and in 1830
he returned to New York for good and
all. Colonel Webb saw his merits, and
put him at work on his paper.

Locke could write almost anything. In
Cambridge and in Fleet Street he had
picked up a wonderful store of general
information. He could turn out prose or
poetry, politics or pathos, anecdotes or
astronomy.

While he lived in London, Locke was
a regular reader of the Edinburgh New
Philosophical Journal, and he brought
some copies of it to America. One of
these, an issue of 1826, contained an
article by Dr. Thomas Dick, of Dundee,
a pious man, but inclined to speculate on
the possibilities of the universe. In this
article Dr. Dick suggested the feasibility
of communicating with the moon by
means of great stone symbols on the face
of the earth. The people of the moon —
if there were any — would fathom the dia-
grams and reply in a similar way. Dr.
Dick explained afterward that he wrote
this piece with the idea of satirizing a
certain coterie of eccentric German
astronomers.

Now it happened that Sir John Fred-
erick William Herschel, the greatest
astronomer of his time, and the son of
the celebrated astronomer Sir William
Herschel, went to South Africa in Jan-
uary, 1834, and estabHshed an obser-
vatory at Feldhausen, near Cape Town,
with the intention of completing his
survey of the sidereal heavens by ex-
amining the southern skies as he had
swept the northern, thus to make the
first telescopic survey of the whole surface
of the visible heavens.

Locke knew about Sir John and his
mission. The Matthias case had blown
over, the big fire in Fulton Street was
almost forgotten, and things were a bit
dull on the island of Manhattan. The
newspapers were in a state of armed

THE STORY OF THE SUN

101

truce. As Locke and his fellow journalists
gathered at the American Hotel bar for
their after-dinner brandy, it is probable
that there was nothing, not even the
great sloth recently arrived at the Ameri-
can Museum, to excite a good argument.

PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE HOAX

Locke needed money, for his salary of
twelve dollars a week could ill support
the fine gentleman that he was; so he
laid a plan before Mr. Day. It was a
plot as well as a plan, and the first sly
angle of the plot appeared on the second
page of the Sun on August 21, 1835:

CELESTIAL DISCOVERIES — The Edin-
burgh Courant saj'S — "We have just learnt
from an eminent publisher in this city that
Sir John Herschel, at the Cape of Good Hope,
has made some astronomical discoveries of the
most wonderful description, by means of an
immense telescope of an entirely new principle."

Nothing further appeared until Tues-
day, August 25, when three columns of
the Sun's first page took the newspaper
and scientific worlds by the ears. Those
were not the days of big type. The Sun's
heading read:

GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.

LAXEIiT MADE
BT SIR JOHN HERSOHEL, LL.I)., F.R.S., &c.

At tbe Cape ot Good Hope.

IFrom Supplement to the Edinhurgh Journal of Science.']

It may as well be said here that al-
though there had been an Edinburgh
Journal of Science, it ceased to exist
several years before 1835. The periodical
to which Dr. Dick, of Dundee, con-
tributed his moon theories was, in a way,
the successor to the Journal of Science,
but it was called the New Philosophical
Journal. The likeness of names was not
great, but enough to cause some con-
fusion. It is also noteworthy that the
sly Locke credited to a supplement, rather
than to the Journal of Science itself, the
revelations which he that day began to
pour before the eyes of Sun readers.
Thus he started;

In this unusual addition to our Journal we
have the happiness of making known to the
British public, and thence to the whole civ-
ilized world, recent discoveries in astronomy
which will build an imperishable monument to
the age in which we live, and confer upon the
present generation of the human race proud
distinction through all future time. It has been
poetically said that the stars of heaven are the
hereditary regalia of man as the intellectual
sovereign of the animal creation. He may now
fold the zodiac around him with a loftier con-
sciousness of his mental supremacy.

After solemnly dwelling on the awe
which mortal man must feel upon peering
into the secrets of the sky, the article de-
clared that Sir John " paused several
hours before he commenced his observa-
tions, that he might prepare his own
mind for discoveries which he knew
would fill the minds of myriads of his
fellow men with astonishment." It con-
tinued:

And well might he pause! From the hour
the first human pair opened their eyes to the
glories of the blue firmament above them,
there has been no accession to human knowl-
edge at all comparable in sublime interest to
that which he has been the honored agent in
supplying. Well might he pause! He was
about to become the sole depository of won-
drous secrets which had been hid from the
eyes of all men that had lived since the birth
of time.

At the end of a half-column of glorifica-
tion, the writer got down to brass tacks:

To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will
state at once that by means of a telescope, of
vast dimensions and an entirely new principle,
the younger Herschel, at his observatory in the
southern hemisphere, has already made the
most extraordinary discoveries in every planet
of our solar system; has discovered planets in
other solar systems; has obtained a distinct
view of objects in the moon, fully equal to
that which the unaided eye commands of ter-
restrial objects at the distance of one hundred
yards; has affirmatively settled the question
whether this satellite be inhabited, and by what
orders of beings; has firmly established a new
theory of cometary phenomena; and has solved
or corrected nearly every leading problem of
mathematical astronomy.

And where was the Journal of Science
getting this mine of astronomical revela-

102

MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

tion for its supplement? The mystery is
explained at once:

We are indebted to the devoted friendship of
Dr. Andrew Grant, the pupil of the elder, and
for several years past the inseparable coadjutor
of the younger Herschel. The amanuensis of
the latter at the Cape of Good Hope, and the
indefatigable superintendent of his telescope
during the whole period of its construction and
operations, Dr. Grant has been able to supply
us with intelligence equal in general interest at
least to that which Dr. Herschel himself has
transmitted to the Royal Society. For per-
mission to indulge his friendship in com-
municating this invaluable information to us,
Dr. Grant and ourselves are indebted to the
magnanimity of Dr. Herschel, who, far above
all mercenary considerations, has thus signally
honored and rewarded his fellow laborer in the
field of science.

Regarding the illustrations which, ac-
cording to the implications of the text,
accompanied the supplement, the writer
was specific. Most of them, he stated,
were copies of " drawings taken in the
observatory by Herbert Home, Esq., who
accompanied the last powerful series of
reflectors from London to the Cape. The
engraving of the belts of Jupiter is a re-
duced copy of an imperial folio drawing
by Dr. Herschel himself. The segment
of the inner ring of Saturn is from a large
drawing by Dr. Grant."

SOMETHING NEW IN TELESCOPY

A history of Sir William Herschel's
work and a description of his telescopes
took up a column of the Sun, and on top
of this came the details — as the Journal
printed them — of Sir John's plans to
outdo his father by revolutionary methods
and a greater telescope. Sir John, it ap-
peared, was in conference with Sir David
Brewster :

After a few minutes' silent thought, Sir John
diffidently inquired whether it would not be
possible to effect a transfusion of artificial light
through the focal object of vision 1 Sir David,
somewhat startled at the originality of the idea,
paused a while, and then hesitatingly referred
to the refrangibility of rays and the angle of
incidence. Sir John, grown more confident,
adduced the example of the Newtonian reflector,

in which the refrangibility was corrected by
the second speculum and the angle of incidence
restored by the third.

" And," continued he, " why cannot the illu-
minated microscope, say the hydro-oxygen, be
applied to render distinct and, if necessary,
even to magnify, the focal object?"

Sir David sprang from his chair in an
ecstasy of conviction, and, leaping half-way to
the ceiling, exclaimed:

"Thou art the man!"

Details of the casting of a great lens
came next. It was twenty-four feet in
diameter, and weighed nearly fifteen thou-
sand pounds after it was polished; its esti-
mated magnifying-power was forty-two
thousand times. As he saw it safely start-
ed on its way to Africa, Sir John " ex-
pressed confidence in his ultimate ability
to study even the entomology of the
moon, in case she contained insects upon
her surface."

Thus ended the first instalment of the
story. Where had the Sun got the
Journal of Science supplement? An ed-
itorial article answered that " it was very
politely furnished us by a medical gentle-
man immediately from Scotland, in con-
sequence of a paragraph which appeared
on Friday last from the Edinburgh
Com ant." The article added:

The portion which we publish to-day is in-
troductory to celestial discoveries of higher and
more universal interest than any, in any science
yet known to the human race. Now indeed it
may be said that we live in an age of discovery.

It cannot be said that the whole town
buzzed with excitement that day. Per-
haps this first instalment was a bit over
the heads of most readers; it was so
technical, so foreign. But in Nassau and
Ann Streets, wherever two newspaper-
men were gathered together, there was
buzzing enough. What was coming next?
Why hadn't they thought to subscribe to
the Edinburgh Journal of Science, with
its wonderful supplement?

As Mr, Day and his new writer, Mr.
Locke, dropped into Tammany Hall for
their afternoon refreshment, doubtless
envious eyes were cast upon them. Per-

THE STORY OF THE SUN

103

haps they drank to "a medical gentle-
man immediately from Scotland."

THE SECOND INSTALMENT OF THE HOAX

Nearly four columns of the revelations
appeared on the following day — August
26, 1835. This time tlie reading public
came trooping into camp, for the Sun's re-
print of the Journal of Science supplement
got beyond the stage of preliminaries and
predictions, and began to tell of what was
to be seen on the moon. Scientists and
newspapermen appreciated the detailed
description of the mammoth telescope and
the work of placing it, but the public,
like a child, wanted the moon — and got
it. Let us plunge in at about the point
where the public plunged:

The specimen of lunar vegetation, however,
which they had already seen, had decided a
question of too exciting an interest to induce
them to retard its exit. It had demonstrated
that the moon has an atmosphere constituted
similarly to our own, and capable of sustaining
organized and, therefore, most probably, animal
life.

" The trees," says Dr. Grant, " for a period
of ten minutes were of one unvaried kind, and
unlike any I have seen except the largest class
of yews in the English churchyards, which they
in some respects resemble. These were followed
by a level green plain which, as measured by
the painted circle on our canvas of forty-nine
feet, must have been more than half a mile
in breadth."

The article had explained that, by
means of a great reflector, the lunar
views were thrown upon a big canvas
screen behind the telescope.

Then appeared as fine a forest of firs, un-
equivocal firs, as I have ever seen cherished in
the bosom of my native mountains, Wearied
with the long continuance of these, we greatly
reduced the magnifying power of the microscope
without eclipsing either of the reflectors, and
immediately perceived that we had been in-
sensibly descending, as it were, a mountainous
district of highly diversified and romantic char-
acter, and that we were on the verge of a lake,
or inland sea; but of what relative locality or
extent, we were yet too greatly magnified to
determine.

On Introducing the feeblest achromatic lens
we possessed, we found that the water, whose

boundary we had just discovered, answered in
general outline to the Mare Nvbicum of Riccoli.
Fairer shores never angel coasted on a tour of
pleasure. A beach of brilliant white sand, girt
with wild, castellated rocks, apparently of green
marble, varied at chasms, occurring every two
or three hundred feet, with grotesque blocks
of chalk or gypsum, and feathered and festooned
at the summits with the clustering foliage of
unknown trees, moved along the bright wall of
our apartment until we were speechless with
admiration.

A column farther on, in a wonderful
valley of this wonderful moon, life at last
burst upon the seers:

In the shade of the woods on the south-
eastern side we beheld continuous herds of
brown quadrupeds, having all the external char-
acteristics of the bison, but more diminutive
than any species of the bos genus In our natural
history. Its tail was like tlaat of our bos
grunniens; but in its semicircular horns, the
hump on its shoulders, the depth of its dewlap,
and the length of its shaggy hair, it closely re-
sembled the species to which I have compared It.

It had, however, one widely distinctive fea-
ture, which we afterward found common to
nearly every lunar quadruped we have dis-
covered; namely, a remarkable flesh}' appendage
over the eyes, crossing the whole breadth of the
forehead and united to the ears. We could
most distinctly perceive this hairy veil, which
was shaped like the upper front outline of the
cap known to the ladles as Mary Queen of
Scots cap, lifted and lowered by means of the
ears. It immediately occurred to the acute
mind of Dr. Herschel that this was a provi-
dential contrivance to protect the eyes of the
animal from the great extremes of light and
darkness to which all the inhabitants of our
side of the moon are periodically subjected.

The next animal perceived would be classed
on earth as a monster. It was of a bluish lead
color, about the size of a goat, with a head
and beard like him, and a single horn, slightly
Inclined forward from the perpendicular. The
female was destitute of the horn and beard,
but had a much longer tail. It was gregarious,
and chiefly abounded on the accllvltous glades
of the woods. In elegance of symmetry it
rivaled the antelope, and like him it seemed an
agile, sprightly creature, running with great
speed and springing from the green turf with
all the unaccountable antics of the young Iamb
or kitten.

This beautiful creature afforded us the most
exquisite amusement. The mimicry of its move-
ments upon our white-painted canvas was as
faithful and luminous as that of animals within
a few yards of a camera obscura when seen

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MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

pictured upon its tympan. Frequently, when
attempting to -at our fingers upon its beard,
it would suddeiily bound away into oblivion,
as if conscious of our earthly impertinence; but
then others would appear, whom we could not
prevent nibbling the herbage, say or do what
we would to them.

So, at last, the people of earth knew
something concrete about the live things
of the moon. Goats with beards were
there, and every New Yorker knew goats,
for they fed upon the rocky hills of
Harlem. And the moon had birds, too:

On examining the center of this delightful
valley we found a large, branching river,
abounding with lovely islands and water-birds
of numerous kinds. A species of gray pelican
■was the most numerous, but black and white
cranes, with unreasonably long legs and bill,
were also quite common. We watched their
piscivorous experiments a long time in hopes
of catching sight of a lunar fish; but, although
we were not gratified in this respect, we could
easily guess the purpose with which they
plunged their long necks so deeply beneath the
water. Near the upper extremity of one of
these islands we obtained a glimpse of a strange
amphibious creature of a spherical form, which
rolled with great velocity across the pebbly
beach, and was lost sight of in the strong cur-
rent which set off from this angle of the island.

At this point clouds intervened, and
the Herschel party had to call it a day.
But it had been a big day, and nobody
who read the Sun wondered that the
astronomers tossed off " congratulatory
bumpers of the best ' East India par-
ticular,' and named this place of wonders
the Valley of the Unicorn." So ended
the Sun story of August 26, but an
editorial paragraph assured the patrons
of the paper that on the morrow there
would be a treat even richer.

THE RECEPTION OF THE HOAX

What did the other papers say? In the
language of a later and less elegant
period, they ate it up — some eagerly,
some grudgingly, some a bit dubiously,
but they ate it, either in crumbs or in
hunks. The Daily Advertiser declared:

No article has appeared for years that will
command so general a perusal and publication.

Sir John has added a stock of knowledge to
the present age that will immortalize his name
and place it high on the page of science.

The Mercantile Advertiser, knowing
that its lofty readers were unlikely to
see the moon revelations in the lowly
Sun, hastened to begin reprinting the
articles in toto, with the remark that the
document appeared to have intrinsic evi-
dence of authenticity.

The Times, a daily then only a year
old, and destined to live only eighteen
months more — later, of course, the title
was used by a successful daily — said that
everything in the Sun story was probable
and plausible, and had an " air of intense
verisirnilitude."

The New York Sunday News advised
the incredulous to be patient:

Our doubts and incredulity may be a wrong
to the learned astronomer, and the circum-
stances of this wonderful discovery may be
correct.

The Courier and Enquirer said nothing
at all. Like the Journal of Commerce,
it hated the Sun for a lucky upstart.
Both of these sixpenny respectables stood
silent, with their axes behind their backs.
Their own readers, the Livingstons and
the Stuyvesants, got not a line about the
moon from the blanket sheets, but they
sent down into the kitchen and borrowed
the Sun from the domestics, on the
shallow pretext of wishing to discover
whether their employees were reading a
moral newspaper — as indeed they were.

The Herald, then about four months
old, said not a word about the moon
story. In fact, that was a period in which
it said nothing at all about any subject,
for the fire of that summer had unfortu-
nately wiped out its plant. On the very
days when the 'moon stories appeared,
Mr. Bennett stood cracking his knuckles
in front of his new establishment, the
basement of 202 Broadway, trying to
hurry the men who were installing a
double-cylinder press. Being a wise per-
son, he advertised his progress in the Sun.
It may have vexed him to see the circula-

THE STORY OF THE SUN

105

tion of tlie Sun — which he had imitated
in character and price — bound higher and
higher as he stood helpless.

A THIRD BUDGET OF LUNAR MARVELS

The third instalment of the literary
treasure so obligingly imported by the
" medical gentleman immediately from
Scotland " introduced to Sun readers new
and important regions of the moon — the
Vagabond Mountains, the Lake of Death,
craters of extinct volcanoes twenty-eight
hundred feet high, and twelve luxuriant
forests divided by open plains " in which
waved an ocean of verdure, and which
were probably prairies like those of North
America." The details were satisfying:

Dr. Herschel has classified not less than
thirty-eight species of forest trees and nearly
twice this number of plants, found in this tract
alone, which are widely different to those found
in more equatorial latitudes. Of animals he
classified nine species of mammalia and five of
oviparia. Among the former is a small kind
of reindeer, the elk, the moose, the horned
bear, and the biped beaver.

The last resembles the beaver of the earth
in every other respect than its destitution of a
tail and its invariable habit of walking upon
only two feet. It carries its young in its arms,
like a human being, and walks with an easy,
gliding motion. Its huts are constructed better
and higher than those of many tribes of human
savages, and from the appearance of smoke in
nearly all of them there is no doubt of its
being acquainted with the use of fire.

The largest lake described was two
hundred and sixty-six miles long and one
hundred and ninety-three wide, shaped
like the Bay of Bengal, and studded with
volcanic islands. One island in a large
bay was pinnacled with quartz crystals
as brilliant as fire. Near by roamed
zebras three feet high. Golden and blue
pheasants strutted about. The beach was
covered with shell-fish. Dr. Grant did
not say whether the fire-making beavers
ever held a clambake there.

The Sun of Friday, August 28, 1835,
was a notable issue. Not yet two years
old, Mr. Day's newspaper had the satis-
faction of announcing that it had achieved
the largest circulation of any daily in the

world. It had, it said, 15,440 regular
subscribers in New York and 700 in
Brooklyn, and it sold 2,000 in the streets
and 1,220 out of town — a 'grand total of
19,360 copies, as against the 17,000 circu-
lation of the London Times. The double-
cylinder Napier press in the building at
Nassau and Spruce Streets — the corner
where the Tribune is to-day, and to
which the Sun had moved on August 3 —
had to run ten hours a da}^ to satisfy the
public demand. People waited with more
or less patience until three o'clock in the
afternoon to read about the moon.

THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE MAN-BATS

That very issue contained the most
sensational instalment of all the moon
series, for through that mystic chain
which included Dr. Grant, the supple-
ment of the Edinburgh Journal of Science,
the " medical gentleman immediately from
Scotland," and the Sun, public curiosity
as to the presence of human creatures on
the orb of night was satisfied at last. The
astronomers were looking upon the cliffs
and crags of a new part of the moon:

But whilst gazing upon them in a perspective
of about half a mile, we were thrilled with
astonishment to perceive four successive flocks
of large winged creatures, wholly unlike any
kind of birds, descend with a slow, even motion
from the cliffs on the western side and alight
upon the plain. They were first noticed by
Dr. Herschel, who exclaimed:

" Now, gentlemen, my theories against your
proofs, which you have often found a pretty
even bet, we have here something worth look-
ing at. I was confident that if ever we found
beings in human shape it would be in this
longitude, and that they would be provided
by their Creator with some extraordinary
powers of locomotion. First, exchange for my
Number D."

This lens, being soon introduced, gave us a
fine half-mile distance; and we counted three
parties of these creatures, of twelve, nine, and
fifteen in each, walking erect toward a small
wood near the base of the eastern precipices.
Certainly they were like human beings, for
their wings had now disappeared, and their
attitude in walking was both erect and dignified.

Having observed them at this distance for
some minutes, we introduced lens H.z., which
brought them to the apparent proximity of

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MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

eighty yards — the highest clear magnitude we
possessed until the latter end of March, when
we effected an improvement in the gas burners.

About half of the first party had passed
beyond our cailvas; but of all the others we
had a perfectly distinct and deliberate view.
They averaged four feet in height, were cov-
ered, except on the face, with short and glossy
copper-colored hair, and had wings composed
of a thin membrane, without hair, lying snugly
upon their backs, from the top of the shoulders
to the calves of the legs.

The face, which was of a yellowish flesh- '
color, was a slight improvement upon that of
the large orang-utan, being more open and in-
telligent in its expression, and having a much
greater expanse of forehead. The mouth, how-
ever, was very prominent, though somewhat re-
lieved by a thick beard upon the lower jaw,
and by lips far more human than those of any
species of the Simla genus.

In general symmetry of body and limbs they
were infinitely superior to the orang-utan; so
much so that, but for their long wings, Lieu-
tenant Drummond said they would look as well
on a parade-ground as some of the old cockney
militia. The hair on the head was a darker
color than that of the body, closely curled, but
apparently not woolly, and arranged in two
curious semicircles over the temples of the fore-
head. Their feet could only be seen as they
were alternately lifted in walking; but from
what we could see of them in so transient a
view, they appeared thin and very protuberant
at the heel.

Whilst passing across the canvas, and when-
ever we afterward saw them, these creatures
were evidently engaged in conversation; their
gesticulation, more particularly the varied action
of the hands and arms, appeared impassioned
and emphatic. We hence inferred that they
were rational beings, and, although not per-
haps of so high an order as others which we
discovered the next month on the shores of
the Bay of Rainbows, that they were capable
of producing works of art and contrivance.

The next view we obtained of them was still
more favorable. It was on the borders of a
little lake, or expanded stream, which we then
for the first time perceived running down the
valley to the large lake, and having on its
eastern margin a small wood. Some of these
creatures had crossed this water and were lying
like spread eagles on the skirts of the wood.

We could then perceive that their wings pos-
sessed great expansion, and were similar in
structure to those of the bat, being a semi-
transparent membrane expanded in curvilineal
divisions by means of straight radii, united
at the back by the dorsal integuments. But
what astonished us very much was the circum-
stance of this membrane being continued from

the shoulders to the legs, united all the way
down, though gradually decreasing in width.
The wings seemed completely under the com-
mand of volition, for those of the creatures
whom we saw bathing in the water spread
them instantly to their full width, waved them
as ducks do theirs to shake off the water, and
then as instantly closed them again in a com-
pact form.

Our further observation of the habits of these
creatures, who were of both sexes, led to results
so very remarkable that I prefer they should
be first laid before the public in Dr. Herschel's
own work, where I have reason to know that
they are fully and faithfully stated, however
Incredulously thej' may be received. . . ■.

The three families then almost simultaneously
spread their wings, and were lost in the dark
confines of the canvas before we had time to
breathe from our paralyzing astonishment. We
scientifically denominated them the vespertilio-
iiomo, or man-bat; and they are doubtless in-
nocent and happy creatures, notwithstanding
some of their amusements would but ill com-
port with our terrestrial notions of decorum.

So ended the account, in Dr. Grant's
words, of that fateful day. The editor
of the supplement, perhaps a cousin of
the '' medical gentleman immediately ar-
rived from Scotland," added that although
he had of course faithfully obeyed Dr.
Grant's injunction to omit " these highly
curious passages," he did not " clearly
perceive the force of the reasons assigned
for it," and he added:

From these, however, and other prohibited
passages, which will be published by Dr. Her-
schel with the certificates of the civil and mil-
itary authorities of the colony, and of several
Episcopal, Wesleyan, and other ministers who,
in the month of March last, were permitted
under the stipulation of temporary secrecy to
visit the observatory and become eye-witnesses
of the wonders which they were requested to
attest, we are confident his forthcoming vol-
umes will be at once the most sublime in science
and the most intense in general interest that
ever issued from the press.

New York now stopped about all dis-
cussion of human slaver}^, the high cost
of living — apples cost as much as four
cents apiece in Wall Street — and other
familiar topics, and devoted its talking
hours to the man-bats of the moon. The
Sun was stormed by people who wanted
back numbers of the stories, and flooded

THE STORY OF THE SUN

107

with demands by mail. As the text of
the Journal of Science article indicated
that the original narrative had been
illustrated, there was a cry for pictures.

Mr. Day was busy with the paper and
its overworked press, but he gave Mr.
Locke a free hand, and that scholar took
to Norris & Baker, lithographers, in the
Union Building, Wall Street, the drawings
which had been entrusted to his care by
the " medical gentleman immediately
from Scotland." Mr. Baker, described by
the Sun as quite the most talented htho-
graphic artist of the city, worked day and
night on his deHghtful task, that the
illustrations might be ready when the
Sun's press should have turned out, in the
hours when it was not printing Suns,
a pamphlet containing the astronomical
discoveries.

" Dr. Herschel's great work," said the
Sun, " is preparing for publication at ten
guineas sterling, or fifty dollars; and we
shall give all the popular substance of
it for twelve or thirteen cents." The
pamphlets were to be sold two for a
quarter; the Hthographs at twenty-five
cents for the set.

Most newspapers that mentioned the
discovery of human creatures on the
moon were credulous. The Evening Post,
edited by William Cullen Bryant and
Fitz - Greene Halleck — "the chanting
cherubs of the Post," as Colonel Webb
was wont to call them — only skirted the
edge of doubt:

That there should be winged people in the
moon does not strike us as more wonderful
than the existence of such a race of beings on
earth; and that there does or did exist such
a race rests on the evidence of that most vera-
cious of voyagers, Peter Wilkins, whose cele-
brated work not only gives an account of the
general appearance and habits of a most inter-
esting tribe of flying Indians, but also of those
more delicate and engaging traits which the
author was enabled to discover by reason of the
conjugal relations he entered into with one of
the females of the winged tribe.

Peter Wilkins was the hero of Robert
Paltock's imaginative book, " The Life

and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, a
Cornish Man," published in London in
1750. Paltock's winged people, said
Southey, were " the most beautiful crea-
tures of imagination that were ever
devised."

THE WONDROUS TEMPLE OF THE MOON

The instalment of the discoveries
printed on August 29 revealed to the
reader the great Temple of the Moon,
built of poHshed sapphire, with a roof of
some yellow metal, supported by columns
seventy feet high and six feet in diameter:

It was open on all sides, and seemed to con-
tain neither seats, altars, nor offerings, but it
was a light and airy structure, nearly a hun-
dred feet high from its white, glistening floor
to the glowing roof, and it stood upon a round,
green eminence on the eastern side of the
valley. We afterward, however, discovered two
others which were in every respect facsimiles
of this one; but in neither did we perceive
any visitants except flocks of wild doves, which
alighted on its lustrous pinnacles.

Had the devotees of these temples gone the
way of all living, or were the latter merely
historical monuments? What did the ingenious
builders mean by the globe surrounded with
flames? Did they, by this, record any past
calamity of their world, or predict any future
one of ours?, I by no means despair of ulti-
mately solving not only these, but a thousand
other questions which present themselves re-
specting the object in this planet; for not the
millionth part of her surface has yet been ex-
plored, and we have been more desirous of
coflecting the greatest possible number of new
facts than of indulging in speculative theories,
however seductive to the imagination.

The conclusion of this astounding
narrative, which totaled eleven thousand
words, was printed on August 31. In the
valley of the temple a new set of man-
bats was found:

We had no opportunity of seeing them
actually engaged in any work of industry or
art; and, so far as we could judge, they spent
their happy hours in collecting various fruits
in the woods, in eating, flying, bathing, and
loitering about upon the summits of precipices.

One night, when the astronomers fin-
ished work, they neglectfully left the

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MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

telescope in a perpendicular position.
The risen sun burned a hole fifteen feet
in circumference through the reflecting
chamber, and ruined part of the obser-
vatory. When the damage was repaired,
the moon was invisible, and so Dr.
Herschel turned his attention to Saturn.
Much of the discoveries here were tech-
nical, as the Sun assured its readers, and
the narrative came to an end. An editorial
note added:

This concludes the supplement with the ex-
ception of forty pages of illustrative and mathe-
matical notes, which would greatly enhance the
size and price of this work without commensur-
ably adding to its general interest. In order
that our readers may judge for themselves
whether we have withheld from them any
matter of general comprehension and interest,
we insert one of the notes from those pages
of the supplement which we thought it useless
to reprint; and it may be considered a fair
sample of the remainder. For ourselves, we
know nothing of mathematics beyond counting
dollars and cents, but to geometricians the
following new method of measuring the height
of the lunar mountains, adopted by Sir John
Herschel, may be quite interesting.

BAFFLED TRUTH-SEEKERS FROM YALE

Perhaps the pretended method of
measuring lunar mountains was not in-
teresting to laymen, but it may have
been the cause of an intellectual tumult
at Yale. At all events, a deputation from
that college hurried to the steamboat and
came to New York to see the wonderful
supplement. The collegians saw Mr.
Day, and voiced their desire.

" Surely," he replied, " you do not
doubt that we have the supplement in
our possession? I suppose the magazine
is somewhere up-stairs, but I consider it
almost an insult that you should ask to
see it."

On their way out the Yale men heard,
perhaps from the " devil," that one Locke
was interested in the matter of the moon,
that he had handled the supplement, and
that he was to be seen at the foot of the
stairs, smoking his cigar and gazing across
City Hall Park. They advanced upon
him, and he, less brusk than Mr. Day,

told the scientific pilgrims that the sup-
plement was in the hands of a printer in
William Street — giving the name and
address.

As the Yale men disappeared in the
direction of the printery, Locke started
for the same goal, and more rapidly.
When the Yalensians arrived, the printer,
primed by Locke, told them that the
precious pamphlet had just been sent to
another shop, where certain proof-reading
was to be done. And so they went from
post to pillar until the hour came for
their return to New Haven. It would
not do to linger in New York, for Pro-
fessors Denison Olmsted and Elias Loomis
were that very day getting their first
peep at Halley's comet, about to make
the regular appearance with which it
favors the earth every seventy-six years.

But Yale was not the only part of
intellectual New England to be deeply
interested in the moon and its bat-men.
The Gazette of Hampshire, Massachu-
setts, insisted that Edward Everett, who
was then running for Governor, had these
astronomical discoveries in mind when
he declared that " we know not how soon
the mind, in its researches into the
labyrinth of nature, would grasp some
clue which would lead to a new universe
and change the aspect of the world."

Harriet Martineau, who was touring
America at the time, wrote in her
" Sketches of Western Travel " that the
ladies of Springfield, Massachusetts, sub-
scribed to a fund to send missionaries to
the benighted luminary. When the Sun
articles reached Paris, they were at once
translated into illustrated pamphlets, and
the caricaturists of the Paris newspapers
drew pictures of the man-bats going
through the streets singing " Au Clair
de la Ltine." London, Edinburgh, and
Glasgow made haste to issue editions of
the work.

Meanwhile, of course, Sir John Her-
schel was busy with his telescope at the
Cape, all unaware of his expanded fame
in the north, Caleb Weeks, of Jamaica,
Long Island, the Adam Forepaugh of his

THE STORY OF THE SUN

109

day, was setting out for South Africa to
get a supply of giraffes for his menagerie,
and he had the honor of laying in the
great astronomer's hand a clean copy of
the pamphlet. To say that Sir John was
amazed at the Sun's enterprise would be
putting it mildty. When he had read the
story through, he went to Caleb Weeks
and said that he was overcome; that he
never could hope to live up to the fame
that had been heaped upon him.

HOW THE SECRET LEAKED OUT

In New York, meanwhile, Richard
Adams Locke had spilled the beans.
There was a reporter named Finn, once
employed by the Sun, but later a scribe
for the Journal of Commerce. He and
Locke were friends. One afternoon
Gerard Hallock, who was David Hale's
partner in the proprietorship of the
Journal of Commerce, called Finn to his
office and told him to get extra copies
of the Sun containing the moon story,
as the Journal had decided, in justice
to its readers, that it must reprint it.

Perhaps at the Sun office, perhaps in
the tap-room of the Washington Hotel,
Finn met Locke, and they went socially
about to public places. Finn told Locke
of the work on which he was engaged,
and said that, as the moon story was
already being put into type at the Journal
office, it was likely that it would be
printed on the morrow.

" Don't print it right away," said
Locke. " I wrote it myself."

The next day the Journal, instead of
being silently grateful for the warning,
denounced the alleged discoveries as a
hoax. Mr. Bennett, who by this time
had the Herald once more in running
order, not only cried ''Hoax!" but
named Locke as the author.

Probably Locke was glad that the
suspense was over. He is said to have
told a friend that he had not intended
the story as a hoax, but as satire.

" It is quite evident," he said, as he
saw the whole country take the marvelous
narrative seriously, " that it is an abortive

satire; and I am the best self-hoaxed
man in the whole community."

But while the Sun's rivals denounced
the hoax, the Sun was not quick to admit
that it had gulled not only its own
readers but almost all the scientific world.
Barring the casual conversation between
Locke and Finn, there was no evidence
plain enough to convince the layman that
it was a hoax. The Sun fenced lightly
and skilfully with all controverters. On
September i6, more than two weeks after
the conclusion of the story, it printed a
long editorial article on the subject of
the authenticity of the discoveries, men-
tioning the wide-spread interest that had
been displayed in them:

Most of those who incredulously regard the
whole narrative as a hoax are generously enthu-
siastic in panegyrizing not only what they are
pleased to denominate its ingenuity and talent,
but also its useful effect in diverting the public
mind, for a while, from that bitter apple of
discord, the abolition of slavery, which still
unhappily threatens to turn the milk of human
kindness into rancorous gall. That the astro-
nomical discoveries have had this effect is
obvious from our exchange papers. Who knows,
therefore, whether these discoveries in the moon,
with the visions of the blissful harmony of
her inhabitants which they have revealed, may
not have had the effect of reproving the discords
of a country which might be happy as a para-
dise, which has valleys not less lovely than
those of the Ruby Colosseum, of the Unicorn,
or of the Triads; and which has not inferior
facilities for social intercourse to those possessed
by the vespertiliones-homines, or any other
homines whatever?

Some persons of little faith but great good
nature, who consider the " moon story," as it
is vulgarly called, an adroit fiction of our own,
are quite of the opinion that this was the
amiable moral which the writer had in view.
Other readers, however, construe the whole as
an elaborate satire upon the monstrous fabrica-
tions of the political press of the country and
the various genera and species of its party
editors. In the blue goat with the single horn,
mentioned as it is in connexion with the royal
arms of England, many persons fancy they
perceive the characteristics of a notorious for-
eigner who is the supervising editor of one of
our largest morning papers.

We confess that this idea of intended satire
somewhat shook our own faith in the genuine-
ness of the extracts from the Edinburgh Journal

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MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

of Science with which a gentleman connected
with our office furnished us as " from a medical
gentleman immediately from Scotland."

Certain correspondents have been urging us
to come out and confess the Vs^hole to be a
hoax; but this we can by no means do until
we have the testimony of the English or Scotch
papers to corroborate such a declaration. In
the mean time let every reader of the account
examine it and enjoy his own opinion. Many
intelligent and scientific persons will believe it
true, and will continue to do so to their lives'
end; whilst the skepticism of others would not
be removed though they were in Dr. Herschel's
observatory itself.

THE MOON HOAX ON THE STAGE

The New York showmen of that day
were keen for novelty, and the moon
story helped them to it. Mr. Hannington,
who ran the diorama in the City Saloon
■ — which was not a barroom, but an
amusement house — on Broadway opposite
St. Paul's Church, put on " The Lunar
Discoveries; a Brilliant Illustration of the
Scientific Observation of the Surface of
the Moon, to Which Will Be Added the
Reported Lunar Observations of Sir John
Herschel." Hannington had been show-
ing " The Deluge " and " The Burning
of Moscow," but the wonders of the moon
proved to be far more attractive to his
patrons. The Sun approved of this moral
spectacle:

Hannington forever and still years afterward,
say we ! His panorama of the lunar discoveries,
in connexion with the beautiful dioramas, are
far superior to any other exhibition in this
country.

Not less popular than Hannington's
panorama was an extravaganza put on by
Thomas Hamblin at the Bowery Theater,
and called " Moonshine, or Lunar Dis-
coveries." A Sun man went to review it,
and had to stand up; but he was patient
enough to stay, and he wrote this about
the show:

It is quite evident that Hamblin does not
believe a word of the whole story, or he would
never have taken the liberties with it which
he has. The wings of the man-bats and lady-
bats, who are of an orange color and look like
angels in the jaimdice, are well contrived for

effect; and the dialogue is highly witty and
pungent. Major Jack Downing's blowing up
a whole flock of winged lunarians with a com-
bustible bundle of Abolition tracts, after vainly
endeavoring to catch a long aim at them with
his rifle, is capital; as are also his puns and
jokes upon the splendid scenery of the Ruby
Colosseum. Take it altogether, it is the most
amusing thing that has been on these boards
for a long time.

Thus the moon eclipsed the regular
stars of the New York stage. Even Mrs.
Duff, the most pathetic Isabella that ever
appeared in " The Fatal Marriage," saw
her audiences thin out at the Franklin
Theater. Sol Smith's drolleries in " The
Lying Valet," at the Park Theater, could
not rouse the laughter that the burlesque
man-bats caused at the Bowery.

POE AND LOCKE — A CURIOUS PARALLEL

All this time there was a disappointed
man in Baltimore; disappointed because
the moon stories had caused him to aban-
don one of the most ambitious stories he
had attempted. This was Edgar Allan
Poe, and the story he dropped was '' Hans
Pfaall."

In the spring of 1835 the Harpers
issued an edition of Sir John Herschel's
" Treatise on Astronomy," and Poe, who
read it, was deeply interested in the
chapter on the possibility of future lunar
investigations :

The theme excited my fancy, and I longed
to give free rein to it in depicting my day-
dreams about the scenery of the moon; in
short, I longed to write a story embodying
these dreams. The obvious difficulty, of course,
was that of accounting for the narrator's ac-
quaintance with the satellite; and the equally
obvious mode of surmounting the difficulty was
the supposition of an extraordinary telescope.

Poe spoke of this ambition to John
Pendleton Kennedy, of Baltimore, already
the author of " Swallow Bam," and later
to have the honor of writing, as the result
of a jest by Thackeray, the fourth chapter
of the second volume of "■ The Vir-
ginians." Kennedy assured Poe that the
mechanics of telescope construction were

THE STORY OF THE SUN

111

so fixed that it would be impossible to
impart verisimilitude to a tale based on a
superefficient telescope. So Poe resorted
to other means of bringing the moon
close to tlie reader's eye:

I fell back upon a style half plausible, half
bantering, and resolved to give what interest I
could to an actual passage from the earth to
the moon, describing the lunar scenery as if
surveyed and personally examined by the
narrator.

Poe wrote the first part of "Hans
Pfaall," and published it in the Southern
Literary Messenger, of which he was then
editor, at Richmond, Virginia. Three
weeks afterward the first instalment of
Locke's moon story appeared in the Sun.
At the moment Poe believed that his
idea had been kidnaped :

No sooner had I seen the paper than I under-
stood the jest, which not for a moment could
I doubt had been suggested by my own jeu
d'esprit. Some of the New York journals —
the Transcript, among others — saw the matter
in the same light, and published the moon
story side by side with " Hans Pfaall," think-
ing that the author of the one had been de-
tected in the author of the other.

Although the details are, with some excep-
tions, very dissimilar, still I maintain that the
general features of the two compositions are
nearly identical. Both are hoaxes — although one
is in a tone of mere banter, the other of down-
right earnest; both hoaxes are on one subject,
astronomy; both on the same point of that
subject, the moon; both professed to have de-
rived exclusive information from a foreign
country; and both attempt to give plausibly by
minuteness of scientific detail. Add to all this,
that nothing of a similar nature had ever been
attempted before these two hoaxes, the one of
which followed immediately upon the heels of
the other.

Having stated the case, however, in this form,
I am bound to do Mr. Locke the justice to
say that he denies having seen my article prior
to the publication of his own; I am bound
to add, also, that I believe him.

Nor can any unbiased person who
reads, for purpose of comparison, the
" Astronomical Discoveries " and " Hans
Pfaall " suspect that Locke based his
hoax on the story of the Rotterdam
debtor who blew his creditors to bits and

sailed to the moon in a balloon. Chalk
and cheese are much more alike than
these two products of genius.

Poe may have intended to fall back
upon " a style half plausible, half banter-
ing," as he described it, but there is not
the slightest plausibility about " Hans
Pfaall." It is as near to humor as the
great, dark mind could get. " Mere
banter," as he later described it, is better.
The very episode of the dripping pitcher
of water, used to wake Hans at an alti-
tude where even alcohol would freeze, is
enough proof, if proof at all were neces-
sary, to strip the tale of its last shred of
verisimilitude. No child of twelve would
believe in Hans, while Locke's fictitious
" Dr. Grant " deceived nine-tenths — the
estimate is Poe's — of those who read the
narrative of the great doings at the Cape
of Good Hope.

Locke had spoiled a promising tale for
Poe — who tore up the second instalment
of " Hans Pfaall " when he " found that
he could add very little to the minute and
authentic account of Sir John Herschel "
— but the poet took pleasure, in later
years, in picking the Sun's moon story
to bits.

" That the public were misled, even for
an instant," Poe declared in his critical
essay on Locke's writings, "merely proves
the gross ignorance which, ten or twelve
years ago, was so prevalent on astro-
nomical topics."

According to Locke's own description
of the telescope, said Poe, it could not
have brought the moon nearer than five
miles; yet Sir John — Locke's Sir John —
saw flowers and described the eyes of
birds. Locke had an ocean on the moon,
although it had been established beyond
question that the visible side of the moon
is dry. The most ridiculous thing about
the moon story, said Poe, was that the
narrator described the entire bodies of
the man-bats, whereas, if they were seen
at all by an observer on the earth, they
would manifestly appear as if walking
heels up and head down, after the fash-
ion of flies on a ceiling.

112

MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

And yet the hoax, Poe admits, " was,
upon the whole, the greatest hit in the
way of sensation — of merely popular
sensation — ever made by any similar
fiction either in America or Europe."
Whether Locke intended it as satire or
not — a debatable point — it was a hoax
of the first water. It deceived more per-
sons, and for a longer time, than any
other fake ever written; and, as the Stm
pointed out, it hurt nobody — except, per-
haps, the feelings of Dr. Dick, of Dundee
— and it took the public mind away from
less agreeable matters. Some of the
wounded scientists roared, but the public,
particularly the New York public, took
the exposure of Locke's literary villainy
just as Sir John Herschel accepted it —
with a grin.

EARLIER SUGGESTIONS OF THE STORY

As for the inspiration of the moon
story, the record is nebulous. If Poe was
really grieved at his first thought that
Locke had taken from him the main
imaginative idea — that the moon was in-
habited — then Poe was oversensitive or
uninformed, for that idea was at least
two centuries old.

Francis Godwin, an English bishop and
author, who was born in 1562, and who
died just two centuries before the Stm
was first printed, wrote " The Man in
the Moone, or a Discourse of a Voyage
Thither by Domingo Gonsales, the Speedy
Messenger." This was published in
London in 1638, three years after the
author's death.

In the same year there appeared a
book called " The Discovery of a World
in the Moone," which contained argu-
ments to prove the moon habitable. It
was Avritten by John Wilkins — no rela-
tive of the fictitious Peter of Paltock's
story, but a young English clergyman
who later became Bishop of Chester, and
who was the first secretary of the Royal
Society. Two years later Wilkins added
to his " Discovery of a World " a " Dis-
course Concernmg the Possibility of a
Passage Thither."

Cyrano de Bergerac, he of the long
nose and the passion for poetry and duel-
ing, later to be immortalized by Rostand,
read these products of two Englishmen's
fancy, and about 1650 he turned out his
joyful " Histoire Comique des Etats et
Empires de la Lune." But Bergerac had
also been influenced by Dante and by
Lucian, the latter being the supposed in-
spiration of the fanciful narratives of
Rabelais and Swift. Perhaps these writers
influenced Godwin and Wilkins also; so
the trail, zigzagged and ramifying, goes
back to the second century. It is hard
to indict a man for being inspired, and
in the case of the moon story there is no
evidence of plagiarism. If " Hans Pfaall "
were to be compared with Locke's story
for hoaxing qualities, it would only suffer
by the comparison. It would appear as
the youthful product of a tyro, as against
the cunning work of an artist of almost
devilish ingenuity.

Is there any doubt that the moon hoax
was the sole work of Richard Adams
Locke? So far as concerns the record of
the Sun, the comments of Locke's Ameri-
can contemporaries, and the belief of
Benjamin H. Day, expressed in 1883 in
a talk with Edward P. Mitchell, the
answer must be in the negative. Yet it
must be set down, as a literary curiosity
at least, that it has been believed in
France and by at least one English an-
tiquary of repute that tlie moon hoax
was the work of a Frenchman — Jean
Nicolas Nicollet, the astronomer.

THE CAREER OF JEAN NICOLLET

Nicollet was born at Cluses, in Savoy,
in 1786. First a cowherd, he did not
learn to read until he was twelve. Once
at school his progress was rapid, and at
nineteen he became preceptor of mathe-
matics at Chambry. He went to Paris,
where in 181 7 he was appointed secre-
tary-librarian of the Observatory, and he
studied astronomy with Laplace, who
refers to Nicollet's assistance in his works.
In 1823 he was appointed to the govern-
ment bureau of longitudes, and at the

THE STORY OF THE SUN

113

same time was professor of mathematics
in the College of Louis le Grand.

He became a master of English, and
through this knowledge and his own
mathematical genius he was able to as-
semble, for the use of the French life-
insurance companies, all that was known,
and much that he himself discovered, of
actuarial methods; this being incorporated
in his letter to M. Outrequin on " As-
surances Having for Their Basis the
Probable Duration of Human Life." He
also wrote " Memoirs upon the Measure
of an Arc of Parallel Midway Between
the Pole and the Equator" (1826), and
" Course of Mathematics for the Use of
Mariners " (1830).

In 1 83 1 Nicollet failed in speculation,
losing not only his own fortune but that
of others. He came to the United States,
arriving early in 1832. It is probable
that he was in New York, but there is no
evidence as to the length of his stay. It
is known, however, that he was impov-
erished, and that he was assisted by
Bishop Chanche, of Natchez, to go on
with his chosen work — an exploration of
the Mississippi and its tributaries. He
made astronomical and barometrical ob-
servations, determined the geographical
position and elevation of many important
points, and studied Indian lore.

The United States government was so
well pleased with Nicollet's work that it
sent him to the Far West for further in-
vestigations, with Lieutenant John C.
Fremont as assistant. His " Geology of
the Upper Mississippi Region and of the
Cretaceous Formation of the Upper Mis-
souri " was one of the results of his
journeys. After this he tried, through
letters, to regain his lost standing in
France by seeking election to the Paris
Academy of Sciences, but he was black-
balled, and, broken-hearted, he died in
Washington in September, 1843.

The Englishman who believed that
Nicollet was the author of the moon
hoax was Augustus De Morgan, father
of the late William De Morgan, the
novelist, and himself a distinguished

mathematician and litterateur. He was
professor of mathematics at University
College, London, at the time when the
moon pamphlet first appeared in Eng-
land. His " Budget of Paradoxes," an
interesting collection of literary curiosi-
ties and puzzles, which he had written,
but not carefully assembled, was pub-
lished in 1872, the year after his death.

DE morgan's notes ON NICOLLET

Two fragments, printed separately in
this volume, refer to the moon hoax.
The first is this:

" Some Account of the Great Astronomical Dis-
coveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel at
the Cape of Good Hope." — Second Edition,
London, lamo, 1836.

This is a curious hoax, evidently written by
a person versed in astronomy and clever at in-
troducing probable circumstances and unde-
signed coincidences. It first appeared in a
newspaper. It makes Sir J. Herschel discover
men, animals, et cetera, in the moon, of which
much detail is given. There seems to have
been a French edition, the original, and Eng-
lish editions in America, whence the work
came into Britain; but whether the French was
published in America or at Paris I do not
know. There is no doubt that it was produced
in the United States by M. Nicollet, an astron-
omer, once of Paris, and a fugitive of some
kind.

About him I have heard two stories. First,
that he fled to America with funds not his own,
and that this book was a mere device to raise
the wind. Secondly, that he was a protege of
Laplace, and of the Polignac party, and also
an outspoken man. That after the Revolution
he was so obnoxious to the republican party
that he judged it prudent to quit France;
which he did in debt, leaving money for his
creditors, but not enough, with M. Bouvard.
In America he connected himself with an as-
surance office. The moon story was written,
and sent to France, chiefly with the intention
of entrapping M. Arago, Nicollet's especial foe,
into the belief of it. And those who narrate
this version of the story wind up by saying
that M. Arago was entrapped, and circulated
the wonders through Paris until a letter from
Nicollet to M. Bouvard explained the hoax.

I have no personal knowledge of either story;
but as the poor man had to endure the first,
it is but right that the second should be told
with it.

The second fragment reads as follows:

114

MUNSEY'S MAGAZINE

"The Moon Hoax; or, the Discovery That the
Moon Has a Vast Population of Human
Beings," By Richard Adams Locke. — New
York, 1859.

This is a reprint of the hoax already men-
tioned. I suppose " R. A. Locke " is the name
assumed by M. Nicollet. The publisher informs
us that when the hoax first appeared day by
day in a morning newspaper, the circulation
increased fivefold, and the paper obtained a
permanent footing. Besides this, an edition of
sixty thousand was sold off in less than one
month.

This discovery was also published under the
name of A. R. Grant. Sohnke's " Bibliotheca
Mathematica " confounds this Grant with Pro-
fessor R. Grant of Glasgow, the author of the
" History of Physical Astronomy," who is ac-
cordingly made to guarantee the discoveries in
the moon. I hope Adams Locke will not merge
in J. C. Adams, the codiscoverer of Neptune.
Sohnke gives the titles of three French transla-
tions of " The Moon Hoax " at Paris, of one
at Bordeaux, and of Italian translations at
Parma, Palermo, and Milan.

A correspondent, who is evidently fully
master of details, which he has given at length,
informs me that " The Moon Hoax " first ap-
peared in the New York Sun, of which R. A.
Locke was editor. It so much resembled a
story then recently published by Edgar A.
Poe, in a Southern paper, " Adventures of
Hans Pfaall," that some New York journals
published the two side by side. Mr. Locke,
when he left the New York Sun, started an-
other paper, and discovered the manuscript of
Mungo Park; but this did not deceive. The
Sun, however, continued its career, and had a
great success in an account of a balloon voyage
from England to America, in seventy-five hours,
by Mr. Monck Mason, Mr. Harrison Ains-
worth, and others.

I have no doubt that M. Nicollet was the
author of " The Moon Hoax," written in a
way which marks the practised observatory
astronomer beyond all doubt, and by evidence
seen in the most minute details. Nicollet had
an eye to Europe. I suppose that he took
Poe's story and made it a basis for his own.
Mr. Locke, it would seem, when he attempted
a fabrication for himself, did not succeed.

In his remark that " there seems to
have been a French edition, the original,"
Augustus De Morgan was undoubtedly
misled, for every authority consultable
agrees that the French pamphlets were
merely translations of the story originally
printed in the Sun; and De Morgan had

learned this when he wrote his second
note on the subject.

The M. Arago whom De Morgan be-
lieves Nicollet sought to entrap was
Dominique Francois Arago, the cele-
brated astronomer. In 1830, as a reward
for his many accomplishments, he was
made perpetual secretary of the Paris
Academy of Sciences, and in the following
year — the year of Nicollet's fall from
grace — he was elected to the Chamber
of Deputies. As to the intimation that
Arago was really misled by the moon
story, it is unlikely. W. N. Griggs, a con-
temporary of Locke, insists in a memoir
of that journalist that the narrative was
read by Arago to the members of the
Academy, and was received with mingled
denunciation and laughter. But hoaxing
Arago in a matter of astronomy would
have been a difficult feat. Surely the dis-
crepancies pointed out by Poe would have
been noticed immediately.

It is, however, easy to understand De
Morgan's belief that Nicollet was the
author of the moon story. Much of the
narrative, particularly parts which have
here been omitted, is made up of tech-
nicalities which could have come only
from the pen of a man versed in the in-
tricacies of astronomical science. It seems
unlikely that Locke, clever student though
he was, could have set down these in-
volved demonstrations entirely from his
own knowledge of astronomy. They were
not put into the story to interest Stm
readers, for they are far over the layman's
head, but for the purpose of adding
verisimilitude to a yarn which, stripped
of the technical trimmings, would have
been pretty bald.

It was plain to De Morgan that Nicollet
was one of the few men alive in 1835
who could have woven the scientific fabric
in which the hoax was disguised. It was
also apparent to him that Nicollet, jealous
of the popularity of Arago, might have
had a motive for launching a satire, if
not a hoax. And then there was Nicollet's
presence in America at the time of the
moon story's publication, Nicollet's knowl-

THE STORY OF THE SUN

115

edge of English, and Nicollet's poverty.
The coincidences are interesting, if noth-
ing more.

FRENCH COMMENTS ON THE MOON HOAX

Let us see what the French said about
Nicollet and the story that came to the
Sun from " a medical gentleman im-
mediately from Scotland." In a sketch
of Nicollet, printed in the '' Biographic
Universelle" (Michaud, Paris, 18S4), the
following appears:

There has been attributed to him an article
which appeared in the daily papers of France,
and which, in the form of a letter dated from
the United States, spoke of an improvement in
the telescope invented by the learned astronomer
Herschel, who was then at the Cape of Good
Hope. It has been generally and with much
probability attributed to Nicollet.

With the aid of this admirable improvement
Herschel was supposed to have succeeded in
discovering on the surface of the moon live
beings, buildings of various kinds, and a multi-
tude of other interesting things. The descrip-
tion of these objects and the ingenious method
employed by the English astronomer to attain
his purpose was so detailed, and covered with
a veneer of science so skilfully applied, that
the general public was startled by the announce-
ment of the discovery, of which North America
hastened to send us the news.

It has even been said that several astronomers
and physicists of our country were taken in for
a moment. That seems hardly probable to us.
It was easy to perceive that it was a hoax
written by a learned and mischievous person.

The '' Nouvelle Biographic Generale "
(Paris, 1862), says of Nicollet:

He is believed to be the author of the anony-
mous pamphlet which appeared in 1836 on
the discoveries in the moon made by Herschel
at the Cape of Good Hope.

Cruel, consistent Locke, never to have
written down the details of the conception
and birth of the best invention that ever
spoofed the world! He leaves history to
wonder whether it be possible that, with
one word added, the French biographer
was right, and that it was " a hoax written
by a learned and a mischievous person."
Certain it is that Nicollet never wrote
all of the moon story; certain, too, that
(To be continued in the July

Locke wrote much, if not all of it. The
calculations of the angles of reflection
might have been Nicollet's, but the blue
unicorn is the unicorn of Locke.

No man can say when the germ of the
story first took shape. It might have been
designed at any time after Herschel laid
the plans for his voyage to the Cape of
Good Hope, and that was at least two
years before it appeared in the Sun. Was
Nicollet in Nev*' York then, and did he
and Locke lay their heads together across
a table at the American Hotel and plan
the great deceit?

There was one head full of figures and
the stars; another crammed with the
imagination that brought forth the iire-
making biped beavers and the fascinating,
if indecorous, human bats. If thej^ never
met, more is the pity. Whether they met,
none can say. Go to ask the ghosts of
the American Hotel, and you find it gone,
and in its place the Woolworth Building,
earth's spear leveled at the laughing moon.

Whatever happened, tlie credit must
rest with Richard Adams Locke. Even
if the technical embellishments of the
moon story were borrowed, still his was
the genius that builded the great temple,
made flowers to bloom in the lunar
valleys, and grew the filmy wings on the
vesper tilio-hom,o. His was the art that
caused the bricklayer of Cherry Street
to sit late beside his candle, spelling out
the rare story with joyous labor. It must
have been a reward to Locke, even to
the last of his seventy years, to know
that he had made people read newspapers
who never had read them before; for that
is what he really accomplished by this
huge, complex lie. —

^' From the epoch of the hoax," wrote
Poe, '' the Sun shone with unmitigated
splendor. Its success firmly established
the ' penny system ' throughout the coun-
try, and (through the Sun) consequently
we are indebted to the genius of Mr.
Locke for one of the most important steps
ever yet taken in the pathway of human
progress."
number of Munsey's Magazinj!)

The Regicide

BY HAROLD TITUS

Author of " The Shadow of the Petticoat," " A Four-Handed Game," etc.

FROM his father, the slate-gray color,
the spindly, wire-muscled legs, the
lineal delicacy, the nose of a grey-
hound; from his mother, the complex
cross which developed the thin, scraggly
feathering along belly and tail, the
straight back, the thickened neck, the
widened chest, and the collie ears; from
old man Waters, an appreciation of his
own abilities and shortcomings.

" Shag," the man would whine, finger-
ing the cool muzzle, " Shag, you never will
git to run jacks! Rabbits change direc-
tion too fast for your j'ints. You jus'
naturally can't make 'em slip quick
enough " — with a disparaging shake of
his gray head.

Then the little green eyes would fire,
and Waters would cackle:

" But, by holy smoke, you're goin' to
make a wolf-dog, a wolf-runnin' fool; git
the Big 'Un some day, mebby. You got
what none of these others got — you got
th' steam; you can run to thunder an'
back without showin' it!"

Old man Waters lived on a ranch with-
in an hour's easy ride of Gray Hair, Okla-
homa. His fenced area totaled thirty
acres, and the space not devoted to build-
■ ings was entirely in wheat, which returned
a meager but sufficient annual revenue
and required but little attention.

This last was the essential point. Old
man Waters was so busy with his dogs
that he had no leisure for ranching. He
went in for dogs whole-heartedly; Lord
bless you, yes! At the ranch he kept
from a dozen to eighteen or twenty, and
that was merely a starter

" Shucks, I can't recoHect," he'd reply
to a request for specific information.
" Last time I counted, it was somewhere
between fifty an' sixty or so."

His hounds were scattered widely over
the prairie country. When the rabbits
became scarce, or he grew tired of one
place, he could ride in any direction and
pick up a half-dozen greyhounds and a
trailer or so that he had left with some
distant rancher, run them to his heart's
content, and return home — or go on to an--
other dog depository.

Every one in the country knew Waters;
none was his intimate. He was too much
occupied with his dogs to form close hu-
man attachments. Frequently some one
else rode beside him as he led his pack to
the open prairie, where the trail-hounds
nosed out the long-eared jacks for their
speedier companions to chase; but when
Waters was not talking to his dogs he was
talking about them, so these contacts with
men never ripened into friendships.

Occasionally he went quietly through
the strips of oak that broke the rolling
open, watching for wolves. At those times
he strove to avoid company, for coyotes
are more cunning than rabbits, and his
casual companions could not take the
sport with sufficient seriousness.

More than ever he was determined to
be alone on his wolf-hunting when he
came to know the Big 'Un — a great,
gaunt beast, heavier by pounds than any
prairie-wolf Waters had ever known, less
of a skulker, more likely to turn and
fight, and faster than his kind. Many
times Waters sent the pick of his pack

116

COMPOSITE DRAWING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CORONA.
Colored from observations made with color chart, August 30, 1905.

Of all the secondary planets the earth's satellite is by far the most interesting and importiiiit.
The moon completes her circuit around tlie earth in a period whose mean or average lengtli is '27
clays7liours43. 2minutes; but in consequence of her motion in common with the earth around the
sun, the mean duration of the lunar month, tliat is, tlie time from new moon to new moon, is 29
days 12 hours 44. 05 minutes, whicli is called the moon's synodical period. If the earth were mo-
tionless in space the moon's orbit would be nearly an ellipse, having- the earth in one of ilietocJ;
hence her distance from the earth varies during the course of a lunar month. Her mean distance
from tlie earth is '238, 850 miles. Her maximum distance, however, may reach 252,830 miles, and
the least distance to which she can approach the earth is 221.520 nnles. Jfer dianietei- is 2,162
miles, and if we deduct from her distance from the earth the sum of the two radii of the earth and
moon, viz., 3,962 and 1,081 miles respectively, we shall have for the nearest appioiicli ot the sur-
faces of the two bodies 216,477 miles. Her orbit is a ver.v intricate one, because the earib in moving
aroundthe sun carries the moon along with it; hence the latter is sometimes within and sometimes
without the earth's orbit. Itsform is that of a serpentine curve, always concave toward the sun,
and inclined to the plane of the earth's orbit at an angle of 5o 9', in consequence of whicli our satel-
lite appears sometimes above and sometimes below the plane of the earth's orbit, through which
she passes twice in a revolution. These points or positions are called nodes, and no two consecutive
nodes occupy positions diametrically opposite on the lunar orbit. The nodes have a retrograde
motion, which causes them to make an entire revolution in 18 years, 218 days, 21 hours, 22 minuies
and 46 seconds. This motion was well known to the ancients, who called it the fcjaros, and was
made use of by them in roughly predicting eclipses.

The mooaalways presents the same face to us, as is evident from the permanency of thevarious
markings on its surface. This circumstance proves that with respect to the earth she revolvi^s on an
axis, and the time of rotation is exactly equal to the time of revolution around the earth, viz.,
27.32166 days. The moon's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of her orbit^ but deviates there-
from by an angle of about 6o 41'. In consequence of this fact, and of the inclination of the lunar
orbittothat of the ecliptic, the poles of the moon lean alternately to and from the earth. When
the north pole leans toward the earth we see somewhat more of the region surrounding it, and
somewhat less when it leans the contrary way. This displacement is known by the name of libra-
tion in latitude. , , . . ,-^-^,^j.

The moon*s motion on her axis is uniform, but her angular velocity m her orbit is subject to
slightvariations by reason of the form of her orbit; hence it happens that we sometimes see a little
more of the eastern or western edge at one time than at another. This phenomenon is known as
libration in longitude. , „ x. ..,. ^

The moon's surface contains about 14,685,000 square miles, or nearly four times theareaof
TiUrope. Her volume is 1-49 and her mass 1-81 that of the earth, and hence her density is about
3-5 that of the earth, or about 3 2-5 that of water. A t the lunar surface gravity is only 3-'20 ol what
it is at the earth, and therefore a body which weighs 20 pounds here would weigh only 3 pounds there.

The centre of gravity of the earth and moon, or the point about which they both actually revolve
in their course around the sun, lies i«/</u:n the earth ; it is 1,063 miles below the surface.

The attractive force of the moon acting on th water ot our oceans is mamly instrumental m
raising them into protuberances or tides in such amanner as to give the total mass a spheroidal figure
whose priucipal axis would continually coincide with the line joining the centres ot the eartli and
moon but in consequence of the resistance which this movement of the water encounters Irom con-
tinents and islands as well as trora the liquid molecules themselves, the tidal wave can never arrive
at any place until about one hour after the moon has crossed the meridian of the place.

The moon has no atmosphere and no water. The suddenness with which stars are^occulted by
the moon is regarded asa conclusive proof that a lunar atmosphere does not exist, and the spectro-
scope furnishes negative evidence of the same character

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CATHEDRALS OF ENGLAND I

Edited by. J
Canon FarrAr- x

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-1 ]

NTENTS

OHAPTKB

PAGE

I. -THE EARTH IN SPACE. Its Motions, etc. ----... . 5

XL— THE CBUST OF THE EARTH. Its Strata, etc. ---_-.. H

III.— THE LAND SURFACE OF THE EARTH. Its Continents, etc. - - - - 20

IV— MOUNTAINS, PLATEAUS, AND PLAINS - - - - ■- - - -- 29,

v.— ISLANDS. Reefs, Lagoons, etc. - - -- - - - - - - - -36

VI.— MAGNETISM. The Mariner's Compass ; Magnetic Storms, etc. - - - _ 40

VII.— VOLCANOES AND VOLCANIC FORCES. Plienomena of Eruption ; Geysers, etc. 44

VIII.— EARTHQUAKES. Tlieir Causes and Eflfects ---_____ siji

IX.— THE WATER OF THE ATMOSPHERE. Its Forms and Uses - - - - 56 ,^

X.— THE WATERS OF THE CONTINENTS. Springs and Lakes - - _ _ 62

XL— RIVERS AND DRAINAGE. What Rivers are and what they do _ _ _ 68

XII.-AVALANCHES, GLACIERS, AND ICEBERGS. Their Formation and Powers. 75 j

XIII.— OCEAN. WATERS. Their Extent, Color, Waves, etc. -------8l|l

XIV.— TIDES. What Causes them -----_-_____ 86

XV.-OCEAN CURRENTS. Their Formation and Influence - - i _ _ _ 90

I ■ ■ ■ ^' f

Xyi.— THE ATMOSPHERE. Its Properties, Winds, Calms, etc. - - - - - 96 il

'VII.— STORMS, CYCLONES, AND TORNADOES. Their Nature and Effects - - ! '

32lenienti3 of tije .Solar .SaJstcm.

Mean Sidereal

Dally Revolution-

Motion. Days.

Distance from the Sun.

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptu ne

Name

OF

Planet.

14732.420
5767.6696
3548.192
1886.5182
299.1256
120.4548
42.2308
21.530

87.96925
■ 224.70080
365.25636
686.97987
4332.6284
10759.2225
30688.5022
60178.3060

0.387099
0.723331
1.000000
1.523688
5.202803
9.538838
19.190978
30.070672

0.466693

0.728260

1.016746

1.665877

5.454395

10.071570

20.094454

30.327506

0.307505
0.718402
0.983254
1.381499
4.951211
9.006100
18.287502
29.813838

35,951,105

67,193,688

92,894,800

141,542,690

483,313,340

886,108,900

1,782,742,060

2,788.764,300

Mercury
Venus . .
Earth. . .
Mars . . .
Jupiter. .
Saturn. .
TJranus .
Keptune

Eccentricity

of

Orbit.

0.2056167
0.0068150
0.0167460
0.0933198
0.0483570
0.0558482
0.0470781
0.0085410

Synodlcal

Revolution —

Days.

115,877
683,920

■■779,936 ■
398,866
378,090
369,650

367.482

Inclination of
Orbit to
Ecliptic.

1 51 1.0

1 18 29.1

2 29 30.6

46 21.9

1 46 41.2

Orbital Velocity

Miles

Per Second.

29.55
22.61
18.38
15.00

Mercury.
Venus. . . .
Earth. . . .
Mars . . . .
Jupiter. . .
Saturn . . .
Uranus. . .
Neptune.

jn Lnngitudr
at the
Epoch.**

115 4 3.26

165 4 20.94

99 47 20.22

70 45 5.47

242 24 21.96

53 23 10.90

294 57 2.33

111 24 32.14

Mean Longitudi

o£ th«

Perihelion.*

76 5 10.9
130 19 58.0
101 25 37.7
334 26 21.8

12 54 18.0

91 19 26.1
169 14 25.8

43 51 38.2

Annual
Sidereal
Wotioa.

+ 5.7
+ 0.4
+ 11.6
+ 15.9
+ 7.6
+ 20.2
+ 7.4
—18.9

.n Longitude
of the
.A.scending Node.

48 52 42,6

99. 33 33.3

112 53 17.7

73 33 2.1

130 48 38.9

10.58
1.94
1.03
0.52
0.041
0.012
0.003
0.001

4.59

1.91

0.97

0.36

0.034

0.010

0.0025

0.001

*Kpoch 1912 January Od Greenwich mean time.

Semi-diameter.

Volume.

Mass.

Density.

Axial

Gravity at
Surface.
©=1

Sun

At

At Mean

In

AND

Unit

Least

Miles

®= 1

©=.1

©-=1

Rotation.

PlANETS.

Distance.

Distance.

(Mean).

Sun

15 59.6

"

432183.68

1303371.8

329390

0.2527

D. H. M. K.

25 7 48

•27.6057

Mercury. .

3.34

6.45

1504.24

0.054955

0.054898

0.99895

24 5 ?

.37979

Venus. . . .

8.55

30.90

3850.67

0.921875

0.807328

0.87574

23 21 ?

.85236

Earth. . . .

1.000000

1.000000

1.00000

23 56 4.09

1.00000

Mars

5.05

9.64

2274.37

0.189953

0.106478

. 56055

24 37 23

.32222

Jupiter. . .

1 37.16

23.12

43758.03

1352.809

314.4985

0.23247

9 55 20

2.57113

Saturn. . . .

1 21.17

9.55

36558.86

788.934

94.0684

0.11923

10 14 24

1.10175

Uranus . . .

33.5

1.84

15096.43

55.550

14.4033

0.25928

Unknown.

.98932

Neptune . .

38.7

1.33

17411,34

85.224

16.7199

0.19619

Unknown.

.86338

TTHSnaj-YTJ

Drawn by Harvey Ellis. Half-toiie plate engraved by C. W. Chadwick

THE MAKING OF THE UNIVERSE

BY JOHN HENRY FREESE

Observer at the Harvard College Observatory i

AFTER looking through a telescope of
Jr\. high power at such objects in the
heavens as nebulae and star-clusters, or per-
haps at the "mountains on the moon," vis-
itors at the Harvard Observatory always
marvel at their delicacy of definition and
general magnificence, and often make the
inquiry : " Do stars change, and is any order
of change discernible?" In the present
article I shall consider this question.

Under my analysis, the inquiry means,
Has the nebular hypothesis been proved or
disproved in the fight of facts disclosed by
recent astronomical research ? Great think-
ers of the past have thought that the sun
and its planets, including the earth, existed
long ago in a diffused nebulous state, ro-
tating on its axis, from which the sun and
its planets have evolved by the natural
forces of attraction and condensation. At
the present time this theory is widely ac-
cepted among astronomers.

Sir William Herschel, the renowned
English astronomer and indefatigable ex-
plorer of the stellar realm, extended the
aforementioned nebular hypothesis beyond
our solar system. His great intellect con-
ceived the evolution of the stellar universe
in a manner that has received striking con-
firmation from recent stellar photographs.

Let us consider whether the nebular the-
ory applies to all the stars, or, as the visitor
puts it, do real changes take place in the
stars, and can we discern the order of
change ? Do these " unnumbered sparks "
grow up from an infancy, live a life, and
then undergo extinction and dissolution,
only to be recreated by the forces of na-
ture ?

Changes may be of position, of form,
and of composition, though these divisions
are closely related.

Detecting changes of the position of stars
with reference to one another involves an
exceedingly nice observation and calcula-
tion, but numerous independent researches
have confirmed the general principle that
the stars in the constellations of Hercules
and Lyra are apparently spreading, and
those on the opposite side of the celestial
sphere are growing nearer together. It was
Sir William Herschel who made this great
discovery, and he argued from it that our
solar system is moving rapidly through
space toward Hercules, an analogous ap-
parent motion being that of groves of trees,
when a person moves from one grove to-
ward another, in which case the trees be-
hind him seem to be growing nearer toge-
ther, and those before him seem separating
farther apart. Aside from these general
changes, occasioned by the translation of
our solar system in space, it is certain that
many of the stars are moving irregularly in
reference to one another, — some this way,
some that, — stars near together tending to
move in the same direction. One star,
known as No. 1830 Groombridge's Cata-
logue, moves ten degrees in five thousand
years ; Arcturus moves five degrees in ten
thousand years, both being extraordinarily
great changes from the astronomical point
of view. Professor Arthur Searle of the
Harvard Observatory has recently detected
a star having a very large proper motion,
and such new discoveries are becoming
commoner every day.

Many stars show a tremendous velocity

^ The illustrations are mainly reproductions from prints made by the writer, being his
interpretation of negatives made under the direction of Edward C. Picker-
ing, Director of the Harvard College Observatory.

FIGURE I. A RICH FIELD OF STARS. FROM A PLATE COVERING ONLY FIVE SQUARE
DEGREES, BUT SHOWING OVER 400,000 STARS BY ACTUAL COUNT

FIGURE 2. SPECTRUM OF ALPHA PfjOTES

in the line of sight, some moving toward,
others away from, the earth. Sir WiUiam
Huggins discovered the ingenious means
of detecting this phenomenon by the spec-
troscope. A single point of light passed
through a prism gives what is called a
spectrum. When spread out by a cylin-
drical lens, or by a trail on a photographic
plate, this appears as a ribbon of light
crossed by certain lines. These lines stand
for certain chemical elements — hydrogen,
calcium, and so on. Figure 2 shows a
spectrum of the star Alpha Bootes, photo-
graphed at the Harvard Observatory. The
lines crossing the band of hght shift their
position as the body moves nearer or farther
from the observer, and the amount of
change can be measured, and the move-
ment in the line of sight can be detected
and estimated.

Changes in form and composition I shall
discuss together, and endeavor to work out
a definite cycle of evolution.

As a starting-point in this endless chain
of stellar evolution, conceive the existence
of a vast amount of molecular matter, or
perhaps gaseous atoms, much diffused in
space, and too remote and infinitesimal to
be perceived by any human agencies of
discernment. Space is filled with such
atoms, and they are continually changing
their position with respect to one another.
Changes in this mass of " star-dust " are ex-
ceedingly slow, for thousands of years are
but momentary in the scale of cosmic time.
At length, however, mutual gravitation
brings the atoms near together, and simul-
taneously, uninterruptedly, and with in-
creasing activity, mutual pressure and in-
crease of temperatu.re bring about chemical
union. At length these united molecules,
by combining with one another again and
again, aggregate into irregular, spiral, and
annular clouds of nebulae. It is the steady
pull of gravity which overcomes atomic
repulsion and compels mutual approach

FIGURE 3. THE GREAT NEBULA IN ORION

FIGURE 4. THE TRIFID NEBULA

THE MAKING OF THE UNIVERSE

303

of the particles. Figure 3 shows one of
the earher forms of nebulse. Here I beheve
a tremendous colhsion between stars in all
probability took place many ages ago.
The colHding bodies may have been bright
stars, but more hkely were stars cooled and
darkened by radiation and contraction.
Then atomic concentration began, and has
continued until a nebula of enormous extent

FIGURE S- THE PLANET SATURN.

is established, the more or less homogeneous
mass probably rotating around a common
center of gravity. Continued condensation
and centripetal action cause accelerated
motion, while, on account of the centrif-
ugal force, division of the nebula may take
place, as is shown in Figure 4. Here, in a
later stage, the nebula is seen divided into
two parts, and the larger component shows
unmistakable evidence of an approaching
division into three parts. There are vari-
ous forms of concentration, just as we ob-
serve the same phenomena in sky-clouds
and dust-clouds. Such forms depend upon
the shape of the nebula, its density, mo-
tion, size, etc. The photographs them-
selves are self-expHcable, indicating that
the form really depends upon the accident
of creation, whether by collision of stars
or by the attractive accumulation of star-
stuff. The whole nebula may revolve,
throwing off outer rings, as is shown in
Figure 5, which represents the planet Sat-
urn, and in Figure 6, which shows the
planet Jupiter. These photographs give
autobiographical evidence, the latter of
the existence of attached rings in ages long
gone by, while the rings of Saturn remain
clearly intact. The bands upon Jupiter's
surface and the rings of Saturn may be

FIGURE 6. THE PLANET JUPITER

seen clearly with a telescope of low power.
Figure 7 shows a more extended state of
condensation, and is not easily interpreted.
Here groups of stars are shown surrounded
by nebulous clouds. Gradually the nebu-
lous matter is absorbed, and the perpetual
recurrence of curves and hues of equal
stars regularly interspersed, having strik-
ingly similar configuration and being self-
dehneated on the photographic plates just

FIGURE 7. NEBULA IN CARINA

FIGURt; 8. GREAT KKiiULA IN ANDROMliDA
By courtesy of Dr. Isaac Roberts of England

connected with nebulous matter, adds proof
to this hypothesis. Figme 8 shows the
nebula in Andromeda, its spiral formation
appearing quite clearlj'-. Here, notwith-
standing the imfavorable incHnation of the
axis of the spiral, we see a strong central
nucleus encompassed by dark bands, show-
ing divisions betAveen symmetrical bands or
rings of nebulousmatter, the center t)f which
must be many times larger than our whole
solar system. Figures 9 and 10 show two
other examples of spiral nebulae, and these
nebulas are profusely distributed through-
QUt the heavens, and they almost all show
Strong central nuclei, the outer portions
being more or less broken up, from which
innumerable nebulous wsps extend out-

ward—in all making a strong pictorial ar-
gument, tending to show that large star-
clusters are the result of the convolutions
of spiral nebulae. Probably the outside of
nebulae breaks up first, and so we find
many with uniform stars on the outside,
but with centers which cannot be resolved
by telescopes of the highest power. Fig-
ure 1 1 shows a cluster in process of con-
densation, the outside being condensed
into the stars, and the nucleus being unre-
solvable. Figure 12 .shows a cluster wliich
can be resolved almost wholly. In all prob-
abihty this was once a spiral nebula, and
we see it in a much condensed state, look-
ing along the axis of the spiral— looking
into the cone, as it were. Figure 1 3 shows

THE MAKING OF THE UNIVERSE

205

the group of stars known as the Pleiades,
it being a condensation almost consum-
mated, a faint nebula only remaining
around the newly formed stars.

Thus we have viewed the transformation
of nebulae into stars. To complete the
cycle of evolution by understanding the
change from stars into nebulae is most per-
plexing. But the spectroscope comes to
omr aid. With the spectroscope we can

FIGURE 9. GREAT SPIRAL NEBULA IN HYDRA

quite certainly determine star-temperatures,
which gives us an indication of the star's
age. This is done by an analysis of the
star's spectrum, a star-spectrum being
shown in Figure 2. Sirius and other bluish-
white stars give spectra crossed by heavy
hydrogen lines, indicating a high tempera-
ture of the dense primordial matter and its
envelopment in hydrogen gas of high tem-
perature. This stage I conceive as an
early one in stellar life. As condensation
and radiation progress, the gaseous star
grows brighter, as may happen to a star
as explained by Lane's law. In Capella
and other stars having spectra resembling
our sun, the carbon and metallic lines are
conspicuous and numerous, indicating a
much more condensed state than Sirius,
and recording the extensive dissipation of
energy in the form of light and heat.
These stars may be called middle-aged.
In Aldebaran and other of the lighter-red

FIGURE 10, GREAT SPIRAL NEBULA IN
CANES MAJORES

stars, the spectra are crossed by faint me-
tallic lines and dark bands, faint toward the
red end of the spectrum. In other deep
dark-red stars the metaUic lines are faint,
and the dark bands are faint toward the
violet end of the spectrum, these two
latter stages, in my opinion, being the last
stage toward total extinction of Hght.

Stars, after gradually absorbing all sur-
rounding nebulous particles, at the end of
the transition from a gaseous state sink in
temperature. Like om- sun, they gradually
cool off, and sometime become dark and
dead. This, to my mind, is also proved by
the fact that so many stars are apparently
cooling off, varying extensively in the
amount of hght-emission, which irregularity
has not as yet been adequately explained.
At present there are a great many long-
period variable stars, many of which I have
observed myself. These stars are period-
ically compared with the stars near them
of apparently constant magnitude, the
comparison stars being of graded degrees

FIGURE II. CLUSTER IN HERCULES

206

THE CENTURY MAGAZINE

served of all " new stars," and is an instance
where, in all probability, either a small body
or small nebula collided with a similar body
or a tremendous internal explosion took
place. It blazed out in February, 1901, at
a place where no star had previously been
observed, and has ever since been subsiding.
Besides this one, astronomical history has
recorded at least fifteen similar instances.

But you ask, " Why do not bright stars
collide, since they are so thick ? " To this
I say that, from the astronomical point of
view, stars are not thick, but are separated
by vast distances in space, and, further.

FIGURE 12. CLUSTER IN CENTAURUS

of brightness and perhaps being lettered
from A to K, A being the brightest, and K
several magnitudes fainter. At maximum
brightness, a star may be as bright as A or
B, and at minimum as faint as K, an un-
questioned change of several magnitudes
in brightness. I believe thatin time to come,
perhaps not for many centuries, the com^se
of variation of all stars, apart from the
cycles of variation now so easily fixed, will
be found rising or falling, and unquestion-
ably determined to be at some stage in
cosmic life or in the cycle of evolution as
revealed by the spectroscope. Extensive
variation, I believe, is a symptom of ex-
treme decadence, dark-redness being a pre-
lude to extinction. Becoming dark and of
smaller and smaller mass aif ects velocity and
increases perturba-
tions of motion,
and they become
at length more and
more irregular.
Then it must fol-
low that colhsions
and grazings of
stars occur. Fig-
ure 14 shows the
recent " new star in
Perseus " as photo-
graphed at the
Yerkes Observa-
tory. It is the
most perfectly ob-

FIGURE 14. THE "NEW STAR IN PERSEUS"
By courtesy of Mr. G. W. Ritchey, the Yerkes Observatory

FIGURE 13. THE PLEIADES

that our universe has existed for such an in-
finitely long time — for milhons and millions
of ages— that it has reached a high degree
of stability, and, by the theory of chances,
such collisions are extremely unhkely,
though they must occasionally occur.

This primary diffusion of molecules is
not only brought about by colhsions
of stars themselves, but by the coUision
and disintegration of comets and me-
teors, and by vol-
canic action and
star-explosions and
the incessant chem-
ical action going on
in space.

Extraordinary as
it may seem, two
hundred tons of
meteors fall upon
the earth daily,
working tremen-
dous geological
and chemical ef-
fect in a long
period.

VOL. LX. — 19.

GREAT NEBULA IN ANDEOMEDA.

Photographed with the two-foot reflecting Telescope of the Yerices
Observatory ( Ritchey ) .

Fig. 9. The Solar Corona.
Photographed by Yerkes Observatory Eclipse Expedition, May 28, 1900 (Barnard and

Ritchey),

preaommates in a very striking manner over the other elements. The
spectral lines of snch elements as iron, magnesium, sodium and cal-

FiG. 8.

ClIABACTERISTIC SPECTRA OF (a) WHITE, (6) YELLOW, AND (c) RED STARS (HUGGINS).

cium, rise into prominence as the hydrogen lines fade. Meanwhile the
light of the star undergoes a change of color, completely losing its
1)luish cast and assuming a distinctly yellow hue. There can be little if
any doubt that our own sun once passed through the successive stages
which are represented by the spectra shown in Fig. 8. The time which
has elapsed since it acquired its present size and density as the result of
the condensation of the great nebula in which the earth and the other
planets also had their origin, covers many millions of years. It is fortu-
nate for the study of stellar evolution that the stages through which the
sun once passed are all exemplified in existing stars, which for unknown

Of all the secondary planets the earth's satellite is by far the most? Interesting and important.
The moon completes her circuit around the earth in a period whose mean or average length is 27
days 7 hours 43. 2 minutes; but inconsequence of her motion in common witli the earth around the
sun, the mean duration of the lunar month, that is, the time from new moon to new moon, is 29
days 12 liours 44.05 minutes, which is called the moon's syiiodical period. If the earth were mo-
tionless in space the moon's orbit would be nearlj^ an ellipse, having the eartli in one of the foci ;
hence her distance from the earth varies during the course oE a lunar month. Ilor moan distance
from the earth is 238,850 miles. Her maximum distance, however, may reacli 252.830 miles, and
the least distance to which she can approach the earth is 221.520 miles. Her diameter is 2,162
miles, and if we deduct from lier distance froai the earth the sum of the two radii of the earth and
moon, viz. , 3,962 and 1,081 miles, respectively, we shall have for the nearest approach of the sur-
facesof tlie two bodies 216,477 miles. Herorbit is a very intricate one, because the earth in moving
around the sun carries the moon along with it; hence the latter is sometimes within and sometimes
without the eartli's orbit. Its form is that of a serpentine curve, always cmicave toward the sun,
and inclined to the plane of the earth's orbit at an angle of 5° 9', in consequence of which our satel-
lite appears sometunes above and sometimes below the plane of the eartli's orbit, tlirough which
she passes twice in a revolution. These points or positions are called nodes, and no two consecutive
nodes occupy positions diametrically opposite on the lunar orbit. U'he nodes have a retrograde
motion, which causes them to make an entire revolution in 18 years, 218 days, 21 hours, 22 minutes
and 46 seconds. This motion was well known to the ancients, who called it the Saros, and was
made use of by them in roughly predicting eclipses.

The moon always presents the same face to us, as is evident from the permanency of thevarions
markings on its surface. "This circumstance proves that with respect to the earth slie revolvfs on an
axis, and the time of rotation is exactly equal to the time of revolution around tlie earth, viz.,
27.32166 days. The moon's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of her orbit, but deviates theie-
from by an angle of ahout60 41'. In consequence of this fact, and of the inclmation of the lunar
orbitto that ot the ecliptic, the poles of tlie moon lean alternately to and from the earth. When
the north pole leans toward the earth we see somewhat more of the region surrounding it, and
somewhat less when it leans the contrary way. This displacement is known by the name of libra-
tion in latitude. . . ,,

The moon's motion on her axis is uniform, but her angular velocity m her orbit is subject to
slightvariations by reason of the form of her orbit: hence it liappeus that we sometimes see a little
more of the eastern or western edge at one time than at another. This phenomenon is known as
libration in longitude.

The moon's surface contains about 14,685,000 square miles, or nearly four times the area of
Kurope Her volume i3 1-49 and her mass 1-81 that of the earth, and hence her density is about
3-5thatof theearth, oraboutS 2-5 that of water. At the lunar surface gravity is only 3-20 of what
it is at the earth, and therefore a body which weighs 20 pounds here would weigh only 3 pounds there.

The centre of gravity of the earth and moon, or the point about which they botli actually revol\-e
in their course around thesun, lies iv itli in the earth; it is 1,063 miles below the surface.

The attractive force of the moon acting on the water of our oceans is mainly instrumental in
raising them into protuberances or tides in such amanner as to give the total mass a spheroidal figure
whose principal a.x:is would continually coincide with the line joining the centres of the earth and
moon, but in consequence of the resistance which this movement of the water encounters from con-
tinents and islands, as well as from the liquid molecules themselves, the tidal wave can never arrive
at any place until about onehour after the moon has crossed the meridian of the place.

The moon has no atmosphere and no water. The suddenness with which stars are occulted by
the moon is regarded as a conclusive proof that a lunar atmosphere does not exist, and the spectro-
scope furnishes negative evidence of the same character.

In remote ages the lunar surface was the theatre of violent volcanic action, being elevated into
cones and ridges exceeding 20, 000 feet high, and at other places rent into furrows or depressions of
corresponding depth. The lunar volcanoes are now extinct. A profound silence reigns over the
desolate and rugged surface. It is a dead world, utterly unfit to support animal or vegetable life.

THE KARTH'S ATMOSPHERE.
The earth's sensible atmosphere is generallv supposed to extend some forty miles in height, prob-
ably further, but becoming at only a few miles from ihe surlace of too great a tenuity to support life.
The condition and motiois of this aerial ocean play a most important part in the determination of
climate, modif.ving, by absorbing, the otherwise intense heat of the sun, and, when laden wilh
clouds, hindering the earth from radiating its acquired heat into space. — If- /titoA'er

m)2 mooWn titjases, 1913,

rH

Phase.

Boston.

New York.

Washington.

Charleston.

Chicago.

a

03

1-3

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

15
29

6
14
20
27

7
15

22
29

6
14
20
28

6
13

20

27

4
11
18
26

4
10
18
26

H.

5
11
10

M.

44 A.M.
17 A.M.
56 A.M.
50 A.M.

H. M.

5 33 A.M.

11 6 A.M.

10 44 A.M.
2 38 A.M.

H. M.

5 20 A.M.
10 53 A.M.
10 32 A.M.

2 26 A.M.

H. M.

6 9 A.M.
10 42 A.M.
10 21 A.M.

2 14 A.M.

H. M.

4 39 A.M.
10 11 A.M.

9 50 A.M.
1 43 A.M.

>>

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

12
3
9

4

38 A.M.
50 A.M.
19 P.M.
31 VM

12 26 A.M.

3 38 A.M.
9 8 P.M.

4 20 P.M.

12 14 A.M.

3 26 A.M.
8 55 P.M.

4 7 P.M .

12 2 A.M.
3 13 A.M.

8 44 P.M.
3 56 P.M.

5d 11 31 P.M.

2 42 A.M.
8 13 P.M.

3 25 P.M.

fi(

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

7
4
7
8

38 P.M.

14 P.M.

12 A.M.

13 A.M.

7 27 P.M.
4 2 P.M.

7 A.M.

8 2 A.M.

7 14 P.M.
3 50 P.M.

6 48 A.M.

7 50 A.M.

7 3 P.M.
3 38 P.M.

6 37 A.M.

7 38 A.M.

6 32 P.M.
• 3 8 P.M.

6 6 A.M.

7 7 A.M.

<J

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

1
12
4

1

4 P.M.
55 A.M.

48 P.M.
25 A.M.

12 52 P.M.
12 43 A.M.
4 37 P.M.

1 13 A.M.

12 40 P.M.
12 31 A.M.

4 24 P.M.

1 1 A.M.

12 29 P.M.

12 20 A.M.

4 13 P.M.

12 50 A.M.

11 58 A.M.
13d 11 49 P.M.

3 42 P.M.

12 19 A.-M.

d

s

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

3

7
2
7

40 A.M.

1 A.M.

34 A.M.

19 P.M.

3 29 A.M.

6 49 A.M.
2 22 A.M.

7 8 P.M.

3 16 A.M.

6 37 A.M.

2 10 A.M.
6 55 P..M.

3 5 A.M.

6 25 A.M.
1 59 A.M.
6 44 P.M.

2 34 A.M.

5 54 A.M.
1 28 A.M.

6 13 P.M.

1-5

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.

3

11

1

12

13 P.M.

53 A.M.

9 P.M.

57 P.M.

3 1 P.M.

11 42 A.M.

12 58 P.M.
12 45 P.M.

2 49 P.M.

11 29 A.M.

12 45 P.M.
12 33 P.M.

2 38 P.M.

11 19 A.M.

12 34 P.M.
12 21 P.M.

2 6 P.M.

10 47 A.M.
12 3 P.M.

11 50 A.M.

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full -Moon.
Last Quarter.

12
4
1
5

22 A.M.
53 P.M.
22 A.M.
14 A.M.

12 10 A.M.

4 42 P.M.

1 11 A.M.

5 3 A.M.

3d 11 58 P.M.
4 29 P.M.

12 58 A.M.

4 51 AM.

3d 11 47 P.M.

4 18 P.M.
12 47 A.M.
4 39 A.M.

3d 11 16 P.M.

3 47 P.M.

12 16 A.M.

4 8 A.M.

3

New Moon.
First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.
New Moon.

8
16
24
31

7
15
23
30

6
15

8
11
3
7
3

14 A.M.
17 P.M.
43 P.M.
33 P.M.
54 P.M.

8 2 A.M.
11 5 P.M.

3 31 P.M.
7 22 P.M.
3 42 P.M.

7 50 A.M.
10 53 P.M.
3 19 P.M.
7 10 P.M.
3 30 P.M.

7 39 A.M.
10 42 P.M.
3 8 P.M.
6 58 P.M.
3 19 P.M.

7 8 A.M.
10 11 P.M.
2 37 P.M.
6 27 P.M.
2 48 P.M.

1

'. p.

1-

First Quarter.
Full Moon.
Last Quarter.
New Moon.

8

8

7

12

21 A.M.

2 A.M.

46 A.M.

13 A.M.

8 10 A.M.
7 50 A.M.
7 34 .\.M.

12 1 A.M.

7 58 A.M.

7 38 A.M.

7 22 A.M.

29d 11 49 P.M.

7 46 A.M.

7 26 A.M.

7 11 A.M.

29d 11 37 P.M,

7 15 A.M.

6 55 A.M.

6 39 A.M.

29d 11 6 P.M.

1

First Quarter.
Full Moon.

9
1

2 P.M.
23 A.M.

8 50 P.M.

1 11 A.M.

8 38 P.M.

12 59 A.M.

5 45 P.M.

8 27 P.M.
12 47 A.M.
5 34 P.M.

7 56 P.M.

12 16 A.M.

5 3 P.M.

STELLAR EVOLUTION. 303

devote a very small amount of time to the subject. As 3^011 doubtless
know^ the essential feature of a star spectroscope is the prism or train
of prisms by which the star light is divided into its constituent parts.
After passing through the prisms the light of the star is spread out
into a long band, which shows all the colors of the rainbow, beginning

Fig. 7.

Spiral Nebula in Canes Venattci.

Photographed with the two-foot reflecting telescope of the Yerkes Observatory (Eitchey).

with red at one end and passing through orange, yellow, green and
blue, to violet at the other. This band is crossed by lines, and the
problem of the spectroscopist is to interpret the meaning of these lines.
If the lines are dark he knows that the light of the star after originat-

304 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

ing in an interior incandescent body has passed through a mass of
cooler vapors, and that during its transmission some of the light has
suffered absorption. If, on the other hand, the lines are bright, he
knows that the region where they are produced is hotter than that lying
below. Thus a single glance at the spectrum of a star is sufficient to
give important information regarding the physical condition of its
atmosphere.

But the spectral lines are able to tell a far more complete story of
stellar conditions. If their exact position in the spectrum can be
measured it becomes possible to determine the chemical composition
of the star's atmosphere. And here the spectroscopist may be said to
have the advantage of the archeologist, in that the key to stellar
hieroglyphs is a master key, capable of interpreting ' not merely the
language of a single people or a single age, but of laying bare the
secrets of the most distant portions of the universe and applying with
equal force to the primitive and to the most highly developed forms of
celestial phenomena. If we take a piece of iron wire and turn it into
vapor in the intense heat of an electric arc lamp we find that the light
which the glowing iron vapor emits, when spread out into a spectrum
by a prism, consists of a series of lines characteristically spaced and
always occupying the same relative positions. In the same way every
other element when transformed into vapor by a sufficiently intense
heat emits characteristic radiations, consisting of groups of lines
occupying definite positions in the spectrum. It is thus easy to see how
the presence of iron vapor can be detected in the atmosphere of Sirius
or in that of the sun. In the spectrum of each of these stars we find
a group of lines occupying the same relative positions as the lines fur-
nished by the iron vapor in an electric arc. Hydrogen gives an even
more characteristic group of lines, which grow closer and closer together
as we pass from the red end of the spectrum toward the violet. This
group occurs in the spectra of thousands of stars and serves as an
important guide in determining a star's place in a general scheme of
stellar evolution.

The practical means of carrying out this method of research may
be illustrated by a reference to the stellar spectroscope employed with
the 40-inch Yerkes telescope. The spectroscope is rigidly attached to
the lower end of the telescope tube. The image of a star formed by
the 40-inch lens passes into the spectroscope through a slit about one
one-thousandth of an inch wide. After analysis by a train of three
prisms an image of the resulting spectrum is formed by a suitable lens
upon a photographic plate. In making the photograph it is only
necessary to keep the image of a star exactly on the slit throughout
the exposure, which may occupy from one minute to several hours, the
duration depending upon the brightness of the star.

^^■?iyA,P.oln:a^^'

(y^' c^ c^<-^ -^ ^ a^o^^.-^^ c^c^^^

Elig-rttved \v^C T.Bry

SIR ISAAC T^TEWTO^.

0]'..1727.

n<()"M I'HE OkrCMKAt. OF KNKT.l.F.R, IN T-H-E fO L l.l'U "f I o N;" ub'
•n£K KIOIl r iroX''-.'.K THE EART. OE EGrREMONl'.

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'MUM W. MimS€MMlLlL

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J\d>llslmi bi- Churhis JUtitjhi.Xvd^aUSTfcH.Zi'fuI^'n-,

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JOHN KEPLER,

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c AP t: JAMES c o o iv . r. r.s,

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Z,itiJ/)w,Jii3>TtfliM'by CharlAt KniglUr.TaO'Mall'Siusb.

GALILEO GALILEL

i^EH MWM2FEM.1ET E)M:WY.

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TYCHO BRAHE.

'^■^'■aied buJ'Rak"

rALILEO GALILEI.

From a Picture in the Public Library in Oxford.

^?/:GBAI'EI] BYSA/ylirSL SAR TAW. THE ajUGIMiL- £¥ H. V/YA'TT,

!L Q L E ® o

Tensile Strength of Materials.

79

WEIGHT OF WATER.

ubic iiu'li

culiic Inclu's

(.■ubii'fool(s:ill)...
(■ubicloot(tresli)..

cubic fool

cubic leet 112.

ubicfoet '22J0.0

c.\ liiuii-ical inch
cyliiidricfil inches
cylindrical foot —

.08017 poiiuiL

.484 pound.

64,8 pounds.

62.5 poiind.s.

7. 48052 U. S. guls

pounds.

pounds.

.02842 pound.

.341 pound.

49. 10 pounds.

1 c.vliud ricii.1 Joot. .

2. 282 cylindrical icet. .

45.64 cylindrical fppt. .

1 imperial gallon..

11.2 imperial ir.illous..

224 imperial gallouH..

I U. S. gallon .

13.44 IT. H. gallons,

268.8 "U. W. gallons

. 6.0
. 112.0
.2240.0
. 10.
. 112.0
.2240,0

8.855
. 112.0
2240.

U. 8. gals,

pounds.

poinids.

pounds.

pounds.

pounds.

pound.s.

pouud.s.

pounds.

IS'OTB.— The centre of pressui-e of a body of waier is at two- thirds the depth from the surface.
THEORETICAL VELOCITY OF WATER IN FEET PER SECOND.

Hbap.Kickt.

Velocity, Feet
per Second.

Head, 1'bbt.

25
80
35

40
45
50

Velocity, rwi
per Secoml.

55
60
65

70

80

Velocity, Feet
per Secc'md.

HK...FKHT.

VelociH.Feet
per Secoua.

10
12
15

18
20
22

25. 4
27.8
81.1
34.0
35.9
37.6

40.1
48. 9
47.4
50.7
53.8
56.7

59.5
62. 1

64.7
67.1
69. 5
71.8

85

90

95

100

125

150

74.0
76.1

78.2
80.3
89.7
98.8

PRESSURE OF WATER PER SQUARE INCH AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS.

Height

Height

Height

JlKIGRT

Fkkt.

Pressure.

Fkkt.

Pressure.

Fkkt.

■ I''""""''-

Fkct.

Pressure.

6

2.60

35

15.16

90

38.98

160

69. 31

8

3.40

40

17.32

100

48.31

170

73.04

10

4.33

45

19. 49

.110

47.64

180

77.97

15

6.49

50

21. 65

120

61.98

190

82. 30

20

8.66

60

25.99

130

66.31

200

86.68

25

10. 82

70

;.o. 32

140

60. 64

215

93.14

30

12.99

80

34.65

150

64.97

230

99.63

^cmijeratitrc of ^tcam

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE 14.7 DECREES IN FAHRENHEIT SCALE.

Pressuhe

Defrrees

i'llKSSUUK

Degrees

I'UES^UllK

Decrees

Pressukk

Dugrees

Pke

of

I'KK

of

Per

,.£

Pkk

of

Sq. Inch.

Temperalnre.

Sq. Inch.

Tt-mporature.

SH. IKCH.

Temper.<i(nic.

Sq. Inch.

'1'omper.ituro.

1

216.3

12

244.3

32

277.0

80

323. 9

2

219.4

14

248. 3

34

279. 6

85

327.6

3

222 4

16

252.1

40

280.9

90

381.1

4

225. 2

18

255. 7

45

292. 5 '

95

334.5

5

227. 9

20

259. 2

60

297.8

100

837.8

6

230.5

22

262.5

55

302. 7

105

341.0

7

288.0

24

265.6

60

807. 4

110

344.

8

285.4

26

268.6

65

311.8

115

847.

9

237.7

28

271.5

70

316.

120

850.0

10

240.0

30

274.3

75

820.0

125

352.8 .

Steam

flows into atm

osphere at t

be rate of 650 feet per second.

,

WEIGHT OF POWER KEOUIRED TO TEAR ASUNDER ONE SQUARE INCH.

Br.s

yellow

Br mze, greatest

least

Ci>pp r, bolt

cast Aui

" r.Ued

wire

mghc.

Gold, cast

Irou, cast. Low Moor,
Nu. 2

Iron, Cast Am

Iron, wrouglit, best
Swedish bar..

Iron, bolts

*' hammered . . .

" m.iau of Am

" " Eng

** plates, boiler j
American (

4-2,000
l!*,ODO
66,788
n,G98
36,800
24,250
3ti,000
61,2011
34,000
20,000

14.076
18,000
3o,000

72,00n
62,260
63,913
31,829
63,900
48,000
62,000

Wire, Am. .
Wrouglit w

fvead, cast ,

■ milled

Platinum, Wire...

er, cast

Steel, Am. Tool Co

Mistered, soft
Steel, cast, maxi'm..

plates, crosswise
" length-
wise

Steel, puddled, ex-
treme

Steel, razor

Tin, Banca ....

" cast, block

Lbs.
Avoir.
"63,300
66.000
73:6m0
103,0110
1,800
3.32U
2,,'iSO
53,0ii0
4H,U0o
179,980
104,1100
138,000
142,000
88,667
93,7uO

96,300

173,817

160,0011

2,122

6,000

Matkbials.

Lbs.
Avoir.

Tin 10, Antimony 1...
Ziuc

11,000
3,600
16,000

e,?

lOil

760

77

234

414

118

2, 3.11".

3„MiO

16,0UU

330

070

2,800

6,'.'0O

9,000

72

16,000

9,000

37,000

" sheet

Brick, fire

" Inferior.

" well burne.l...

Cement, bluestone. . . .

hydraulic...

" Portland, 6 mo

Chalk

(itos, crown

Leather belts

M.<irble, Italian

White

Plaster of Paris

Rope, hemp, tarred...
'' maiiila.........

M

Slate

Ash

Bi'ech

Cedar

ChfSlnut, swee

Cypress

l)ei;l. Christian:

Fir, strongest..

Locust

Mi.hoi.any

Wiiple

Pine, Am. whll«..

•' pitch

Popliir

Spn .
Sycamore

Teak

Walnut..
Willow..

Tensile Streni

their number, or to t£
a tree.

:tll is the resistance of the fibres or part icb-s of a body to separation. It la therefore piopi
e area of its transverse seotiou. The fibres uf wood are strongest naar the centre of the trunk

Hinctpal 25lemciitj3 of tije Solac cSPOtem.

The luimbcrof asteroids diseovereii up to present date is about 465. A number of these smnl
planets liave not been obseryed since their discovery, and are practieaUy ,s CoMsemuMi^^^^^^^^
•--v .sometimes a ma ero doubt, until the elemeuy

< really new, or only an old one rediscovered.

small

......itlyit

iomputed, wlietlier the supposed

80

Seed Planting in the TTnited^ Stat-es.

(Compiled from reports of the Department of Agriculture.)
NEW ENGLAND.

Kin

? Cl:oi

Com

AVheat

Oats

Barley

Kye

liuckwheal

White beans.. ..

Potatoes

Turnips

]\Iaiigels

'I'obacco

Jlay

D.-ite of I'lanting.

May 10 to 30

I''all or Spring

Apr. to May

Apr. to June 20. .
Apr. to May, Sept.

June 1 to 20

May to J\iue

Aur. 15 to May 1 .
July 1 to Aug. 3...
Apr. 15 to May 5..
Heed bed Apr

Best Soil.

Sandy or clay loam.

Clay loam

Strong loam

Strong Joam

Medium, loam

Diglit loam

Sainly loam

iUcliloam

Sandy loam

Strong heavy loam. .
Sandy loam

Amount of
M.<iimre
per Acre.

8 to 12 tons

18tons

6 to 8 tons

7 to 8 tons

7 loS tons

4 to 6 tons

7 to 8 tons

15 to 20 tons. .
lOton:

8 to 15 tons....
8 to 12 tons....

Amount of

Seed per

• e(l).

8 to 12 ats

2bu-h

2 to 3 busli

2 to3busli....
5 to 6 pecks. .
ItolMbnsh..

StolOats

8to20bu.sh...

Ill)

4 to 6 lbs

Weel'
toil
tiirii,

11-;

10-:

MIDUD15 STATES.

Corn

Wheat

Oats

Barley

Kye

liuokwheat

White beaus. ..

Potatoes

Sweetpotatoes.

Cabbage

Turnips....

JMangels

Flax

Tobacco

Hay, timothy..
Kay, clover

Apr. 20 to Mav30
Sept. 20 to Oct. 20

Mar. to May

Mar. to May

Sept. 1 to Oct. 1. ..

June to July

May to June

Mar. to May

May to June.......

Mar. to July

July,
May

Blay.

Seed bed Mar.
Aug. to Oct .
Feb. to Apr.

Medium loam

Loam

Moist clay loam

Clay loam

Sand or gravel loam . .

Loam

Sandy loam

Loam

Sandy loam

Clay or sandy loam. . .

Loam

Loam

Limestone loam

Sandy loam

Clay loam

Clay loam

8 to 12 tons manure,
Stons; 300]bs.fer..
8 tons; 3()01bs.fer..
Stons; SOOlbs.fer..
Stons; SOOlbs.fer..

5 tons

8 tons

10 to 18 tons

300 to 600 lbs. f er. .;
ib to 20 "tons.".'! .' .' .' .' .'
Commercial fer

6to8qts

2busli

2to2;^bu,sh..
2 to2>§bush..

13^bush

>6tol>^bush.

I>^bush

8 to 15 bush...,
10 to 12 bush.

4.to8oz

2to51bs

10 to 15 bush.
20qts

CENTRAL AND WESTERN STATES.

OtoSqts.
6ats

16-:

41-

16-3'

13-:'

40-

8-J,
13-].'
14-'.
10- ji

8 1
10-}'
16- J

8-1
15-V

Corn

Wheat

Oats

Barley

Kye

Buckwheat

White beans...

Potatoes

Turnips

Mangels

Flax

Tobacco

Hay

Apr.lto.Tunel...

Fall or Spr'ng

Apr.l to Mayl. ..
Fall or Spring (1).

Sept. 1 to 30

June

MaylOto JunelO.
Blar. 15 to June 1 .
Julyl5toAug.30.
Apr.l to Way 15..
Mar. 15 to May 15.

Seed bed. Mar

Apr, to May

Black or sandy loam.

Strong loam

Clay loam

Clay loam

Light loam

Clay loam

Clay loam ,

.Sandy loam

Loam or muclc

Sandy loam

Loam

Sandy loam

Clay loam

5 to 10 tons

Stons

Stons

Stons

Stons

Stons

Stons

5 to 10 tons

8 to 10 tons....
8 to 12 tons....
10 to 15 tons..
8 to 10 tons.....
lOtons

Oqts

2 bush

2 to 3 bush....

2 bush .

1 to 2 bush . . . .

1 to 2 bush

l^bnsh

5 to 10 bu h..,

lto61b.s

6to81bs

2 to 3 pecks...,
Oz. to 6 sq. rd.
8 to 15 lbs

16-

40-4
12-1
11 11
35-4
10-1
1
10-2;
10-1
22- S
15-'3
15-1

r

Cotton

Corn

Wheat

Oats..

Barley

E.ve

White beans ...

Cabbage

Watermelons...

Onions

Potatoes

Sweet potatoes.

Pumpkins

Tomatoes

Turnips

Tobacco

Cow peas

Feb. to May 15....

Feb. to June

Sept. to Nov

Feb., May, Sept...

Apr. to May

Sept. to Oct

Mar. to May

Oct., Mar. to May.
Mar. 1 to May 10. .
Feb. 1 to Apr. 10..
Jan. , Feb. to Apr.

May to June

Apr. 1 to Mayl. ..
Jan.l to Feb. 19...
Feb., Aug., Apr..
Seed bed. Mar . . ■. .
Mayl to July 15. .

SOUTHEKN feT.ATES.

Sandy]oam(2)

Rich loam

Clay loam (2)

CIa.vloani (2) ,

Clay loam (2)

Clay loam (2)

Light loam

Light loam

Rich, light loam...

Loam or muck

Light loose loam . . .

Sandy loam

Rich, light loam...
Rich, sandy loam...
Rich, light loam...

Sandy loam

Sandv loam

10 bush. cot. seed,.

8 tons

StolOtons

StolOtous

lOtons.. ..-..,.

8 tons

6to lOtons....

Stons; aOOlbs. ler..

1 to 3 bush..
8qts

2 bush

2% bush

2)^bush

l>^bn,sh

1 10 2 bush..
,^to><ilbs...

2 to 7 lbs....

8 to 12 tons..

8 to 15 t

200 toSOOlb.s. pho.s.

a to 10 bush..
10 to 12 bush.

4to71bs

4 to9oz

2to6]bs

oz. to 6 ^q. rd.
2 to Specks...

20-3>

18-3
4
1

1
4

1
16-

16-2
11-1
12-1

17-2

14-2

8-1

18-2'

6 .

(1) Thestaudard varieties of seed planted in tlie several sections of the United States are as lol
lows: Corn— New England, learning, sanford, flint; Middle States, leaming, white dent, yellow denti
Central and Western .Stctes, leaming, sanford, flint, white dent; Southern States, hickory king, goard
seed. Cox prolific. Wheat— Middle States, ftiltz; Central and Western States, fultz, pooIe, fife
Southern States, fulcaster. Oats— New England, white; Middle States, white, liliick ; Central an<
Western States, gray Norway, silver mine, Russian; Southern States, Texas riisl|ii-(iof. Barley-
Middle States, mansbury; Soutliern States, Tennessee Winter. Kye— New England, white; JNtiddl,
States, white. Winter: Central and Western States, Winter; Southern States, excelsior Winter. Buck
Wheat— Middle States, .silver hull; Central and Western States, silvorhuU. Potatoes— New England
green mountain, carmen 3, rose; Middle States, rose, carmen 3, rural 2; Central and Wester)
States, hebron, rural, early rose, early Ohio. Tobacco— Central and Western States, yellow prior
Spanish, white burley. Hay, clover— Middle States, medium red. Sweet Potatoes— Middle States
yellow Jersey ; Southern States, yellow Jersey. Cotton— Southern States, Texasstormproof. Sprin^
wheat is to some e.xtent grown iu Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and many other States. It matures ii
eighteen to twentv weeks.

(2) la Texas the hlai'k loam is a good soil for cotton, corn, wheat and niost other field crops.

Hiiictpal WiltmmtB of tlje <Solai* cSi>stcm.

Sun

Moi-cury..

Venus

Eanh

iStars

Jupiter..,.
Saiuni

ISfei) luu

as ....

Menu '
Bisuiuce
froinSun,
Millions of

Miles.

36.0

Gl.'J.

92.8

141.5

483.3

886.0

1781. 9

2791. 6

Sidereal
Period,
Days.

87.969

224. 701

365. 25()

686. 95

4332. .58

10759. 22

30686. 82

60181. 11

Orbit
Velocity,
Miles per
aecoud.

23 to 35

21. 9

18.5

15.0

8.1

6.0

4.2

3.4

Mean

Diameter,

Miles.

866,400

3.030

7,700

7,918

4,230

80.500

71.000

31.900

34,800

Mass,
Earth =1.

331100
0.125
0.78

1.00
0.107
316.

94.9

14.7

17.1

Volume,
Eart:!i =1.

1310000
0.056
0.92
1.00
0.152
1309
721
65
85

Density,
Earth =1.

0.25
2.23
0.86
1.00
0.72
0.24
0.13
0.22
0.20

Gravity
at .Sur-
face,
Earth =1.

27.65
0.85
0.83
1.00
0.38
2.65
1.18
0.91
0.88

The uumberof asteroids discovered up to present date is about 465. A number of these small
planets have not been observed since their discovery, and are practically lost. Consequently it
' '""V sometimes a matter of doubt, until the elements have been computed, Avhether the .supposed
's really new, or only au old one rediscovered.