Mountains of the Moon

“ All is silence in the mountains. Not a breath of breeze disturbs the foliage of the trees, and outside the camp not a living object is to be seen. The moon, which had risen over the eastern mountains, floods valley and hill, forest and mountain, with golden light, beautifying and glorifying the whole landscape with its touch. ”

“ The snow has fallen like a flock of white birds and the air has cleared to the degree of scintillating brilliance that mocks the diamond's flash. The full moon is beneath a cloud and its veiled light, filtering through the vapor, shows dimly the shadowy waters and the wan peaks fainting far away. Then the cloud passes. The moon leaps into the heavens and a flood of white light illumines the water, the sky and the mountains, transforming the whole into a faery scene of arctic splendour. ”

“ These drifts, as of snow, are ranges of mountains, and the promontories and pendent stars are crags and mountaintops just catching the rays of dawn. Down their steep sides lie the shadows of night; the topmost peaks alone have caught the glory! And beyond is the night-side of the moon, illumined by dim earthlight. ”

“ How many astronomers are busily intent on surveying the Mountains of the Moon! And shall we not devote at least equal attention to these Mountains of the Mind, which are far nearer, clearer, and more real to us? ”

“ When half way around, the plodders came in sight of a huge rent in the distant mountain wall, through which the sky showed nearly from the zenith to the horizon. In this immense V-shaped space shone the moon nearly at its full, and without a rift or fleck of cloud in front of its face.
A flood of light streamed through and between the encompassing peaks, tinging the men and animals with its fleecy veil, as if some of the snow from the crests had been sprinkled over them. ”

“ Toward the east you would see the sun close to the horizon, yet blazing bright and hot, without clouds or mists to temper its rays. The rocks or soil beneath your feet would perhaps be cold to the touch, because the surface of the moon radiates away the heat very quickly, but your face and hands would be almost scorched by the intense solar beams. Looking toward the west you would see the shining tips of mountains suddenly extinguished, one after another, and when the sharply defined edge of the advancing night passed over you it would be as if you had plunged into a cold bath. ”

“ At that moment, the moon, instead of appearing flat like a disc, showed its convexity. If the sun's rays had struck it obliquely, the shadow thrown would have brought out the high mountains, which would have been clearly detached. The eye might have gazed into the crater's gaping abysses, and followed the capricious fissures which wound through the immense plains. But all relief was as yet levelled in intense brilliancy. They could scarcely distinguish those large spots which give to the moon the appearance of a human face. ”

“ But in winter, when mountains, glacier, city, trees, lie white and sparkling beneath the large and brilliant stars, and the sea alone is dark—to stand then and see the great golden moon rising slowly, vibrating, pushing, oh, so silently, so beautifully, above the clear line of snow into the dark blue sky—that is worth ten years of living. ”

“ Nothing was ever written concerning their Country of the Moon, as far as we know, until the Hindus, who traded with the east coast of Africa, opened commercial dealings with its people in slaves and ivory, possibly some time prior to the birth of our Saviour, when, associated with their name, Men of the Moon, sprang into existence the Mountains of the Moon. ”

“ Yet no one can look at a map of the Moon without being struck with the very rugged character of its mountain scenery. This is mainly due to the absence of air and water. To these two mighty agencies, not merely "the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples," but the very mountains themselves, are inevitable victims. Not merely storms and hurricanes, but every gentle shower, every fall of snow, tends to soften our scenery and lower the mountain peaks. These agencies are absent from the Moon, and the mountains stand to-day just as they were formed millions of years ago. ”

“ This mountain mass I consider to be THE TRUE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, regarding which so many erroneous speculations have been ventured. I infer this because they lie beyond Unyamuézi (country of the Moon) , and must have been first mentioned to geographical inquirers by the Wanyamuézi (people of the Moon) , who have from time out of mind visited the coast, and must have been the first who gave information of them. ”

“ Let us wing our flight from this globe and mark the changes in the aspect of the moon as we gradually approach. We are soon able to discover a diversity of colour. From the earth's surface, the blaze of light obliterates the differences of colour, so that only variety of shade can be discerned; but as we approach, things assume the aspect of real mountains, valleys, and plains. We soon discover that the dark parts in the moon, which fancy shapes into the eyes, nose, and mouth of the face-in-the-moon, are vast plains. ”

“ For ragged and jagged cliffs of almost total barrenness, and yawning chasms lined with intolerable precipices, the Moon outrivals the Earth. I took a passing glimpse of the famous crater-mountains, called by our astronomers Copernicus and Theophilus, the former situated in the eastern and the latter in the western hemisphere of the Moon. The largest openings of our Earth dwindle into insignificance compared with such stupendous marvels of natural scenery. ”

“ The effect of the moonlight, as it falls on the edges of the adjoining mountains, is very impressive,—-its brightness in this country being intense: a hard, lustrous outline encircles the moon; and the spots and streaks upon it which resemble lakes and mountains, actually pain the eyes from the luminous glare of light which surrounds them. ”

“ Of the 7,300,000 square miles of surface which the moon presents to us, about 2,900,000 are occupied by those dark gray patches which you see so plainly spotting her face, and which were once supposed to be seas. The remaining 4,400,000 square miles consist of a very rough, broken country, ridged with gigantic mountains and containing hundreds of enormous craters, and mountain-ringed valleys, which are so vast that one hesitates to call them, what many of them seem evidently to be, extinct volcanoes. ”

“ The heights of the lunar mountains, and the depths of the valleys, can be estimated with a considerable degree of accuracy. Some of the mountains are as high as five miles, and the valleys, in some instances, are four miles deep. Hence it is inferred, that the surface of the moon is more broken and irregular than that of the earth, its mountains being higher and its valleys deeper, in proportion to its magnitude, than those of the earth. ”

“ Although several long ranges of mountains resembling those of the earth exist on the moon, the great majority of its elevations assume the crateriform aspect. Sometimes, instead of a crater, we find an immense mountain ring whose form and aspect hardly suggest volcanic action. But everywhere the true craters are in evidence, even on the sea-beds, although they attain their greatest number and size on those parts of the moon—covering sixty per cent of its visible surface—which are distinctly mountainous in character and which constitute its most brilliant portions. ”

“ We all believe the moon to be a globe; but I must confess that on my first sight of her through a telescope, I experienced a veritable shock of surprise and pleasure to realise, as I saw the craters passing from full face in the centre to profile at 43 the edge, how globular she really was. With the mountains no such ocular demonstration is possible to us. ”

“ The mountains, under higher magnification, do not present such diversity of formation as the craters, or at least the points of difference are not so apparent; but they exhibit a plentiful variety of combinations. There are a few perfectly isolated examples that cast long shadows over the plains on which they stand like those of a towering cathedral in the rising or setting sun. ”

“ Later on, as the full moon appears from behind a bank of cloud, those wonderful moonlight effects may be seen which must be familiar to all who know the mountains as they are in summer or autumn,—scenes such as the writer has frequently witnessed in the Highlands of Scotland, but which only the poet can adequately describe.
There are few sights in Nature which more powerfully impress the mind than a sunset among the mountains. ”

“ Its mountains far surpass ours in size; and in the shape of the surface there is a greatness not to be found in the noblest parts of our earth. I landed in the moon upon a plain, where I found grass and trees, the particular nature of which I shall not describe, as this short narrative is not intended to include botany and natural history—subjects which I leave to those who travelled into our satellite for the express purpose of studying them. ”

“ Still nearly hidden in night we perceive many great rings on which the sun is beginning to rise, and four of the most important ranges of mountains are coming into view. One of these, on the 92southern border of the Mare Serenitatis, is visible throughout its entire extent. It forms a portion of the coquettish ornaments with which the Moon Maiden has decorated her hair, as we shall see clearly in the next photograph. This range is named the Hæmus mountains. Near its center, quite at the edge of the ‘sea,’ is a bright crater ring, one of the most conspicuous on the moon. It is called Menelaus. ”

“ The higher the sun rises upon them the more brilliantly they glow, almost as if they were streaks of new-fallen snow. They spread over the whole of the southwestern quarter of the moon, hiding rings and mountains with their brightness. One very notable ray runs down into the Mare Nubium, and a fainter one parallel with it produces the semblance of a long, walled way.
107“The South Pole of the moon lies in the midst of a marvelously upheaved and tumbled region, where one huge ring is seen breaking into another on every hand. ”

“ I refer to the fact that what seem to be the craters of lunar volcanoes are not situated on the tops of mountains. They are immense plains, more or less irregular in surface, and often having a peak or a group of peaks in the center, while around these plains always extends a mountain ring, steep on the inner side, and having a gradual slope without. But most significant fact of all, the plains, or floors inside the ring, are almost invariably situated thousands of feet below the general level of the moon. ”

“ The moon seems, as a learned author has observed, in almost every respect to be a body similar to our earth, to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and vallies, rivers and lakes. With regard to a lunar atmosphere, the existence of which has long been a subject of much dispute, it is now generally admitted.122 The irregularity of the moon’s surface, arising from hills and vallies, renders her more capable of reflecting the sun’s rays to us. ”

“ But is not the moon herself the very spirit of poetry? What in nature is more poetical in its suggestions than the moon wading through fleecy clouds on a serene summer’s night? But pardon me, we are forgetting my mountains, upon which I insist as strongly as you do upon your inhabitants. The mountains have this advantage that they are very real, and no exercise of the imagination is required to bring them clearly before us. In photograph No. ”

“ Do we not experience similar sensations when night silently creeps over the earth? But it imparts a feeling of loneliness and desolation when we watch it swallowing up 136the barren mountains and plains of the lunar world that we do not experience in terrestrial life. There are no cheerful interiors on the moon to which one can retreat when darkness hides the landscapes. ”

“ Long bands across the disc, veritable clouds formed in a very restricted atmospheric medium, from which emerged not only all the mountains, but every relief of middling importance, amphitheatres, yawning craters, such as exist on the visible face. ”

“ As regards the lunar mountains, it may truly be said that we have a fairly accurate knowledge of peaks and mountains which would either be too precipitous to be climbed, or quite inaccessible to us, if we could actually land upon the moon; and the whole visible surface has been more carefully and thoroughly mapped out and studied than is the case with many parts of our own earth. ”

“ The upper portion of our illustration is occupied by the magnificent range of volcanic mountains named after our Apennines, extending to a length of upwards of 450 miles. This mountain group rises gradually from a comparatively level surface towards the south-west, in the form of innumerable comparatively small mountains of exudation, which increase in number and altitude towards the north-east, where they culminate and suddenly terminate in a sublime range of peaks, whose altitude and rugged aspect must form one of the most terribly grand and romantic scenes which imagination can conceive. ”

“ But inasmuch as the manifold details of the relief map require to be placed in a certain light to be seen to the best advantage, so the ring-mountains, rugged highlands, and wide-extending plains of our satellite, as they pass in review under the sun, must be observed when suitable conditions of illumination prevail, if we wish to appreciate their true character and significance. ”