| FIG. 5. BETWEEN FULL MOON AND LAST QUARTER. | FIG. 6. LAST QUARTER. | FIG. 7. BETWEEN LAST QUARTER AND NEW MOON. |
So now we have seen the moon in its various phases, which is nothing more than we can see in the heavens when the sky is clear, but it is better always to understand what we see.
We should remember, then, that one half of the moon is always bright. When it is between us and the sun (not on an exact line, however, for that would make an eclipse of the sun) we cannot see it at all, and then we say “there is no moon to-night.” When it moves around so that we can see a little of the bright side, it is “new moon,” and when it gets around behind us, so to speak, so that we can see the sun shining full upon one side of it, it is “full moon.”
If one of us could live upon that part of the surface of the moon that is always turned toward us, he could see the same changes taking place upon our planet as we see on the moon.
There would be “new earth,” and “quarter earth,” and “full earth,” which last would be truly grand!
Think of a bright orb of light in the heavens fourteen times larger than the full moon, and you will have an idea of how our earth would sometimes appear to observers on the moon,—were there any one there to see.
A VOYAGE TO THE LOWER AMAZON.
In another part of this volume there is an adventure related by Mr. Moore, in which he encountered a snow storm in a tropical country.
Mr. Moore had spent the earlier part of his life in South America; and, in after years, he was very fond of talking about these youthful days with his son George, who was a delighted listener to the travels and exploits of his father.
On one occasion Mr. Moore gave George an account of the first voyage he took on the lower part of the Amazon river, and I think it will prove almost as full of interest to my readers as it was to George Moore.