“I am very glad to hear you say that. It enhances my opinion of the astronomers, and convinces me that after all they are not so severely scientific as they describe themselves.”
No. 20. August 17, 1903; Moon’s Age 24.84 Days.
“If they were,” I replied, “or if all of them were, it would be a bad augury for the future of their science. Do not think that in occasionally seeking to restrain your imagination I wish to express condemnation of what, after all, is the noblest of human faculties. But again we are forgetting our principal business, which is with the facts. Aristarchus, as I have said, has undergone another distinct change of appearance from that which it showed before. The central peak is now covered by the shadow of the eastern wall, but still the reflection from the western wall alone is sufficient to make it the brightest spot on the moon. Herodotus, on the other hand, has become indistinct and the Harbinger Mountains are practically invisible, but we can detect the existence of the enormous chasm or cañon, which I told you once issues from the interior of Herodotus and goes winding nearly a hundred miles over the floor of the Oceanus Procellarum.
“Notice, also, how clearly visible three or four relatively small craters east of the ‘Bay of Rainbows’ have become, and how conspicuous are several large walled plains on the northern ‘horn.’ The dark level south of these formations and between them and the small craters has also a name which I have not before mentioned. It is the Sinus Roris, ‘Gulf of Dew.’ It connects the Mare Frigoris with the Oceanus Procellarum. It is another legacy from your friend the imaginative astronomer.”
“Then once more he receives my thanks for having done his best to make the moon an ideal world. It is always painful to have one’s ideals destroyed.”
“I hope that I have not been destroying any of yours.”
“No, but at least you have caused a change in my impressions about the character of the moon. Henceforth there will be an element of terror as well as of unexpected grandeur mingled with my thoughts of the ‘Queen of Night.’”
“That element will not be diminished by what I am about to point out. Look far over near the eastern border of the Oceanus Procellarum, directly east of Aristarchus. There you will distinguish the outlines of two or three vast submerged ring plains, which we may regard as relics of that earlier lunar world, which preceded the outgush of lava that Mr. Elger thinks covered the sea bottoms. Observe also the singular light streak that runs from Kepler, now barely visible at the edge of night, to a dark little crater, beyond which lies a bright point off the coast of the ‘ocean.’ South of this there are other submerged ring plains, one of which, named Letronne, has a high western wall, which forms in the picture a sort of promontory projecting from the southern border of the Oceanus Procellarum, almost directly north of Gassendi. The latter is very clearly shown at the lower end of the Mare Humorum, the western side of which is in shadow, while its whole surface has turned very dark. On the southern horn of the crescent the ring plains, Schickard and Schiller, are still prominent, and the northern and eastern edges of the Mare Humorum appear more ragged with mountains and crater rings than before.”
“And have all these mountains and craters names?”