e moon with high powers, there is, in fact, a much greater amount of
visible atmosphere intervening than can possibly apply in beholding
objects on our earth, at even a few miles' distance, since if we look at
lunar objects with a power of one thousand times, our atmosphere is thus
magnified a thousand times also.

The main physical features of the visible half of the moon, with a good
telescopic power, present an enormously elevated table land, traversed,
here and there, with slightly elevated long ridges, and the general
surface largely pitted with almost innumerable deep cusps or valleys, of
every size, from a quarter of a mile to full thirty miles in diameter;
generally circular and surrounded with elevated ridges, some rising to
lofty jagged summits above the surrounding plain. These ridges, on their
inner sides, show separate terraces and mural precipices, while their
outer slopes display deeply scarred ravines and long spurs at their
bases. These cusps, or deep valleys, are the craters of extinct
volcanoes, and in their centres have generally one or two isolated
sub-mountain peaks, occasionally with divided summits, which were the
centres of expiring volcanic action, similar to those that exist in our
own volcanic regions. Besides which the Lunar Apennines, so called,
present to the eye a long range of mountains with serrated summits, on
one side gradually sloped, with terraces, spurs, and ravines, and the
other side mostly precipitous, casting long shadows, which clearly
define the forms of their summits--all these objects presenting the same
dead white everywhere.

Doubtless the farther side of the moon, which has not been subject to
the same elongating or elevating process, nor the above-named causes for
volcanic disruption, presents a climate and vegetation fitted for the
abode of sentient beings. This side alone presenting an aspect of
extreme desolation, far surpassing our polar regions.

It is generally stated in astronomical works, that shadows projected
from lunar objects are intensely black, owing, it is stated, to there
being no reflecting atmosphere; whereas in my long-continued habit of
observation, those shadows appear no more black than those on our earth,
when they fall on contrasting snowy surfaces. The reason for which, in
the absence of a lunar atmosphere, to render light diffusive, is the
brilliant reflection from snow crystals, upon all contiguous objects,
which lie in an angle to receive t