Show I II I Little Talks I On Astronomy t It is only miles mUes from the earth to the moon and now that we have solved aerial navigation the time may come when a man made machine will span this tills distance So close is the lunar body that we are able to sed its more prominent markings by the naked e eye e These cloudy outlines really are mountain ranges and vast expanses of plain or desert Seen without a telescope telescope tele tele- I scope they are clearer than the markings markings mark mark- ings of Mars when viewed by the most powerful instrument yet made It is practically certain that the oceans on the moon have dried up and that these vast plains are the old ocean beds Apparently there is no water there at least in any considerable considerable consider consider- I able quantity But perhaps the strangest strang strang- est thing about the surface of the moon I are the gigantic craters scattered about Astronomers have progressed I so far in their study of the noon that its more prominent points of inters interest inter inter- s I est have been named measured and andI j their general character investigated So I it is known that some of these craters craters craters' are miles mUes deep and many miles across j I There is the chasm called Newton near the south pole of the moon which is miles long seventy miles in I breadth and 24 feet in depth The I suns suns guns rays never penetrate to the bottom bottom bottom bot bot- tom despite its great size size Scientists long believed that the moon was a dead world which had ceased to be in a state of ch change and andI I was merely traveling its orbit a worn I out crust Now there is some doubt doubton i on that point but there can be no noi i question that the moon is a barren disk I I unsuited for habitation It was laid I down as a law Jaw by the older astronomers astronomers 1 I mers molS that the moon h had d no atmosphere I the mixture of gases oxygen e etc c. c that i permits animate creatures to breathe I But there also is some sOlVe doubt on that I Iscore j score at the present time At least one i authority upon the moon has become convinced that vegetation grows on its surface If that is true it would argile j i I that other forms of life may exist i iThe The force of gravity upon the lunar l II i I body ody is just sixth one-sixth that upon the 1 II earth which means that any possible s I I inhabitants could grow to a height of I thirty six feet without greater physical 1 inconvenience than is experienced by a aman 1 i man six feet tall taIl on this earth All AIl I 1 of their powers would be proportionate I But the surface of the moon is scarf scarf- I fled fied d as though swept by some great j I cataclysm such as the simultaneous i outpouring of many volcanoes And AndI i j I should we ever Journey to this nearest I of planetary neighbors there most I I likel likely will be nobody home to receive i I us liS s |