Show SELENES SECRETS matter matters about th no moon on fh for r th he miff masses N Y sun aft the telescope has lately revealed iome some very curious and startling ap in the moon astronomers have been slow to accept tho the conclusions which these observations suggest because they have so ion long believed that the moon Is a deab dead planet and incapable of supporting any life upon its surface this belief is based principally upon the assumed absence of a lunar atmos phere but these recent observations indicate that the moon ha an atmosphere and if it has bits an atmosphere mo ro sphere it may have various forma forms of life upon its surface differing fiering dif as bueb from those upon the earth as its the moan itself dif differs fiers from the earth in its geological and climatological matures fea ha turea tures it W would be very curious if the telescope the in strument strum ment which has banished from the moon the hosts of strange crisa crea tuna tures with which the imagination of some of the ancie ancient peopled it and shown how unfitted it is for th the e habitation of beings like ourselves and those we ace see around us should now make us believe that the motin is the home of beings m more ore grotesque in in our eyes clipps perhaps than any the imagination has as pictured we do not say this is probable but bt only that hat it is is suggested by th the very interesting observations abich have lately been made and which we shall briefly describe on the of march larch last mr stanley william williams an english observer was looking at the moon ia in the early evening with a telescope of considerable power and giving PI particular c lar attention to that very singular in oval valley known to astronomers tron omers by the name of plato this valley is about sixty miles broad remarkably level and surrounded su by a ring of mountains averaging so something methin less than feet high but shooting up here and there into peaks nearly as high aa as atria when the sunlight strikes across the sumin summits its of the mountains on one side it throws thrown the abidin shining peaks peals into s splendid relief but all all the valley within remain remains shrouded in darkness the eun was just rising in upon this mountain ring when mr r williams made his observation of plato and his eye at once detected a strange appearance the interior r of the tprrance valley ley a which usually appears totally dark at such times was illuminated with a faint hore b cent scent light making its level a d dimly biml evi visible i blo it was not the effect of r reflection c tion from the illuminated mountains because the interior of the valley was protected from such reflection so some passing clouds in our atmosphere shot t out this antem interesting ting scene from the sight of the observer for about an tin hour when the eky sky cleared again mr williams looked once more and saw that the strange light had disappeared mr williams had made a similar observation in the same name pot spot about five years xgo ago about seven weeks after mr ir williams observations which we have described there was a total acl eclipse of the son and a party of fri french li and english astronomers egypt egypt te observe it as the line of tota totality ity ran across that country t when these astronomers turned their spectroscopes upon the edge of the moon as it hid bid the sun on the of may they ere eive indications ia in the at strengthening bening of certain lines of the spectrum of tho the existence of an atmosphere on the moen this observation a tion though net not unprecedented w waa as hailed with satisfaction by those who had bad always contended that the moon was not as dead ae its it seemed the existence of an tin atmosphere would explain p aln the phenomenon which mr williams witnessed in th the valley talley of plato aa as well as various other equally singular observations which ch have been geen made by students of t the he moon from time to time but this was not all on tho the of may two days after the ebli eclipse se J G jackson of delaware while studying the moon ae as he had been accustomed to for years with a reflecting ting telee telescope cove w was as surprised to sec see near the western edge of the disk and over a portion of the flat region known as the seaon crises something which he be described as a feathery looking cloud jut tiro later he saw a similar appearance in the same place and ana now mr L a lot lot a well known astronomer commenting upon stanley williams observation says that he has more than once witnessed similar appearances upon tho the moons disk he has seen lunar landscapes lose their distinctive distinct ile as if thin clouds were floating over them aud and once around tho the crater of kant be saw wha what may have been a rare mr vapor taper slightly tinged with purple he baa has also els seen another large large crater illuminated with faint purple light mr aar elot thinks these various VArious ap pe arances are manifestations of a i aces lunar aam atm atmosphere of a nature vet vei unknown curious observations of a similar nature can bo be found scattered her here and there in astronomical record records reaching back more than a century but they have generally been bee centa n look I cd ed upon with distrust or totally disregarded rega urn dd these recent observations give them renewed interest and t tend end to vindicate their correctness if it can be shown that the moon has an atmosphere sir william Her herschelt idea that our ratel satellite lite is inhabitable will not bo be deemed so 10 ridiculous as it has bas teemed to some modem modern astronomers wo we should not expect to obtain any confirmation of the observations of the ger man aels colit w who bo be I eyed he bad disco discovered gerld a big I g city and great military works in the moon but reasons might be shown for thinking that the moon supports life peculiar to itself the mere of such a thing is 13 somewhat startling burthe fur the really y a very near neighbor to the earth few perhaps realize how to another world besides the earthnut earth but it is a very narrow epan span of space that separates us from the moon tho the mean dia distance tance is only miles or lees im than ten times the circuit of the earth a and nd oft only about abou t eighth eighty times as far as from hero era to san francisco i ran cisco not a few sea cap taini have probably sailed as far as the distance from the earth to the moon and yet so close at hand baud as this there is a world differing so w widely idely from the one we dwell upon that we can only admit the possibility of its being inhabited by assuming that its inhabitants aro are ats unlike as their world is unlike ours |