we passed over a wide tract of country, chiefly of a rugged and
apparently volcanic character; and having seen few additional varieties
of vegetation, except some species of lichen, which grew everywhere
in great abundance, Dr. Herschel proposed that we should take out all
our lenses, give a rapid speed to the panorama, and search for some of
the principal valleys known to astronomers, as the most likely method
to reward our first night's observation with the discovery of animated
beings. The lenses being removed, and the effulgence of our unutterably
glorious reflectors left undiminished, we found, in accordance with our
calculations, that our field of view comprehended about twenty-five
miles of the lunar surface, with the distinctness both of outline and
detail which could be procured of a terrestrial object at the distance
of two and a half miles; an optical phenomenon which you will find
demonstrated in Note 5. This afforded us the best landscape views we
had hitherto obtained, and although the accelerated motion was rather
too great, we enjoyed them with rapture. Several of those famous
valleys, which are bounded by lofty hills of so perfectly conical a
form as to render them less like works of nature than of art, passed
the canvass before we had time to check their flight; but presently a
train of scenery met our eye, of features so entirely novel, that Dr.
Herschel signalled for the lowest convenient gradation of movement. It
was a lofty chain of obelisk-shaped, or very slender pyramids, standing
in irregular groups, each composed of about thirty or forty spires,
every one of which was perfectly square, and as accurately truncated
as the finest specimens of Cornish crystal. They were of a faint lilac
hue, and very resplendent. I now thought that we had assuredly fallen
on productions of art; but Dr. Herschel shrewdly remarked, that if the
Lunarians could build thirty or forty miles of such monuments as these,
we should ere now have discovered others of a less equivocal character.
He pronounced them quartz formations, of probably the wine-colored
amethyst species, and promised us, from these and other proofs which he
had obtained of the powerful action of laws of crystallization in this
planet, a rich field of mineralogical study. On introducing a lens,
his conjecture was fully confirmed; they were monstrous amethysts,
of a diluted claret color, glowing in the intensest light of the
sun! They varied in height from sixty to ninety feet, though we saw
several of a still more incredible altitude. They were observed in a
succession of valleys divided by longitudinal lines of round-breasted
hills, covered with verdure and nobly undulated; but what is most
remarkable, the valleys which contained these stupendous crystals were
invariably barren, and covered with stones of a ferruginous hue, which
were probably iron pyrites. We found that some of these curiosities
were situated in a district elevated half a mile above the valley of
the Mare Fœcunditatis, of Mayer and Riccioli; the shores of which soon
hove in view. But never was a name more inappropriately bestowed. From
"Dan to Beersheba" all was barren, barren--the sea-board was entirely
composed of chalk and flint, and not a vestige of vegetation could
be discovered with our strongest glasses. The whole breadth of the
northern extremity of this sea, which was about three hundred miles,
having crossed our plane, we entered upon a wild mountainous region
abounding with more extensive forests of larger trees than we had
before seen--the species of which I have no good analogy to describe.
In general contour they resembled our forest oak; but they were much
more superb in foliage, having broad glossy leaves like that of the
laurel, and tresses of yellow flowers which hung, in the open glades,
from the branches to the ground. These mountains passed, we arrived
at a region which filled us with utter astonishment. It was an oval
valley, surrounded, except at a narrow opening towards the south, by
hills, red as the purest vermilion, and evidently crystallized; for
wherever a precipitous chasm appeared--and these chasms were very
frequent, and of immense depth--the perpendicular sections presented
conglomerated masses of polygon crystals, evenly fitted to each other,
and arranged in deep strata, which grew darker in color as they
descended to the foundations of the precipices. Innumerable cascades
were bursting forth from the breasts of every one of these cliffs,
and some so near their summits, and with such great force, as to form
arches many yards in diameter. I never was so vividly reminded of
Byron's simile, "the tale of the white horse in the Revolution." At the
foot of this boundary of hills was a perfect zone of woods surrounding
the whole valley, which was about eighteen or twenty miles wide, at
its greatest breadth, and about thirty in length. Small collections of
trees, of every imaginable kind, were scattered about the whole of the
luxuriant area; and here our magnifiers blest our panting hopes with
specimens of conscious existence. In the shade of the woods on the
south-eastern side, we beheld continuous herds of brown quadrupeds,
having all the external characteristics of the bison, but more
diminutive than any species of the bos genus in our natural history.
Its tail is like that of our bos grunniens; but in its semi-circular
horns, the hump on its shoulders, and the depth of its dewlap, and the
length of its shaggy hair, it closely resembled the species to which
I first compared it. It had, however, one widely distinctive feature,
which we afterwards found common to nearly every lunar quadruped
we have discovered; namely, a remarkable fleshy appendage over the
eyes, crossing the whole breadth of the forehead and united to the
ears. We could most distinctly perceive this hairy veil, which was
shaped like the upper front outline of a cap known to the ladies as
Mary Queen of Scots' cap, lifted and lowered by means of the ears. It
immediately occurred to the acute mind of Dr. Herschel, that this was
a providential contrivance to protect the eyes of the animal from the
great extremes of light and darkness to which all the inhabitants of
our side of the moon are periodically subjected.
The next animal perceived would be classed on earth as a monster. It
was of a bluish lead color, about the size of a goat, with a head and
beard like him, and a _single horn_, slightly inclined forward from
the perpendicular. The female was destitute of the horn and beard, but
had a much longer tail. It was gregarious, and chiefly abounded on the
acclivitous glades of the woods. In elegance of symmetry it rivalled
the antelope, and like him it seemed an agile sprightly creature,
running with great speed, and springing from the green turf with all
the unaccountable antics of a young lamb or kitten. This beautiful
creature afforded us the most exquisite amusement. The mimicry of its
movements upon our white painted canvass was as faithful and luminous
as that of animals within a few yards of the camera obscura, when seen
pictured upon its tympan. Frequently when attempting to put our fingers
upon its beard, it would suddenly bound away into oblivion, as if
conscious of our earthly impertinence; but then others would appear,
whom we could not prevent nibbling the herbage, say or do what we would
to them.
On examining the centre of this delightful valley, we found a large
branching river, abounding with lovely islands, and water-birds of
numerous kinds. A species of grey pelican was the most numerous; but
a black and white crane, with unreasonably long legs and bill, were
also quite common. We watched their pisciverous experiments a long
time, in hopes of catching sight of a lunar fish; but although we were
not gratified in this respect, we could easily guess the purpose with
which they plunged their long necks so deeply beneath the water. Near
the upper extremity of one of these islands we obtained a glimpse
of a strange amphibious creature, of a spherical form, which rolled
with great velocity across the pebbly beach, and was lost sight of in
the strong current which set off from this angle of the island. We
were compelled, however, to leave this prolific valley unexplored,
on account of clouds which were evidently accumulating in the lunar
atmosphere, our own being perfectly translucent. But this was itself
an interesting discovery, for more distant observers had questioned or
denied the existence of any humid atmosphere in this planet.
The moon being now low on her descent, Dr. Herschel inferred that the
increasing refrangibility of her rays would prevent any satisfactory
protraction of our labors, and our minds being actually fatigued with
the excitement of the high enjoyments we had partaken, we mutually
agreed to call in the assistants at the lens, and reward their
vigilant attention with congratulatory bumpers of the best "East
India Particular." It was not, however, without regret that we left
the splendid valley of the red mountains, which, in compliment to the
arms of our royal patron, we denominated "the Valley of the Unicorn;"
and it may be found in Blunt's map, about midway between the Mare
Fœcunditatis and the Mare Nectaris.
The nights of the 11th and 12th being cloudy, were unfavorable
to observation; but on those of the 13th and 14th further animal
discoveries were made of the most exciting interest to every human
being. We give them in the graphic language of our accomplished
correspondent:--
"The astonishing and beautiful discoveries which we had made during our
first night's observation, and the brilliant promise which they gave
of the future, rendered every moonlight hour too precious to reconcile
us to the deprivation occasioned by these two cloudy evenings; and
they were borne with strictly philosophical patience, notwithstanding
that our attention was closely occupied in superintending the erection
of additional props and braces to the twenty-four feet lens, which we
found had somewhat vibrated in a high wind that arose on the morning of
the 11th. The night of the 13th (January) was one of pearly purity and
loveliness. The moon ascended the firmament in gorgeous splendor, and
the stars, retiring around her, left her the unrivalled queen of the
hemisphere. This being the last night but one, in the present month,
during which we should have an opportunity of inspecting her western
limb, on account of the libration in longitude which would thence
immediately ensue, Dr. Herschel informed us that he should direct our
researches to the parts numbered 2, 11, 26, and 20 in Blunt's map, and
which are respectively known in the modern catalogue by the names of
Endymion, Cleomedes, Langrenus, and Petavius. To the careful inspection
of these, and the regions between them and the extreme western rim, he
proposed to devote the whole of this highly favorable night. Taking
then our twenty-five miles breadth of her surface upon the field of
view, and reducing it to a slow movement, we soon found the first very
singularly shaped object of our inquiry. It is a highly mountainous
district, the loftier chains of which form three narrow ovals, two of
which approach each other in slender points, and are united by one
mass of hills of great length and elevation; thus presenting a figure
similar to that of a long skein of thread, the bows of which have been
gradually spread open from their connecting knot. The third oval looks
also like a skein, and lies as if carelessly dropped from nature's
hand in connection with the other; but that which might fancifully be
supposed as having formed the second bow of this second skein is cut
open, and lies in scattered threads of smaller hills which cover a
great extent of level territory. The ground plan of these mountains
is so remarkable that it has been accurately represented in almost
every lineal map of the moon that has been drawn; and in Blunt's,
which is the best, it agrees exactly with my description. Within the
grasp, as it were, of the broken bow of hills last mentioned, stands
an oval-shaped mountain, enclosing a valley of an immense area, and
having on its western ridge a volcano in a state of terrific eruption.
To the north-east of this, across the broken, or what Mr. Holmes called
'the vagabond mountains,' are three other detached oblong formations,
the largest and last of which is marked F in the catalogue, and
fancifully denominated the Mare Mortuum, or more commonly the 'Lake
of Death.' Induced by a curiosity to divine the reason of so sombre
a title, rather than by any more philosophical motive, we here first
applied our hydro-oxygen magnifiers to the focal image of the great
lens. Our twenty-five miles portion of this great mountain circus had
comprehended the whole of its area, and of course the two conical
hills which rise in it about five miles from each other; but although
this breadth of view had heretofore generally presented its objects
as if seen within a terrestrial distance of two and a half miles, we
were, in this instance, unable to discern these central hills with
any such degree of distinctness. There did not appear to be any mist
or smoke around them, as in the case of the volcano which we had
left in the south-west, and yet they were comparatively indistinct
upon the canvass. On sliding in the gas-light lens the mystery was
immediately solved. They were old craters of extinct volcanoes, from
which still issued a heated though transparent exhalation, that kept
them in an apparently oscillatory or trembling motion, most unfavorable
to examination. The craters of both these hills, as nearly as we
could judge under this obstruction, were about fifteen fathoms deep,
devoid of any appearance of fire, and of nearly a yellowish white
color throughout. The diameter of each was about nine diameters of
our painted circle, or nearly 450 feet; and the width of the rim
surrounding them about 1000 feet; yet notwithstanding their narrow
mouths, these two chimneys of the subterranean deep had evidently
filled the whole area of the valley in which they stood with the lava
and ashes with which it was encumbered, and even added to the height,
if not indeed caused the existence of the oval chain of mountains which
surrounded it. These mountains, as subsequently measured, from the
level of some large lakes around them, averaged the height of 2,800
feet; and Dr. Herschel conjectured from this and the vast extent of
their abutments, which ran for many miles into the country around them,
that these volcanoes must have been in full activity for a million of
years. Lieut. Drummond, however, rather supposed that the whole area
of this oval valley was but the exhausted crater of one vast volcano,
which in expiring had left only these two imbecile representatives
of its power. I believe Dr. Herschel himself afterwards adopted this
probable theory, which is indeed confirmed by the universal geology
of the planet. There is scarcely a hundred miles of her surface, not
even excepting her largest seas and lakes, in which circular or oval
mountainous ridges may not be easily found; and many, very many of
these having numerous enclosed hills in full volcanic operation, which
are now much lower than the surrounding circles, it admits of no doubt
that each of these great formations is the remains of one vast mountain
which has burnt itself out, and left only these wide foundations of its
ancient grandeur. A direct proof of this is afforded in a tremendous
volcano, now in its prime, which I shall hereafter notice. What gave
the name of 'The Lake of Death' to the annular mountain I have just
described, was, I suppose, the dark appearance of the valley which
it encloses, and which, to a more distant view than we obtained,
certainly exhibits the general aspect of the waters on this planet. The
surrounding country is fertile to excess: between this circle and No.
2 (Endymion), which we proposed first to examine, we counted not less
than twelve luxuriant forests, divided by open plains, which waved in
an ocean of verdure, and were probably prairies like those of North
America. In three of these we discovered numerous herds of quadrupeds
similar to our friends the bisons in the Valley of the Unicorn, but
of much larger size; and scarcely a piece of woodland occurred in our
panorama which did not dazzle our vision with flocks of white or red
birds upon the wing.
"At length we carefully explored the Endymion. We found each of
the three ovals volcanic and sterile within; but, without, most
rich, throughout the level regions around them, in every imaginable
production of a bounteous soil. Dr. Herschel has classified not less
than thirty-eight species of forest trees, and nearly twice this number
of plants, found in this tract alone, which are widely different to
those found in more equatorial latitudes. Of animals, he classified
nine species of mammalia, and five of ovipara. Among the former is
a small kind of rein-deer, the elk, the moose, the horned bear, and
the biped beaver. The last resembles the beaver of the earth in every
other respect than in its destitution of a tail, and its invariable
habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries its young in its arms
like a human being, and moves with an easy gliding motion. Its huts
are constructed better and higher than those of many tribes of human
savages, and from the appearance of smoke in nearly all of them, there
is no doubt of its being acquainted with the use of fire. Still its
head and body differ only in the points stated from that of the beaver,
and it was never seen except on the borders of lakes and rivers, in
which it has been observed to immerse for a period of several seconds.
"Thirty degrees farther south, in No. 11, or Cleomedes, an immense
annular mountain, containing three distinct craters, which have been so
long extinguished that the whole valley around them, which is eleven
miles in extent, is densely crowded with woods nearly to the summits of
the hills. Not a rod of vacant land, except the tops of these craters,
could be descried, and no living creature, except a large white bird
resembling the stork. At the southern extremity of this valley is
a natural archway or cavern, 200 feet high, and 100 wide, through
which runs a river which discharges itself over a precipice of grey
rock 80 feet in depth, and then forms a branching stream through a
beautiful campaign district for many miles. Within twenty miles of this
cataract is the largest lake, or rather inland sea, that has been found
throughout the seven and a half millions of square miles which this
illuminated side of the moon contains. Its width, from east to west,
is 198 miles, and from north to south, 266 miles. Its shape, to the
northward, is not unlike that of the bay of Bengal, and it is studded
with small islands, most of which are volcanic. Two of these, on the
eastern side, are now violently eruptive; but our lowest magnifying
power was too great to examine them with convenience, on account of the
cloud of smoke and ashes which beclouded our field of view: as seen by
Lieut. Drummond, through our reflecting telescope of 2,000 times, they
exhibited great brilliancy. In a bay, on the western side of this sea,
is an island 55 miles long, of a crescent form, crowded through its
entire sweep with the most superb and wonderful natural beauties, both
of vegetation and geology. Its hills are pinnacled with tall quartz
crystals, of so rich a yellow and orange hue that we at first supposed
them to be pointed flames of fire; and they spring up thus from smooth
round brows of hills which are covered as with a velvet mantle. Even
in the enchanting little valleys of this winding island we could often
see these splendid natural spires, mounting in the midst of deep green
woods, like church steeples in the vales of Westmoreland. We here first
noticed the lunar palm-tree, which differs from that of our tropical
latitudes only in the peculiarity of very large crimson flowers,
instead of the spadix protruded from the common calyx. We, however,
perceived no fruit on any specimens we saw: a circumstance which we
attempted to account for from the great (theoretical) extremes in the
lunar climate. On a curious kind of tree-melon we nevertheless saw
fruit in great abundance, and in every stage of inception and maturity.
The general color of these woods was a dark green, though not without
occasional admixtures of every tint of our forest seasons. The hectic
flush of autumn was often seen kindled upon the cheek of earliest
spring; and the gay drapery of summer in some places surrounded trees
leafless as the victims of winter. It seemed as if all the seasons here
united hands in a circle of perpetual harmony. Of animals we saw only
an elegant striped quadruped about three feet high, like a miniature
zebra; which was always in small herds on the green sward of the hills;
and two or three kinds of long-tailed birds, which we judged to be
golden and blue pheasants. On the shores, however, we saw countless
multitudes of univalve shell-fish, and among them some huge flat ones,
which all three of my associates declared to be cornu ammonæ; and I
confess I was here compelled to abandon my sceptical substitution of
pebbles. The cliffs all along these shores were deeply undermined by
tides; they were very cavernous, and yellow crystal stalactites larger
than a man's thigh were shooting forth on all sides. Indeed every
rood of this island appeared to be crystallized; masses of fallen
crystals were found on every beach we explored, and beamed from every
fractured headland. It was more like a creation of an oriental fancy
than a distant variety of nature brought by the powers of science to
ocular demonstration. The striking dissimilitude of this island to
every other we had found on these waters, and its near proximity to
the main land, led us to suppose that it must at some time have been
a part of it; more especially as its crescent bay embraced the first
of a chain of smaller ones which ran directly thither. The first one
was a pure quartz rock, about three miles in circumference, towering
in naked majesty from the blue deep, without either shore or shelter.
But it glowed in the sun almost like a sapphire, as did all the lesser
ones of whom it seemed the king. Our theory was speedily confirmed; for
all the shore of the main land was battlemented and spired with these
unobtainable jewels of nature; and as we brought our field of view to
include the utmost rim of the illuminated boundary of the planet, we
could still see them blazing in crowded battalions as it were, through
a region of hundreds of miles. In fact we could not conjecture where
this gorgeous land of enchantment terminated; for as the rotary motion
of the planet bore these mountain summits from our view, we became
further remote from their western boundary.
"We were admonished by this to lose no time in seeking the next
proposed object of our search, the Langrenus, or No. 26, which is
almost within the verge of the libration in longitude, and of which,
for this reason, Dr. Herschel entertained some singular expectations.
"After a short delay in advancing the observatory upon the levers, and
in regulating the lens, we found our object and surveyed it. It was
a dark narrow lake seventy miles long, bounded, on the east, north,
and west, by red mountains of the same character as those surrounding
the Valley of the Unicorn, from which it is distant to the south-west
about 160 miles. This lake, like that valley, opens to the south upon
a plain not more than ten miles wide, which is here encircled by a
truly magnificent amphitheatre of the loftiest order of lunar hills.
For a semicircle of six miles these hills are riven, from their brow
to their base, as perpendicularly as the outer walls of the Colosseum
at Rome; but here exhibiting the sublime altitude of at least two
thousand feet, in one smooth unbroken surface. How nature disposed of
the huge mass which she thus prodigally carved out, I know not; but
certain it is that there are no fragments of it left upon the plain,
which is a declivity without a single prominence except a billowy tract
of woodland that runs in many a wild vagary of breadth and course to
the margin of the lake. The tremendous height and expansion of this
perpendicular mountain, with its bright crimson front contrasted with
the fringe of forest on its brow, and the verdure of the open plain
beneath, filled our canvass with a landscape unsurpassed in unique
grandeur by any we had beheld. Our twenty-five miles perspective
included this remarkable mountain, the plain, a part of the lake, and
the last graduated summits of the range of hills by which the latter
is nearly surrounded. We ardently wished that all the world could
view a scene so strangely grand, and our pulse beat high with the
hope of one day exhibiting it to our countrymen in some part of our
native land. But we were at length compelled to destroy our picture,
as a whole, for the purpose of magnifying its parts for scientific
inspection. Our plain was of course immediately covered with the ruby
front of this mighty amphitheatre, its tall figures, leaping cascades,
and rugged caverns. As its almost interminable sweep was measured off
upon the canvass, we frequently saw long lines of some yellow metal
hanging from the crevices of the horizontal strata in wild net-work,
or straight pendant branches. We of course concluded that this was
virgin gold, and we had no assay-master to prove to the contrary. On
searching the plain, over which we had observed the woods roving in
all the shapes of clouds in the sky, we were again delighted with
the discovery of animals. The first observed was a quadruped with an
amazingly long neck, head like a sheep, bearing two long spiral horns,
white as polished ivory, and standing in perpendicular parallel to each
other. Its body was like that of the deer, but its fore-legs were most
disproportionally long, and its tail, which was very bushy and of a
snowy whiteness, curled high over its rump, and hung two or three feet
by its side. Its colors were bright bay and white in brindled patches,
clearly defined, but of no regular form. It was found only in pairs, in
spaces between the woods, and we had no opportunity of witnessing its
speed or habits. But a few minutes only elapsed before three specimens
of another animal appeared, so well known to us all that we fairly
laughed at the recognition of so familiar an acquaintance in so distant
a land. They were neither more nor less than three good large sheep,
which would not have disgraced the farms of Leicestershire, or the
shambles of Leadenhall-market. With the utmost scrutiny, we could find
no mark of distinction between these and those of our native soil; they
had not even the appendage over the eyes, which I have described as
common to lunar quadrupeds. Presently they appeared in great numbers,
and on reducing the lenses, we found them in flocks over a great part
of the valley. I need not say how desirous we were of finding shepherds
to these flocks, and even a man with blue apron and rolled up sleeves
would have been a welcome sight to us, if not to the sheep; but they
fed in peace, lords of their own pastures, without either protector or
destroyer in human shape.
"We at length approached the level opening to the lake, where the
valley narrows to a mile in width, and displays scenery on both sides
picturesque and romantic beyond the powers of a prose description.
Imagination, borne on the wings of poetry, could alone gather similes
to portray the wild sublimity of this landscape, where dark behemoth
crags stood over the brows of lofty precipices, as if a rampart in the
sky; and forests seemed suspended in mid air. On the eastern side there
was one soaring crag, crested with trees, which hung over in a curve
like three-fourths of a Gothic arch, and being of a rich crimson color,
its effect was most strange upon minds unaccustomed to the association
of such grandeur with such beauty.