LIFE ON THE MOON.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 February 1923, Page 2

LIFE ON THE MOON.

If some astronomer-mechanic should! suddenly open up a rapid transit system ; between the earth and the moon, he' could reasonably expect a tremendous rush, of patronage—at least during the first few days, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Sufferers from high rents, sumptuary laws, crowded trains, bill I collectors, and various evils, real and fancied, would probably feel that the | moon could not possibly be a less comfortable place than this troubled spheroid. But if this system should be established within the next million years, the would-be emigrant had better look over the prospectus recently given forth by Professor W. H. Pickering, who has been watching the moon very closely. If one is to believe this eminent astronomer, and he offers convincing data, a newcomer on the moon would probably be greatly embarrassed by the things that would happen to him. In the first place, if he lived for more than a month or two. he would find that he had been raised from a height of sft. Bin. or thereabouts to a height of 750 ft. by the unusual conditions of climate and atmosphere. If you would know how hie;h that is, take a look at the Wool worth. Building in New York. It's a trifle more than 790 ft. If this staggering increase in his height did not disconcert the new arrival from the earth, he might reasonably accommodate himself to the" other changed conditions of his anatomy. Looking himself over, he would find that his weight had shrunk to 901b, that his arms were 500 ft. long, and his feet 100 f- And if by any chance he had brought his wife along, and they should have v baby, the baby would grow up to maturity—the same 750 ft. maturity— within a year. But conditions are changing on the moon. It lias wonderful prospects, which shquld be realised, ' according to Professor Pickering, in in about a million years. During the < lunar day—which is equal to about two ! of our weeks—the sun shines continu- j ously, and certain forms of life grow I with an amazing rapidity, only to die off during the cold of the long night. Inside of the next million years this continuing vegetation maturing quickly and dying quickly, will have buried the moon deep in its abundance. Out of this chemical disintegration will arise coal, deep soils, permanent water-, ways, and various phenomena which are familiar on earth and which make the earth habitable. In other words, » the moon will have become surprisingly like our own planet, which means thai: life there will be possible for a high type of thinking creature. & Professor Pickering's lunar investiga.t.'ons have brought out many interesting conclusions about life on'the moon It appears, for instance, that lunar crops thrive best in the craters of extinct volcanoes, the largest of which is Erastathenes H. The volcano probably is 10,000 square miles, an immense deep bowl, surrounded by towering peaks, as against our largest earth volcanic crater, that of Heleakla Hawaii, seven miles in diameter. It is in these colossal depressions, where the intense rays of the sun enable the rapid growth of Umar vegetation, that crops stow at the rate of two per day a lunar day being equal in length to* two of our weeks, or 14 earth.days The vegetation appears as dark "patches svntfh spring into existence and then fade out. The vegetation requires about two and a half moon days to appear. It lasts two days, rests for three days, then produces a second crop, which lasts four days, and gradually disappears in the evening shades This proves that there is much variety of vegetation, which begins to germinate, on the northern spots as soon as the sun strikes it. The vegetative periods vary in different fields, crops \vith different exposures of the sun having periods ranging from two to eleven

moon days, the average being a week. In quickness of development some crops beat our mushrooms. The crops have to be quick in order to ripen, at all, but it is doubtful if they last through the lunar nights. The sanio principle obtains in Alaska, where summers are ! short, but crops ripen a month or | more sooner than in the teuiperate 1 zone. ' I