SUNRISE ON THE MOON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9711, 5 January 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNRISE ON THE MOON.

The following description of sunrise on the moon, although in part imaginary, and given as a dream or nightmare, may be accepted as speculation based on scientific knowledge. Mr. J. Munro, in Cassell's Magazine, clothes the hard facts of science in the language of poesy. We begin with his description of what may be called "earth-rise" on the moon :—

" By-and-bye a golden light appeared in the east, behind the distant line of cliffs, and a vasb orb, resembling the moon, but many times larger, rose with serene majesty into the heavens. Unlike the moon, however, ib seemed to shed no radiance around it, for the sky remained as black as ever. The light from its poles was of a dazzling lustre—owing perhaps to the polar ice-fields— that from the middle zones was dimmer and more shadowy, and varied in bint from a pale green to a ruddy brown and a clouded blue. " The blue patches were probably seas, the brown and green ones continents, with their deserts and vegetation ; and I fancied I could trace a configuration like that portion of the earth comprised between America, Africa, and Europe, even to such details as the British Isles.

"The lighb around me had grown so much brighter that I turned to see where ib came from, and behold ! a still more marvellous sight. Away to the westward rolled a wild chaos of darkness, commingled with bluish light, which I can only compare to the waves of a stormy sea when tipped with lilac phosphorescence, and about the distant horizon in the funereal sky, a strange and glorious meteor was blazing like a comet. Its disc was equal in size to that of the sun, and of blinding intensity, but its colour was a kind of lavender-blue inclining to purple, and a silvery-white radiance, like thab of the Milky Way, extended from ib far into the night. What was that brilliant luminary which reminded me so forcibly of an electric arc-lamp when its carbons are burning blue ? [The writer evidently refers to the sun.] " I turned once more to the prospect which had first engaged my attention ; but 1 need not linger on the succeeding phases of the dawn. Ib is enough to say that as the splendid star mounted up the sky, the illumination became stronger, until a greybluo daylight showed all the features of the landscape. I then saw that what I have called a sea of darkness was, in reality, a vast grey plain, and that its purple islands were the peaks and craters of volcanoes. The high cliffs beyond were nob the shores of a continent, but part of a stupendous wall ot rock which encircled the plain like a rampart. I discovered that my own station was near the verge of this stupendous precipice, and my brain sickened when I found that its crags dropped sheerly down to the plain, many thousands of feet below. "The summit was jagged with lofty pinnacles of rock, standing as towers along the wall, and enormous gaps like the embrasures of a battlement. It cast a long, sharp-pointed shadow, as black as jet, athwart the plain below on which the craters of the extinct volcanoes, as yet unpenetrated by the light, resembled wells of ink ; but as the meteor ascended higher and higher, the shadows by degrees drew back, or became lighter. Not a vestige,of human habitation, or animal life, or vegetation could be seen anywhere. Apparently there was not a drop of water, stagnant or running, and the rise of a sortjof mist from the ground, here and there, was the only sort of energy. "Although ib was now broad daylight, the sky, except in the neighbourhood of the luminary, remained as black as ever; or at least- an indigo-blue so deep as to appear black ; and the stars had a cold, harsh, bluish aspect. " When I looked in the opposite direction 1 saw a still more unearthly prospecta weird and rugged wilderness of serrated mountain ranges, extinct volcanoos, conical peaks, isolated hills and bosses of rock, walled plains and cindery deserts, traversed by streams of solid lava, or clefb by deep, wide canons, and interspersed with the cones of exhausted geysers, or the basins of dried mud and mineral springs, like the terraces and ' paint pots' of the Yellowstone. The earth and rocks were of all colours, from the white of a deposit like snow, and a species of granite or milky quartz, to the yellow of sulphur, from the red of a vermilion to the greens and blues of other natural pigments of volcanic origin ; but the prevailing tint was grey, and the light of the sky so checkered the scoriie and blistered surface with black shadows that it seemed to be carved out of ivory and ebony. " Here, too, I could see no trace of life, ; unless some splintered columns on a hillside were the petrified trunks of an ancient forest; and again the idea came to me that I was looking on the rigid lineaments of a defunct planet. " Dead, perhaps, but nob absolutely free of life, for as time went on I began to observe that low forms of vegetation, such as lichens and cacti, were shooting from the arid soil, in the growing heat of the luminary, and were importing a ruddy or green tinge to the grey plains and mountains. Nor was that all, for I wag nearly frightened out of my wits as I discovered a huge serpent gliding past me, as I lay upon the ground. Another and another followed; and not snakes alone, bub monstrous toads and flying insects, as gigantic as crocodiles or the winged dragons of pasb geological eras. " They were of all colours and patterns, ito match the earth and rocks, but the majority were black and white. Occasionally a serpent gobbled up a toad, and a toad snapped at a dragon fly ; but still the legion marched on like a great army. I wanted to run away, but I was rooted to the spot; and — horror of horrors !— an enormous snake glided over my prosbrate body. In an agony of fear I struggled to escape from its bloated and slimy folds, bub all in vain. I yelled aloud, and—l awoke."