The Moon | Page 4

to their level relatively to the higher and brighter land surface of the moon, to appeal to any hypsometrical standard. All that is known in this respect is, that they are invariably lower than the latter, and that some sink to a greater depth than others, or, in other words, that they do not all form a part of the same sphere. Though they are more or less of a greyish-slaty hue--some of them approximating very closely to that of the pigment known as "Payne's grey"--the tone, of course, depends upon the angle at which the solar rays impinge on that particular portion of the surface under observation. Speaking generally, they are, as would follow from optical considerations, conspicuously darker when viewed near the terminator, or when the sun is either rising or setting upon them, than under a more vertical angle of illumination. But even when it is possible to compare their colour by eye-estimation under similar solar altitudes, it is found that not only are some of the Maria, as a whole, notably darker than others, but nearly all of them exhibit local inequalities of hue, which, under good atmospheric and instrumental conditions, are especially remarkable. Under such circumstances I have frequently seen the surface, in many places covered with minute glittering points of light, shining with a silvery lustre, intermingled with darker spots and a network of streaks far too delicate and ethereal to represent in a drawing. In addition to these contrasts and differences in the sombre tone of these extended plains, many observers have remarked traces of a yellow or green tint on the surface of some of them. For example, the Mare Imbrium and the Mare Frigoris appear under certain conditions to be of a dirty yellow-green hue, the central parts of the Mare Humorum dusky green, and part of the Mare Serenitatis and the Mare Crisium light green, while the Palus Somnii has been noted a golden-brown yellow. To these may be added the district round Taruntius in the Mare Foecunditatis, and portions of other regions referred to in the catalogue, where I have remarked a very decided sepia colour under a low sun. It has been attempted to account for these phenomena by supposing the existence of some kind of vegetation; but as this involves the presence of an atmosphere, the idea hardly finds favour at the present time, though perhaps the possibility of plant growth in the low-lying districts, where a gaseous medium may prevail, is not altogether so chimerical a notion as to be unworthy of consideration. Nasmyth and others suggest that these tints may be due to broad expanses of coloured volcanic material, an hypothesis which, if we believe the Maria to be overspread with such matter, and knowing how it varies in colour in terrestrial volcanic regions, is more probable than the first. Anyway, whether we consider these appearances to be objective, or, after all, only due to purely physiological causes, they undoubtedly merit closer study and investigation than they have hitherto received.
There are twenty-three of these dusky areas which have received distinctive names; seventeen of them are wholly, or in great part, confined to the northern, and to the south-eastern quarter of the southern hemisphere--the south-western quadrant being to a great extent devoid of them. By far the largest is the vast Oceanus Procellarum, extending from a high northern latitude to beyond latitude 10 deg. in the south-eastern quadrant, and, according to Schmidt, with its bays and inflections, occupying an area of nearly two million square miles, or more than that of all the remaining Maria put together. Next in order of size come the Mare Nubium, of about one-fifth the superficies, covering a large portion of the south-eastern quadrant, and extending considerably north of the equator, and the Mare Imbrium, wholly confined to the northeastern quadrant, and including an area of about 340,000 square miles. These are by far the largest lunar "seas." The Mare Foecunditatis, in the western hemisphere, the greater part of it lying in the south- western quadrant, is scarcely half so big as the Mare Imbrium; while the Maria Serenitatis and Tranquilitatis, about equal in area (the former situated wholly north of the equator, and the latter only partially extending south of it), are still smaller. The arctic Mare Frigoris, some 100,000 square miles in extent, is the only remaining large sea,--the rest, such as the Mare Vaporum, the Sinus Medii, the Mare Crisium, the Mare Humorum, and the Mare Humboldtianum, are of comparatively small dimensions, the Mare Crisium not greatly exceeding 70,000 square miles, the Mare Humorum (about the size of England) 50,000 square miles, while the Mare Humboldtianum, according to Schmidt, includes only about 42,000 square miles, an area which is approached by some formations not classed with the Maria.