The Celebrated "moon Story,": Its Origin and Incidents; with a Memoir of the Author, and an Appendix, Containing, I. An Authentic Description of the Moon; II. A New Theory of the Lunar Surface in Relation to that of the Earth |
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altitude animals annular appear astronomers ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES atmosphere axis Board of Longitude body boundary canvas Cape caverns cavities Celestial centre circle circular Cleomedes craters creatures crescent dark diameter Dick discovered disk distance diversified earth eclipse Edinburgh elevation enlightened erect evidently feet focal image focal object full moon globe half hemisphere hills hoax hydro-oxygen immense inhabitants inner ring instrument island Journal lake latter lens less libration light limb longitude luminary lunar discoveries lunar surface man-bat Mare Mare Crisium Mare Nectaris Mare Nubium ment microscope miles Moon Story moon's surface motion moun Mount Etna mountains nearly observatory observed ocean optical perceive period plains planet present quadrupeds reflecting telescope reflectors remarkable RICHARD ADAMS ridges scenery scientific seen shadows side Sir John Herschel solar species spots stars surrounded telescope terrestrial tion transits of Mercury valley vast volcanoes whole YORK SUN
Popular passages
Page 79 - The next animal perceived would be classed on earth as a monster. It was of 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.
Page 22 - A grave professor of mathematics in a Virginian college told me seriously that he had no doubt of the truth of the whole affair! The great effect wrought upon the public mind is referable, first, to the novelty of the idea ; secondly, to the fancyexciting and...
Page 21 - Not one person in ten discredited it, and (strangest point of all !) the doubters were chiefly those who doubted without being able to say why — the ignorant, those uninformed in astronomy, people who would not believe because the thing was so novel, so entirely "out of the usual way.
Page 87 - 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.
Page 64 - So sanguinely indeed did he calculate upon the advantages of this splendid alliance, that he expressed confidence in his ultimate ability to study even the entomology of the moon, in case she contained insects upon her surface.
Page 80 - ... 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.
Page 107 - Having adjusted the instrument for a minute examination, we found that nearly all the individuals in these groups were of a larger stature than the former specimens, less dark in color, and in every respect an improved variety of the race.
Page 97 - We could then perceive that their wings possessed great expansion, and wore similar in structure to those of the bat, being a semi-transparent membrane, expanded in curvilineal divisions by means of straight radii, united at the back by the dorsal integuments. But what astonished us very much was the circumstance of this membrane being continued from the shoulders to the legs, united all the way down, though gradually decreasing in width. The wings seemed completely under the command of volition,...
Page 132 - ... the plain to the opposite ridges. These central mountains are generally from half a mile to a mile and a half in perpendicular altitude. In some instances they have two and sometimes three separate tops, whose distinct shadows can be easily distinguished.
Page 133 - Some of the larger of these cavities contain smaller cavities of the same kind and form, particularly in their sides. The mountainous ridges which surround these cavities reflect the greatest quantity of light ; and hence that region of the moon in which they abound appears brighter than any other. From their lying in every possible direction, they appear, at and near the time of full moon, like a number of brilliant streaks or radiations. These radiations appear to converge towards a large brilliant...