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.”