"
Mr. Elger then proceeds to describe his discovery in 1883, in the
ring-plain Mersenius, of a cleft never noticed before, and which seems
to have been of recent formation.[15]
[Footnote 15: The Moon, a Full Description and Map of its Principal
Features, by Thomas Gwyn Elger, 1895.
Those who desire to read detailed descriptions of lunar scenery may
consult, in addition to Mr. Elger's book, the following: The Moon,
considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite, by James Nasmyth and
James Carpenter, 1874; The Moon, and the Condition and Configurations of
its Surface, by Edmund Neison, 1876. See also Annals of Harvard College
Observatory, vol. xxxii, part ii, 1900, for observations made by Prof.
William H. Pickering at the Arequipa Observatory.]
We now return to the question of the force of lunar gravity. This we
find to be only one sixth as great as gravity on the surface of the
earth. It is by far the smallest force of gravity that we have found
anywhere except on the asteroids. Employing the same method of
comparison that was made in the case of Mars, we compute that a man on
the moon could attain a height of thirty-six feet without being
relatively more unwieldy than a six-foot descendant of Adam is on the
earth.
Whether this furnishes a sound reason for assuming that the lunar
inhabitants, if any exist or have ever existed, should be preposterous
giants is questionable; yet such an assumption receives a certain degree
of support from the observed fact that the natural features of the moon
are framed on an exaggerated scale as compared with the earth's.
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