It can hardly be supposed that the life-bearing phase of lunar
history--if there ever was one--could survive the outbreak of the
volcanic cataclysm. North America, or Europe, if subjected to such an
experience as the continental areas of the moon have passed through,
would be, in proportion, worse wrecked than the most fearfully battered
steel victim of a modern sea fight, and one can readily understand that,
in such circumstances, those now beautiful and populous continents would
exhibit, from a distance, scarcely any token of their present
topographical features, to say nothing of any relics of their occupation
by living creatures.
There are other interesting glimpses to be had of an older world in the
moon than that whose scarred face is now beautified for us by distance.
Not far from Theophilus and the other great crater-mountains just
described, at the upper, or southern, end of the level expanse called
the "Sea of Nectar," is a broad, semicircular bay whose shores are
formed by the walls of a partially destroyed crater named Fracastorius.
It is evident that this bay, and the larger part of the "Sea of Nectar,"
have been created by an outwelling of liquid lavas, which formed a
smooth floor over a portion of the pre-existing surface of the moon, and
broke down and submerged a large part of the mountain ring of
Fracastorius, leaving the more ancient walls standing at the southern
end, while, outlined by depressions and corrugations in the rocky
blanket, are certain half-defined forms belonging to the buried world
beneath.
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