"After a short interval, I again looked at the moon, and found not
only its magnitude very greatly increased, but that it was beginning
to present a more beautiful spectacle. The sun's rays fell obliquely
on her disc, so that by a large part of its surface not reflecting the
light, I saw every object on it, so far as I was enabled by the power
of my telescope. Its mountains, lakes, seas, continents, and islands,
were faintly, though not indistinctly, traced; and every moment
brought forth something new to catch my eye, and awaken my curiosity.
The whole face of the moon was of a silvery hue, relieved and varied
by the softest and most delicate shades. No cloud nor speck of vapour
intercepted my view. One of my exclamations of delight awakened the
Brahmin, who quickly arose, and looking down on the resplendent orb
below us, observed that we must soon begin to slacken the rapidity of
our course, by throwing out ballast. The moon's dimensions now rapidly
increased; the separate mountains, which formed the ridges and chains
on her surface, began to be plainly visible through the telescope;
whilst, on the shaded side, several volcanoes appeared upon her disc,
like the flashes of our fire-fly, or rather like the twinkling of
stars in a frosty night. He remarked, that the extraordinary clearness
and brightness of the objects on the moon's surface, was owing to her
having a less extensive and more transparent atmosphere than the
earth: adding--'The difference is so great, that some of our
astronomical observers have been induced to think she has none.
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