Then these continents are far from presenting such sharp
and regular outlines as distinguish the Indian Peninsula, Africa, and
South America. On the contrary, their coasts, angular, jagged, and
deeply indented, abound in bays and peninsulas. They remind you of the
coast of Norway, or of the islands in the Sound, where the land seems to
be cut up into endless divisions. If navigation ever existed on the
Moon's surface, it must have been of a singularly difficult and
dangerous nature, and we can scarcely say which of the two should be
more pitied--the sailors who had to steer through these dangerous and
complicated passes, or the map-makers who had to designate them on their
charts.
You will also remark that the southern pole of the Moon is much more
_continental_ than the northern. Around the latter, there exists only a
slight fringe of lands separated from the other continents by vast
"seas." This word "seas"--a term employed by the first lunar map
constructors--is still retained to designate those vast depressions on
the Moon's surface, once perhaps covered with water, though they are now
only enormous plains. In the south, the continents cover nearly the
whole hemisphere.
Pages:
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191