The Moon possesses neither Sea nor Atmosphere of appreciable extent. Still, as a negative, in such case, is relative only to the capabilities of the instruments employed, the search for the indications of a lunar atmosphere has been renewed with fresh augmentation of telescopic power. Of such indications, the most delicate, perhaps, are those afforded by the occultation of a planet by the moon. The occultation of Jupiter, which took place on January 2, 1857, was observed with this reference, and is said to have exhibited no _hesitation_, or change of form or brightness, such as would be produced by the refraction or absorption of an atmosphere. As respects the sea, if water existed on the moon’s surface, the sun’s light reflected from it should be completely polarised at a certain elongation of the moon from the sun; and no traces of such light have been observed. MM. Baer and Maedler conclude that the moon is not entirely without an atmosphere, but, owing to the smallness of her mass, she is incapacitated from holding an extensive covering of gas; and they add, “it is possible that this weak envelope may sometimes, through local causes, in some measure dim or condense itself.” But if any atmosphere exists on our satellite, it must be, as Laplace says, more attenuated than what is termed a vacuum in an air-pump. Mr. Hopkins thinks that if there be any lunar atmosphere, it must be very rare in comparison with the terrestrial atmosphere, and inappreciable to the kind of observation by which it has been tested; yet the absence of any refraction of the light of the stars during occultation is a very refined test. Mr. Nasmyth observes that “the sudden disappearance of the stars behind the moon, without any change or diminution of her brilliancy, is one of the most beautiful phenomena that can be witnessed.” Sir John Herschel observes: The fact of the moon turning always the same face towards the earth is, in all probability, the result of an elongation of its figure in the direction of a line joining the centres of both the bodies, acting conjointly with a non-coincidence of its centre of gravity with its centre of symmetry. If to this we add the supposition that the substance of the moon is not homogeneous, and that some considerable preponderance of weight is placed excentrically in it, it will be easily apprehended that the portion of its surface nearer to that heavier portion of its solid content, under all the circumstances of the moon’s rotation, will permanently occupy the situation most remote from the earth.