By this time the afternoon had waned and the trees were lengthening their shadows upon the lawns of the park. “Perhaps,” I said, “we had better postpone an examination of the remaining photographs of the series exhibiting the moon’s various phases until after dinner. They will show very well in the light of the electric chandelier. I have but a few words to add concerning the rays of Tycho. The opinion of Nasmyth concerning their mode of origin has not been universally accepted. Prof. William H. Pickering, for instance, has suggested that the rays are formed by some whitish deposit from the emanations blown out of comparatively minute craters lying in rows. He supposes large quantities of gas and steam given forth from craters surrounding the rim of Tycho, and, in consequence of these gases and vapors being absorbed and condensed in more distant regions, a wind constantly blowing away from Tycho and distributing the white deposit in windrows. A similar explanation has been applied to the shorter and more irregular systems of rays surrounding Copernicus, and a few other ring mountains.” “I prefer the Nasmyth hypothesis,” said my friend, as we rose and took the path to the house. “It is, to be sure, more gigantically tragic, but then it is simpler and more easily comprehended.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ III FULL MOON TO OLD MOON ------------------------------------------------------------------------ III FULL MOON TO OLD MOON AFTER dinner, in the brilliantly lighted drawing-room, we once more spread out the photographs on a table.