so doing, learn to appreciate the romantic grandeur of this, one of the many features which the study of the lunar surface presents to the careful observer, and which exceed in sublimity the wildest efforts of poetic and romantic imagination. The contemplation of these views of the lunar world are, moreover, vastly enhanced by special circumstances which add greatly to the impressiveness of lunar scenery, such as the unchanging pitchy-black aspect of the heavens and the death-like silence which reigns unbroken there. These digressions are, in some respects, a forestallment of what we have to say by-and-by, and so far they are out of place; but with the illustration to which the above remarks refer placed before the reader, they may, in some respects, enhance the interest of its examination. The upper portion of our illustration is occupied by the magnificent range of volcanic mountains named after our Apennines, extending to a length of upwards of 450 miles. This mountain group rises gradually from a comparatively level surface towards the south-west, in the form of innumerable comparatively small mountains of exudation, which increase in number and altitude towards the north-east, where they culminate and suddenly terminate in a sublime range of peaks, whose altitude and rugged aspect must form one of the most terribly grand and romantic scenes which imagination can conceive. The north-east face of the range terminates abruptly in an almost vertical precipitous face, and over the plain beneath intense black steeple or spire-like shadows are cast, some of which at sunrise extend fully 90 miles, till they lose themselves in the general shading due to the curvature of the lunar surface. Nothing can exceed the sublimity of such a range of mountains, many of which rise to heights of 18,000 to 20,000 feet at one bound from the plane at their north-east base. The most favourable time to examine the details of this magnificent range is from about a day before first quarter to a day after, as it is then that the general structure of the range as well as the character of the contour of each member of the group can, from the circumstances of illumination then obtaining, be most distinctly inferred. Several comparatively small perfectly-formed craters are seen interspersed among the mountains, giving evidence of the truly volcanic character of the surrounding region, which, as before said, comprises in a comparatively limited space the most perfect and striking examples of nearly every class of lunar volcanic phenomena. We have endeavoured on Plate XXIII. to give some idea of a landscape view of a small portion of this mountain range. [Illustration: PLATE VI. TERRESTRIAL AND LUNAR VOLCANIC AREAS COMPARED. PORTION OF THE MOON’S SURFACE.] [Illustration: VESUVIUS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD OF NAPLES.] CHAPTER VIII. ON LUNAR CRATERS.