But the mountains do not commonly lie in long ranges, as on earth. The surface of the moon seems to be dented with strange round pits, or craters, of every imaginable size. We had a bird’s-eye view of them as we descended at the end of our long journey moonward. In many parts the ground appears to be quite honeycombed with them. Here are small ones near at hand, and larger ones in the distance. The smaller craters are surrounded by steep ramparts of rock, the larger ones by circular mountain-ranges. We have nothing quite like them on earth. Are they volcanoes? So it would seem; only no life, no fire, no action, remain now. All is dead, motionless, still. Is this verily a blasted world? Has it fallen under the breath of Almighty wrath, coming out scorched and seared? Is it simply passing through a certain burnt-out, chilled phase of existence, through which other planets also pass, or will pass, at some stage of their career? Who can tell? We will move onward, and look more closely at that towering mass of rugged rocks, beyond which the sun will by and by go down. Long jetty shadows lie from them in this direction. No wonder astronomers on earth can through their telescopes plainly see these black shadows contrasting with the glaring brightness on the other side. A “mass of rocks” I have said; but as, with our powers of rapid movement, we draw near, we find a range of craggy mountains sweeping round in a vast circle. Such a height in Switzerland would demand many hours of hard climbing. But on this small globe attraction is a very different matter from what it is on earth; our weight is so lessened that we can leap the height of a tall house without the smallest difficulty. No chamois ever sprang from peak to peak in his native Switzerland with such amazing lightness as that with which we now ascend these mighty rocks. [Illustration: ONE FORM OF LUNAR CRATER.] Ha! what a depth on the other side! We stand looking down into one of the monster craters of the moon. A sheer descent of at least eleven thousand feet would land us at the bottom. Why, Mont Blanc itself is only about fifteen thousand feet in height. And what a crater! Fifty-six miles across in a straight line, from here to the other side, with these lofty rugged battlements circling round, while from the center of the rough plain below a sharp, cone-shaped mountain rises to about a quarter of the height of the surrounding range. It is a grand sight; peak piled upon peak, crag upon crag, sharp rifts or valleys breaking here and there the line of the narrow, uplifted ledge; all wrapped in silent and desolate calm. There are many such craters as this on the moon, and some much larger.