begun. I will
here take occasion to notice the physical peculiarities of this country,
which, though very familiar to those who are versed in astronomy, may not
be unacceptable to the less scientific portion of my readers.

The sun is above the horizon nearly a fortnight, and below it as long; of
course the day here is equal to about twenty-seven of ours. The earth
answers the same purpose to half the inhabitants of the moon, that the moon
does to the inhabitants of the earth. The face of the latter, however, is
more than twelve times as large, and it has not the same silvery appearance
as the moon, but is rather of a dingy pink hue, like that of her iron when
beginning to lose its red heat. As the same part of the moon is always
turned to the earth, one half of her surface is perpetually illuminated by
a moon ten times as large to the eye as the sun; the other hemisphere is
without a moon. The favoured part, therefore, never experiences total
darkness, the earth reflecting to the Lunarians as much light as we
terrestrials have a little before sunrise, or after sunset. But our planet
presents to the Lunarians the same changes as the moon does to us,
according to its position in relation to the sun. It always, however,
appears to occupy nearly the same part of the heavens, when seen from the
same point on the moon's surface; but its altitude above the horizon is
greater or less, according to the latitude of the place from which it is
seen: so that there is not a point of the heavens which the earth may not
be seen permanently to occupy, according to the part of the moon from which
the planet is viewed.

From the length of time that the sun is above the horizon, the continued
action of his rays, in those climates where they fall vertically, or nearly
so, would be intolerable, if it was not for the high mountains, from whose
snow-clad summits a perpetual breeze derives a refreshing coolness, and for
the deep glens and recesses, in which most animals seek protection from his
meridian beams. The transitions from heat to cold are less than one would
expect, from the length of their days and nights--the coolness of the one,
as well as the heat of the other, being tempered by a constant east wind.
The climate gradually becomes colder as we approach the Poles; but there is
little or no change of seasons in the same latitude.

The inhabitants of the moon have not the same regularity in their meals, or
time for sleep, as we have,