The Mankato Free Press

The Desolate Moon.
There is nothing in astronomy more impressive than the utter desolation and death that reign on the chalk-line surface of this dead planet. There are no clouds to diversify the sky, no twilight to prolong the day, no sound breaking the eternal silence. Immense craters, deep fissures, rounded hillocks, and the scars of mighty commotions are all that remain of regions that were probably habitable like the earth in times gone by. The view on the terminator was the most interesting. Instead of the unbroken line of light that marks its appearance to the naked eye, the moon's rough edge was formed of branching horns of radiant light, like the antlers of a stag or huge formations of coral. These were the summits of lunar mountains, lighted up by the sun, which was just rising to this part of the moon. The bright mountain peaks were weird and wonderful as well as beautiful, though their only admirers were observers two hundred and forty thousand miles away.