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"Which are the chief lunar mountains that exceed Mont Blanc in altitude?" asked Ardan, bravely suppressing a yawn. "The following dozen, ranged, if my memory does not fail me, in the exact order of their respective heights;" replied Barbican, never wearied in answering such questions: "Newton, Curtius, Casatus, Rheita, Short, Huyghens, Biancanus, Tycho, Kircher, Clavius, Endymion, and Catharina."

CASATUS. A large walled-plain, about 50 miles in diameter, S.E. of Blancanus, near the limb, remarkable for having one of the loftiest ramparts of all known lunar objects; it rises at one peak on the S.W. to the great height of 22,285 feet above the floor, while there are other peaks nearly as high on the N. and S. The wall is broken on the E. by a fine crater.

Thus, then, to proceed by comparison, the chain of the Himalayas counts three peaks higher than the lunar ones, Mount Everest, Kunchinjuga, and Dwalagiri. Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, on the moon, are as high as Jewahir in the same chain. Newton, Casatus, Curtius, Short, Tycho, Clavius, Blancanus, Endymion, the principal summits of Caucasus and the Apennines, are higher than Mont Blanc.

Between Simpelius and Pentland are several ring- plains, most of which appear to have been squeezed and deformed into abnormal shapes. CURTIUS. A magnificent formation, about 50 miles in diameter, with one of the loftiest ramparts on the visible surface, rising at a mountain mass on the N.E. to more than 22,000 feet, an altitude which is only surpassed by peaks on the walls of Newton and Casatus.

There is also a crater on the N.W. side of the very depressed floor, together with some craterlets. KLAPROTH. Casatus partially overlaps this still larger but less massive formation on its S.E. flank. The walls of Klaproth are much lower and very irregular and broken, especially on the W. There are some ridges on the floor. The neighbouring region is covered with unnamed objects, large and small.