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The ground was fissured at some places in the city to a depth of many feet, and numerous "craterlets" were formed, from which sand was ejected in considerable quantities.
Geysers, hell-spouts, fuming fissures, cunning little craterlets with half-portions of molten lava ready to serve hot; more gases than you could create in all the world's chemical laboratories: in fact, everything to make the place a paradise for Old Nick and Dr. Schermerhorn.
Something of this kind may have been the cause of most of the double canals, or they may have been started from two or more craterlets not far apart, the direction being at first decided by some local peculiarity of structure; and where begun continuing in straight lines owing to homogeneity or uniform density of material.
The wall on the W. rises to nearly 14,000 feet above the interior. MANZINUS. A walled plain, nearly 62 miles in diameter, with a terraced rampart rising to a height of more than 14,500 feet above the interior. Schmidt shows three craterlets on the floor, but no traces of the small central peak which is said to stand thereon, but to be only visible in large telescopes.
A long ridge extends some way towards the S. from the foot of the S. wall, and at some distance in the same direction lie six ill- defined white spots of doubtful nature. On the E.N.E. there is a large white marking, resembling a "Jew's harp" in shape, and farther on, towards the E., a number of very remarkable ridges. On the W. will be found many bright little craterlets.
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.
The result would be that very early in the process great superficial tensions would be produced, which could only be relieved by cracks or fissures, which would initiate at points of weakness probably at the craterlets already referred to from which they would radiate in several directions.
"On the higher portion of the interior, near the center," he says, "is a curious object consisting apparently of four light spots, arranged in a square, with a craterlet in the middle, all of which undergo notable changes of aspect under different phases." Other writers also call attention to the fine markings, minute craterlets, and apparently changeable spots on the floor of Fracastorius.
The heat produced by impact and condensation would be likely to release gases which had been in combination with some of the solid matter, or perhaps been itself in a solid state due to intense cold, and these, escaping outwards to the surface, would produce on a small scale a certain amount of upheaval and volcanic disturbance; and as an outer crust rapidly formed, a number of vents might remain as craters or craterlets in a moderate state of activity.
It is surrounded by formations which, though nearly as prominent as itself, have not, with the exception of Pictet on the E., and one on the N.W., called Huggins by Schmidt, received distinctive names. The region W. of Saussure abounds in craterlets, some of which are of the minutest type.
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