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After glancing at the crater-shaped mountains on the western and southern border of the Mare Crisium, Alhazen, Hansen, Condorcet, Firmicus, etc., we pass southward into the area covered in Lunar Chart No. 2. The long dark plain south of the Mare Crisium is the Mare Fecunditatis, though why it should have been supposed to be particularly fecund, or fertile, is by no means clear.
These were principally: Mare Serenitatis, the Sea of Serenity, 25° north and 20° west, comprising a surface of about 130 thousand square miles; Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises, a round, well defined, dark depression towards the northwestern edge, 17° north 55° west, embracing a surface of 60 thousand square miles, a regular Caspian Sea in fact, only that the plateau in which it lies buried is surrounded by a girdle of much higher mountains.
It is the apparent centre of many other ridges and valleys which radiate from it towards the N.W. and the Mare Crisium. There is a central mountain, not an easy telescopic object, on its dusky floor. CONDORCET. A very prominent ring-plain, 45 miles in diameter, situated on the mountainous S.W. margin of the Mare Crisium. It is encircled by a lofty wall about 8000 feet in height.
For example, the Mare Imbrium and the Mare Frigoris appear under certain conditions to be of a dirty yellow-green hue, the central parts of the Mare Humorum dusky green, and part of the Mare Serenitatis and the Mare Crisium light green, while the Palus Somnii has been noted a golden-brown yellow.
PICARD. The largest of the craters on the surface of the Mare Crisium, 21 miles in diameter. The floor, which includes a central mountain, is depressed about 2000 feet below the outer surface, and is surrounded by walls rising some 3000 feet above the Mare.
While the crescent grows broader new objects are continually coming into view as the sun rises upon them, until at length one of the most conspicuous and remarkable of the lunar "seas," the Mare Crisium, or Sea of Crises, lies fully displayed amid its encircling peaks, precipices, and craters. The Mare Crisium is all in the sunlight between the third and fourth day after "new moon."
North of the Mare Crisium, and northwest of Macrobius, we find a much larger mountain ring, oblong in shape and nearly eighty miles in its greatest diameter. It is named Cleomenes. The highest point on its wall is about 10,000 feet above the interior.
APOLLONIUS. A ring-plain, 30 miles in diameter, standing in the mountainous region S. of the Mare Crisium. There is a large crater on the S.W. wall, and another, somewhat smaller, adjoining it on the N. There are many brilliant craters in the vicinity. FIRMICUS. A somewhat larger, more regular, but, in other respects, very similar ring-plain, N.W. of the last.
Among the best examples of enclosed Maria is the Mare Crisium, which is considered by Neison to be the deepest of all, and the Mare Humboldtianum. Though these great plains are described as level, this term must only be taken in a comparative sense.
These were, towards the north, the Mare Frigoris, in north latitude 55° and longitude 0°, with 76,000 square leagues of surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, Mare Serenitatis, by north latitude 25° and west longitude 20°, comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues; the Sea of Crises, Mare Crisium, round and very compact, in north latitude 17° and west longitude 55°, a surface of 40,000 square leagues, a veritable Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains.
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