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A small ring-plain with a central mountain is connected with the S.W. wall; and, running in a N. direction from this, is a short mountain arm which joins a large circular enclosure with a low broken border standing on the N. side of the Mare Tranquilitatis. LITTROW. A peculiar ring-plain, rather smaller than the last, some distance N. of Vitruvius, on the rocky W. border of the Mare Serenitatis.
TORRICELLI. A remarkable little formation in the Mare Tranquilitatis, N. of Theophilus, consisting of two unequal contiguous craters ranging from W. to E., whose partition wall has nearly disappeared, so that, under a low sun, when the interior of both is filled with shadow, the pair resemble the head of a javelin.
We next take up Lunar Chart No. 2, and pay a telescopic visit to the southwestern quarter of the lunar world. The Mare Tranquilitatis merges through straits into two southern extensions, the Mare Fecunditatis and the Mare Nectaris.
Perhaps the most perfect examples of surface swellings are those in the Mare Tranquilitatis, a little east of the ring-plain Arago, where there are two nearly equal circular mounds, at least ten miles in diameter, resembling tumuli seen from above. Similar, but more irregular, objects of a like kind are very plentiful in many other quarters.
T. G. Elger, the celebrated English selenographer, says of Plinius that, at sunrise, "it reminds one of a great fortress or redoubt erected to command the passage between the Mare Tranquilitatis and the Mare Serenitatis." But, of course, the resemblance is purely fanciful. Men, even though they dwelt in the moon, would not build a rampart 6,000 feet high!
Another cleft, also terminating at this crater, runs towards Arago and the more northerly of the protuberances. CAUCHY. A bright little crater, not more than 7 or 8 miles in diameter, on the W. side of the Mare Tranquilitatis, N.E. of Taruntius.
WHEWELL. Another bright little ring, about 3 miles in diameter, some distance to the E. of De Morgan and Cayley. SOSIGENES. A small circular ring-plain, 14 miles in diameter, with narrow walls, a central mountain, and a minute crater outside the wall on the E.; situated on the E. side of the Mare Tranquilitatis, W. of Julius Caesar.
Some of these hollows are four English miles in depth. The largest of these, situated near the north pole of the moon, is called Mare Imbrium; next to it is Mare Serenitatis; next, Mare Tranquilitatis, with several others.
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