IS IT A SELL?

Waikato Times, Volume x, Issue 616, 2 May 1876, Page 3

IS IT A SELL?

Is our contemporary the "Herald" emulating the "Cross" In its rrstwhiie sureeasful hoax upon tho public when it placed Auckland at the mercy of the Captain of tho Russiin man-of-war, the " Kaakowiski," or does it seriously mean to tell us that astronomers have at last been liter illy introduced 1o the man in tho moon and hia brother Lunitus. We are Ourselves inclined to think that the "Herald' is "taking a lunar" at its readers. At anyrute i the paragraph is very well got up, as our own reader* will acknowledge. The " Herald" m.rodures the subjoined account with the explnnation that certun improvements in the manufacture ot glass hive led to bhe c,isli-g oi a ltns more powerful than heretofore, «o much «o, as to bring tho moon to w itlna 10 miles of the earth for observation. Tho discovery is suid to have been a iimsi.ui one, but irapioved by a .French, sayan, M. Lnstnai-Coreau. "Recently," sajs the ' Herald,' "we published a paragraph frjin an English journnl, stating that certain ftussian astronomers had lrid their utlention attracted, at one ol their observatories, to an unusually bnght spit on the suifico of the moon, which on further observation, was supposed by them to be a ' huge mirror elected by the lunar inhabitants lor the purpose of eatibhsbing a sort of telegiaplne communication with the people of the earlh ' The nuror — or glittering apprarance on the lunar surface — lluie jattonjuurs calculated as being about IUO JpK in diameter, ' tiic chant?m^ ac initiations <>f winch vvou pi i nly dun tj intelligent beings, a* t'li-y ml i % d rhythm." il for certain periods, a.id thai abrupt, their abruptness bain,* like that Uai' J iv s )me sot ts of tole^rap iy.' At tho period tlu abovj SMis.itu>n;il d^scrip ion 01 tho 11 -w lunar discoveries wis going Mie round of the iuirope.iri p o-s, il L son u-U jr. uu %ua bupervuiD^ rha ncir cmioleuu Jt hi ti le->c'ops al tliJ \\uw>sof .11 Eicheui, tlio construe or of the new niati u nent far the I'aris ob^ei-vatory. The smject mlerestel him at oupp, although he was somewhat incredulous as to the artificial origin of the 'shimm* surface' referred to by the Hui-lui sjVrins. la duotuns M Lufltmu-Co'-eiu turned his tdeaco-jo on the mom, and found the glitteii ig surf we sine euou/h, but his investigation* In I him to foim a very a l Hi rent theory to that held by his scientific condjutois above allude 1 t). llnh'rto Ihe best instruments luvj not brought the mom within a lessor tlistinco th.ut foity miles of the e.irtli, for parpose-t ot obs/rvattoa ; but the Fieneh astronoini-r with tha new lcn«es manufactured from B is 10 (?hiss, )ia» bi ci enabled to reduce that distance by ' ihree-lour'hs,' for j)Urpo3es of observation ■within a limited area An English scientist who is so satisfied with the jjemunene s of M. Lastnai Coi eau's lunar disiovenes that he purposes crossing the Channel to visit him at his place m St Branchier, for the purpose of further investigating the new phenomena, gives a graphic description of thatgentloman'a latest rusearchus." We quole : — " ' From Ins investigations with hia instruments, which practically bring the moon within 10 miles of the earth, hi. Lastnai-Coreau has shown that in the moon theie are beings shaped generally like men, but much larger, and that thousands of them are working towards some common end with a mirror which, instead of being KJO feet, i» considerably over 1,O()U feet in diameter. It is swung on gimbals or gigantic supports in such a w*y as to turn in any desired direction, and ■oems to derve many purposes, or at least to he sble to serve them. It is concave, and from tho fact that it is generally turned iv such a direction that ifc* r»js strike over an enormous field of ■what seerffjto be growing giain, it eeems evident that it is usoA to concentrate the rays of the snn in such a way as to render possible tbo growth of cropi on the moon, which is old, and in most places barren, as it has hitherto been supposed in all places. Whatja hot-hou3e is in winter on the earth the mirror of the lanar men is to them, sa^e that it supplies them with food by concentrating the ray§ ot light and throwing them upon lhe'fioldi. As it turns, often a nearly unbearublc light like that of the sun has been tin own upon the eyes of the observer, so that at times he as forced to observe with a coloured glass over the object glass of hin instrument, lie describes the men as looking like a colony of gigantic miners living in huts, upon which at stated hours — hence the observed regularity of the signalling — the light and warmth arc permitted to fill. At other times tho ray« of the mirror are concentrated on what looks like black earth, perhaps with the purpose of warming it and making it tuitablo for the future raising of Other crojw. It is indubitable that there is a lunar atmosphere, sinco not only do planti grow — and this r-ecossitates an atmosphere like our own — and men lire, but M. LastDai-Coreau has seen gigantic birds nheehng round the awful crags and above the mighty ohaims of the moon. He lias tern them descend in ilooks towards the grain fields, but also has aeon at such times the rays of the mirror turned directly upon them — not slantingly as on the ground, but directly, so that they h»ve fallen lileicss to the earth and eagerly been devoured by tho men. Ib iv M, Lastnui-Corcau's opinion that tkeso are convicts or men who for bohio reason have been banished from the warmer and more habitable inner 'hemisphere to a sort of Siberia, where f they must work out thoir 'dwn purpoiei, and liv« only through their own incalculable exertions. If this supposition be correct, it •hows that on that portion of the lunar surface- which is hidden for ever ifrom us, a high degree of 'civilisation must have reaohed. There aro other 'considerations which re.ider this great discovery highly probable. The moon, during the long ages since it was cut off from the earth, has pj&sed through all the phiset tl th*» earth. M^tcorio 6toi»«>r. have idllic wx hho eurth jslww that the

i elestial todies are composed of tho same subtance as rhe earth. Tho moon must have loosed through changes analngous with thoso which 1 avo taken place in the ca«-th j it must have hud i s azoic, puloo/oio. nnd meiozoic ngos ; and ns t ine passod on, and it grew info such a condition i R that which on enrtli rendered possible the 'J>isfcenco of man, beings lito him must have apI eared on tho moon . [Our own (Waikato Trains') opinion is that lie beings seen are not lunar convieK but dclunct suo-pribers lo newspapers in this -world, \ ho during their existence here neglected or re'ueed te pay their regular quarterly subscnp i ous.J