We are disposed to consider as related to the fore-mentioned radiating streaks, the numerous, we may say the multitudinous, long and narrow chasms that have been sometimes called “canals” or “rills,” but which are so obviously _cracks_ or chasms, that it is desirable that this name should be applied to them rather than one which may mislead by implying an aqueous theory of formation. These cracks, singly and in groups, are found in great numbers in many parts of the moon’s surface. As a few of the more conspicuous examples which our plates exhibit we may refer to the remarkable group west of Treisnecker (Plate XI.), the principal members of which converge to or cross at a small crater, and thus point to a continuity of causation therewith analogous to the evident relation between the bright streaks and their focal craters. Less remarkable, but no less interesting, are those individual examples that appear in the region north of (below) the Apennines (Plate IX.), and some of which by their parallelism of direction with the mountain-chain appear to point to a causative relation also. There is one long specimen, and several shorter in the immediate neighbourhood of Mercator and Campanus (Plate XV.); and another curious system of them, presenting suggestive contortions, occurs in connection with the mountains Aristarchus and Herodotus (Plate XVIII.). Others, again, appear to be identified with the radial excrescences about Copernicus (Plate VIII.). Capuanus, Agrippa, and Gassendi, among other craters, have more or less notable cracks in their vicinities.
Some of these chasms are conspicuous enough to be seen with moderate telescopic means, and from this maximum degree of visibility there are all grades downwards to those that require the highest optical powers and the best circumstances for their detection. The earlier selenographers detected but a few of them. Schroeter noted only 11; Lohrman recorded 75 more; Beer and Maedler added 55 to the list, while Schmidt of Athens raised the known number to 425, of which he has published a descriptive catalogue. We take it that this increase of successive discoveries has been due to the progressive perfection of telescopes, or, perhaps, to increased education, so to speak, of the eye, since Schmidt’s telescope is a much smaller instrument than that used by Beer and Maedler, and is regarded by its owner as an inferior one for its size. We doubt not that there are hundreds more of these cracks which more perfect instruments and still sharper eyes will bring to knowledge in the future.