Note * — Chapter VII

Among the other mountain-ranges may be mentioned the Altai Mountains, in the south-west quadrant (Plate XVI.), the Carpathians, close to the great crater Copernicus, and the beautiful semicircle of hills which borders the Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows, to the east of the Alpine range. This bay forms one of the loveliest of lunar landscapes, and under certain conditions of illumination its eastern cape, the Heraclides Promontory, presents a curious resemblance, which I have only seen once or twice, to the head of a girl with long floating hair—'the moon-maiden.' The Leibnitz and Doerfel Mountains, with other ranges whose summits appear on the edge of the moon, are seldom to be seen to great advantage, though they are sometimes very noticeably projected upon the bright disc of the sun during the progress of an eclipse.* They embrace some of the loftiest lunar peaks reaching 26,000 feet in one of or two instances, according to Schröter and Mädler.