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 Jackson
This Element is a guide to task-based language teaching
(TBLT), for language instructors, teacher educators, and other
interested parties. The Element first provides clear definitions
and principles related to communication task design. It
then explains how tasks can inform all stages of curriculum
development. Diverse, localized cases demonstrate the Language Teaching
scope of task-based approaches. Recent research illustrates
the impact of task design (complexity and mode) and task
implementation (preparation, interaction, and repetition)
on various second-language outcomes. The Element also
describes particular challenges and opportunities for teachers
using tasks. The epilogue considers the potential of TBLT to

Task-Based

Task-Based Language Teaching

transform classrooms, institutions, and society.

Language
About the Series Series Editors
Teaching
This Elements series aims to close the gap Heath Rose
between researchers and practitioners by Linacre College,

Daniel O. Jackson
allying research with language teaching University of
practices, in its exploration of research- Oxford
informed teaching, and teaching- Jim McKinley

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press

informed research. The series builds upon University College
a rich history of pedagogical research in London
its exploration of new insights within the
field of language teaching.

Cover image: EduLeite/E+/Getty Images ISSN 2632-4415 (online)

ISSN 2632-4407 (print)
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press
 Elements in Language Teaching
edited by
Heath Rose
Linacre College, University of Oxford
Jim McKinley
University College London

TASK-BASED LANGUAGE
TEACHING

Daniel O. Jackson
Kanda University of International Studies
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a department of the University of Cambridge.
We share the University’s mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781009068413
DOI: 10.1017/9781009067973
© Daniel O. Jackson 2022
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take
place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
First published 2022
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-009-06841-3 Paperback
ISSN 2632-4415 (online)
ISSN 2632-4407 (print)
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Cambridge University Press & Assessment has no responsibility for the persistence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this
publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.
 Task-Based Language Teaching

Elements in Language Teaching

DOI: 10.1017/9781009067973
First published online: September 2022

Daniel O. Jackson
Kanda University of International Studies
Author for correspondence: Daniel O. Jackson, [email protected]

Abstract: This Element is a guide to task-based language teaching

(TBLT), for language instructors, teacher educators, and other
interested parties. The Element first provides clear definitions and
principles related to communication task design. It then explains how
tasks can inform all stages of curriculum development. Diverse,
localized cases demonstrate the scope of task-based approaches.
Recent research illustrates the impact of task design (complexity and
mode) and task implementation (preparation, interaction, and
repetition) on various second-language outcomes. The Element also
describes particular challenges and opportunities for teachers using
tasks. The epilogue considers the potential of TBLT to transform
classrooms, institutions, and society.

This Element also has a video abstract: www.cambridge.org/dojackson

Keywords: pedagogic task design, curriculum development, language

education, classroom research, teacher education
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press

© Daniel O. Jackson 2022

ISBNs: 9781009068413 (PB), 9781009067973 (OC)
ISSNs: 2632-4415 (online), 2632-4407 (print)
 Contents

1 What Is TBLT? 1

2 The Task-Based Curriculum 12

3 Task-Based Approaches in Context 22

4 Research into TBLT 30

5 Teachers and Tasks 50

6 Epilogue: The Potential of TBLT 53

Appendix: Discussion Questions 57

References 58
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 Task-Based Language Teaching 1

1 What Is TBLT?
1.1 A Framework for Language Teaching
As an approach to communicative language teaching, task-based language
teaching (TBLT) originated in the mid-1980s. It has grown to become one
of the most widely recognized options for designing and implementing
language instruction today. As a field of academic inquiry, TBLT has
achieved a number of milestones, including the inauguration of the
International Conference on TBLT in 2005, since organized every two
years under the auspices of the International Association for Task-Based
Language Teaching (IATBLT), a book series published by John Benjamins
since 2009, and the launch of TASK: Journal on Task-Based Language
Teaching and Learning in 2021. In terms of its implementation, TBLT has
matured from an alternative approach to a mainstream educational policy
initiative encouraged or adopted in schools in Belgium, Hong Kong, and
New Zealand, among other regions. Increasingly, it is offered as a subject
in language teacher education programs, featured at teaching conferences
and in professional workshops, and is carried out by teachers with stu-
dents, during face-to-face or online lessons.
Thus, TBLT is a way of teaching languages and a robust area of inquiry.
In practice, language educators around the world use tasks to coherently
frame their teaching. This coherence can be seen from various perspec-
tives. First, ‘task’ provides a useful concept for framing the reasons why
languages are taught, what to teach (the particular content), and how to
teach (the classroom procedures). Second, in a practical sense, the litera-
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press

ture on TBLT offers guidance on using the concept of task to link elements
of curriculum design such as materials, teaching, and testing. Lastly, and
most importantly, TBLT epitomizes the notion that classroom instruction
should be responsive to learners’ needs for using language in the real
world.
Tasks enable learners to acquire communicative abilities and to partici-
pate in social activities relevant to their present or future goals. There has
been much discussion and debate regarding the proposal that real-world
tasks should form the basis of language teaching, beginning with Long
(1985). The appeal of TBLT is that it seeks to identify and utilize activities
valued by learners as the impetus for curriculum development. How
the use of tasks facilitates acquisition of language and fosters participation
in society is a matter of considerable theoretical and practical interest. It
furthermore involves reconsideration of the teacher’s role, which in TBLT
 2 Language Teaching

contrasts with traditional educational practices. According to Long and

Ahmadian (2022, pp. xxvi–xxvii), TBLT is growing in popularity because it is:

1. perceived by adult learners as clearly designed with their specific needs in

mind;
2. preferred by students and teachers to traditional approaches to language
teaching;
3. supported by evidence from comparison studies, which demonstrate its
benefits over traditional approaches to language teaching;
4. compatible with other contemporary approaches, such as bilingual education,
content-and-language-integrated learning, and English medium instruction;
5. consistent with findings from second language acquisition research on
linguistic development and learner factors.

1.2 The Aim and Organization of This Element

It is relevant here to briefly note my background within the TBLT community, as
well as my approach and aim. I earned my MS in Education at the University of
Pennsylvania, where I first encountered the notion of tasks in language teaching
in the late Teresa Pica’s stimulating classes and seminal publications. Upon
graduating, I served in the English Language Program at J. F. Oberlin
University, where I often employed tasks in teaching and assessment. Later,
as I completed my PhD in Second Language Studies at the University of
Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, I had the honor of studying with John Norris, Lourdes
Ortega, and Peter Robinson, whose important contributions to TBLT are
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press

described in this Element. In my research, I adopt a cognitive-interactionist

stance on language learning that emphasizes tasks as a valuable means of
providing learners with opportunities for input, output, and feedback. I have
also advocated a range of theoretical views on tasks in classroom research
(Jackson & Burch, 2017) and conducted studies on preservice teacher psych-
ology within tasks (Jackson, 2021; Jackson & Shirakawa, 2020). In my current
role as a professor in the English Department and the MA TESOL Program at
Kanda University of International Studies, I have found that, although excellent,
authoritative accounts of TBLT have been published (e.g., Ellis et al., 2019;
Long & Ahmadian, 2022; Van den Branden, 2022), the need exists for a short,
practical guide to the main concepts and issues in task-based language educa-
tion. My aim is to make this field accessible to a wider audience of teachers.
As just noted, this Element offers a concise guide to the main concepts and
issues in TBLT. It can be used by teachers individually or in groups, perhaps as
a resource in preservice or in-service teacher education courses and workshops.
 Task-Based Language Teaching 3

The present introductory section orients readers to TBLT and provides key
definitions and examples, as well as offering commentary on communication
task design. Section 2 guides readers through the familiar elements of
a language curriculum (needs analysis, sequencing of content, materials devel-
opment, teaching, testing, and evaluation) to illustrate how each can be
informed by tasks. Section 3 then adopts a case study approach to demonstrate
how teachers of diverse languages have found TBLT useful in their particular
contexts. The longest section of the Element is Section 4, which presents
a review of recent empirical studies divided into two distinct aspects that
concern practitioners: task design (i.e., complexity and modality) and task
implementation (i.e., preparation, interaction, and repetition). Section 5 then
provides an overview of some of the central issues faced by teachers in
understanding and using tasks. In the epilogue in Section 6, I offer a brief
critique of the potential of TBLT to bring about positive change in classrooms,
institutions, and societies. The Element concludes with an appendix of ques-
tions designed to facilitate discussion after each of the aforementioned sections
has been read.
Why use tasks in the first place? There are many answers, which will become
apparent throughout this text. In this opening section, the following rationales
will be presented. In short, among the clearest benefits of using tasks are that
they can be designed to offer students:

• opportunities for meaningful communication in their second language (L2),

which can lead to the acquisition of new language through comprehensible
input, feedback, and modified output;
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067973 Published online by Cambridge University Press

• practice to attain fluency and utilize specific features of language that may be
challenging to learn;
• choices regarding lesson content and procedures and thus more meaningful
and engaging learning experiences.

As described in this section, tasks are compatible with a wide range of teaching
approaches. Subsequently, from Section 2 onwards, further advantages gained
from entirely task-based approaches will be considered.

1.3 Definitions
There is a difference between target tasks, or real-world activities learners
ultimately aim to accomplish in their target language, and pedagogic tasks,
which are instructional activities derived from target tasks. During engagement
in pedagogic tasks, learners “use language, with an emphasis on meaning, to
attain an objective” (Bygate, Skehan, & Swain, 2001, p. 11). This basic
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of animals the origin of their motive powers, and the comparison of
animals to thermic machines afterwards suggested to him the
important principle with which his name will remain for ever
connected.”

Next in order of publication of his results stands the name of 14

Colding, a Danish engineer, who about the year 1843 presented
a series of memoirs on the steam engine to the Royal Society of
Copenhagen, in which he put forth views almost identical with those
of Mayer.

Last in publication order, but foremost in the importance of his

experimental treatment of the subject, was our own countryman, Dr.
Joule of Manchester. “Entirely independent of Mayer, with his mind
firmly fixed upon a principle, and undismayed by the coolness with
which his first labours appear to have been received, he persisted for
years in his attempts to prove the invariability of the relation which
subsists between heat and ordinary mechanical power.” (We are
quoting from Professor Tyndall’s valuable work on “Heat considered
as a Mode of Motion.”) “He placed water in a suitable vessel, agitated
the water by paddles, and determined both the amount of heat
developed by the stirring of the liquid and the amount of labour
expended in its production. He did the same with mercury and sperm
oil. He also caused discs of cast iron to rub against each other, and
measured the heat produced by their friction, and the force expended
in overcoming it. He urged water through capillary tubes, and
determined the amount of heat generated by the friction of the liquid
against the sides of the tubes. And the results of his experiments
leave no shadow of doubt upon the mind that, under all
circumstances, the quantity of heat generated by the same amount
of force is fixed and invariable. A given amount of force, in causing
the iron discs to rotate against each other, produced precisely the
same amount of heat as when it was applied to agitate water,
mercury, or sperm oil. * * * * The absolute amount of heat
generated by the same expenditure of power, was in all cases the
same.”
“In this way it was found that the quantity of heat which would raise
one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit in temperature, is exactly
equal to what would be generated if a pound weight, after having
fallen through a height of 772 feet, had its moving force destroyed by
collision with the earth. Conversely, the amount of heat necessary to
raise a pound of water one degree in temperature, would, if all
applied mechanically, be competent to raise a pound weight 772 feet
high, or it would raise 772 pounds one foot high. The term ‘foot
pounds’ has been introduced to express in a convenient way 15
the lifting of one pound to the height of a foot. Thus the
quantity of heat necessary to raise the temperature of a pound of
water one degree Fahrenheit being taken as a standard, 772 foot-
pounds constitute what is called the mechanical equivalent of heat.”

By a process entirely different, and by an independent course of

reasoning, Mayer had, a few months previous to Joule, determined
this equivalent to be 771·4 foot-pounds. Such a remarkable
coincidence arrived at by pursuing different routes gives this value a
strong claim to accuracy, and raises the Mechanical Theory of Heat to
the dignity of an exact science, and its enunciators to the foremost
place in the ranks of physical philosophers.

In linking together the labours of the two remarkable men above

alluded to, Prof. Tyndall remarks, that “Mayer’s labours have in some
measure the stamp of profound intuition, which rose however to the
energy of undoubting conviction in the author’s mind. Joule’s labours,
on the contrary, are an experimental demonstration. Mayer thought
his theory out, and rose to its grandest applications. Joule worked his
theory out, and gave it the solidity of natural truth. True to the
speculative instinct of his country, Mayer drew large and mighty
conclusions from slender premises; while the Englishman aimed
above all things at the firm establishment of facts.... To each belongs
a reputation which will not quickly fade, for the share he has had, not
only in establishing the dynamical theory of heat, but also in leading
the way towards a right appreciation of the general energies of the
universe.”
But from these generalities we must pass to the application of the
mechanical theory of heat to our special subject. We have learnt that
every form of motion is convertible into heat. We know that the
falling meteor or shooting star, whose motion is impeded by friction
against the earth’s atmosphere, is heated thereby to a temperature of
incandescence. Let us then suppose that myriads of such cosmical
particles came into collision from the effect of their mutual attraction,
or that the component atoms of a vast nebulous mass violently
converged under the like influence. What would follow? Obviously the
generation of an intense heat by the arrest of converging motion,
such a heat as would result in the fusion of the whole into one 16
mass. Mayer, in one of his most remarkable papers (“Celestial
Dynamics”) remarks that the “Newtonian theory of gravitation, whilst
it enables us to determine, from its present form, the earth’s state of
aggregation in ages past, at the same time points out to us a source
of heat powerful enough to produce such a state of aggregation—
powerful enough to melt worlds: it teaches us to consider the molten
state of a planet as the result of the mechanical union of cosmical
masses, and to derive the radiation of the sun and the heat in the
bowels of the earth from a common origin.”

And the same laws that governed the formation of the earth,
governed also the formation of the moon: the variations of Nature’s
operations are quantitative only and not qualitative. The Divine Will
that made the earth made the moon also, and the means and mode
of working were the same for both. The geological phenomena of the
earth afford unmistakeable evidence of its original fluid or molten
condition, and the appearance of the moon is as unmistakeably that
of a body once in an igneous or molten state. The enigma of the
earth’s primary formation is solved by the application of the
dynamical theory of heat. By this theory the generation of cosmical
heat is removed from the quicksands of conjecture and established
upon the firm ground of direct calculation: for the absolute amount of
heat generated by the collision of a given amount of matter is (of
course, with some little uncertainty) deducible from a mathematical
formula. Mayer has computed the amount of heat that the matter of
the earth would have generated, if it had been formed originally of
only two parts drawn into collision by their mutual attraction, and has
[1]
found that it would be from 0 to 32,000 or 47,000 Centigrade
degrees, according as one part was infinitely small as compared with
the other, or as the two parts were of equal size. Professor
Helmholtz, another labourer in the same field of science, has
computed the amount of heat generated by the condensation of the
whole of the matter composing the solar system: this he finds would
be equivalent to the heat that would be required to raise the
temperature of a mass of water equal to the sum of the 17
masses of all the bodies of the system to 28,000,000 (twenty-
eight million) degrees of the Centigrade scale.

These examples afford abundant evidence of sufficient heat having

been generated by the aggregation of the matter of the moon to
reduce it to a state of fusion, and so to produce, from a nebulous
chaos of diffused cosmical matter, a molten body of definite outline
and size.

It is requisite here to remark that fusion does not necessarily imply

combustion. It has been frequently asked, How can a volcanic theory
of the lunar phenomena be upheld consistently with the condition
that it possesses no atmosphere to support Fire? To this we would
reply that to produce a state of incandescence or a molten condition
it is not necessary that the body be surrounded by an atmosphere.
The intensely rapid motion of the particles of matter of bodies, which
the dynamical theory shows to be the origin of the molten state,
exists quite independently of such external matter as an atmosphere.
The complex mixture of gases and vapours which we term “air,” has
nothing whatever to do with the fusion of substances, whatever it
may have to do with their combustion. Combustion is a chemical
phenomenon, due to the combination of the oxygen of that air with
the heated particles of the combustible matter: oxygen is the sole
supporter of combustion, and hence combustion is to be regarded
rather as a phenomenon of oxygen than as a phenomenon of the
matter with which that oxygen combines. The greatest intensity of
heat may exist without oxygen, and consequently without
combustion. In support of this argument it will be sufficient to
adduce, upon the authority of Dr. Tyndall, the fact that a platinum
wire can be raised to a luminous temperature and actually fused in a
perfect vacuum.

But while the mass of condensing cosmical matter was thus

accumulating and forming the globe of the moon, the heat
consequent upon the aggregation of its particles was suffering some
diminution from the effect of radiation. So long as the radiated heat
lost fell short of the dynamical heat generated, no effect of cooling
would be manifest; but when the vis viva of the condensing matter
was all converted into its equivalent of heat, or when the accession of
heat fell short of that radiated, a necessary cooling must ensue, and
this cooling would be accompanied by a solidification of that 18
part of the mass which was most free to radiate its heat into
surrounding space: that part would obviously be the outer surface.

With the solidification of this external crust began the “year one” of
selenological history.

The phenomena attendant upon the cooling of the mass we will

consider in the next Chapter.

19
 CHAPTER III.
THE SUBSEQUENT COOLING OF THE IGNEOUS BODY.

In the foregoing Chapters we have endeavoured to show, by the light

of modern science, first, how diffused cosmical matter was probably
condensed into a planetary mass by the mutual gravitation of its
particles, and secondly, how, the after destruction of the gravitative
force, by the collision of the converging particles of matter, resulted
in the generation of such sufficient heat as to reduce the whole mass
to a molten condition. Our present task is to consider the subsequent
cooling of the mass, and the phenomena attendant upon or resulting
therefrom. This brief Chapter is important to our subject, as we shall
have frequent occasion to refer to the leading principle we shall
endeavour to illustrate in it, in subsequently treating of the causes to
which the special selenological features are to be attributed.

First, then, as regards the cooling of the igneous mass that

constituted the moon at the inconceivably remote period when
possibly that body was really a “lesser light” shining with a luminosity
of its own, due to its then incandescent state, and not simply a
reflector, as it is now, of light which it receives from the sun. If we
could conceive it possible that the igneous mass in the act of cooling
parted with its heat from the central part first and so began to
solidify from its centre, or if it had been possible for the mass to have
cooled uniformly and simultaneously throughout its whole depth, or
that each substratum had cooled before its superstratum, we should
have had a moon whose surface would have been smooth and
without any such remarkable asperities and excresences as are now
presented to our view. But these suppositions are inadmissible: on
the contrary we are compelled to consider that the portion of the
igneous or molten body that first cooled was its exterior 20
surface, which, radiating its heat into surrounding space,
became solid and comparatively cool while the interior retained its
hot and molten condition. So that at this early stage of the moon’s
history it existed in the form of a solid shell inclosing a molten
interior.

Now at this period of its formation, the moon’s mass, partly cooled
and solidified and partly molten, would be subject to the influence of
two powerful molecular forces: the first of these would consist in the
diminution of bulk or contraction of volume which accompanies the
cooling of solidified masses of previously molten substances; the
second would arise from a phenomenon which we may here observe
is by no means so generally known as from its importance it deserves
to be: and as we shall have frequent occasion to refer to it as one of
the chief agencies in producing the peculiar structural characteristics
of the moon’s surface, it may be well here to give a few examples of
its action, that our reference to it hereafter may be more clearly
understood.

The broad general principle of the phenomenon here referred to is

this:—that fusible substances are (with a few exceptions) specifically
heavier while in their molten condition than in the solidified state, or
in other words, that molten matter occupies less space, weight for
weight, than the same matter after it has passed from the melted to
the solid condition. It follows as an obvious corollary that such
substances contract in bulk in fusing or melting, and expand in
becoming solid. It is this expansion upon solidification that now
concerns us.

Water, as is well known, increases in density as it cools, till it reaches

the temperature of 39° Fahrenheit, after which, upon a further
decrease of temperature, its density begins to decrease, or in other
words its bulk expands, and hence the well-known fact of ice floating
in water, and the inconvenient fact of water-pipes bursting in a frost.
This action in water is of the utmost importance in the grand
economy of nature, and it has been accepted as a marvellous
exception to the general law of substances increasing in density (or
shrinking) as they decrease in temperature. Water is, however, by no
means the exceptional substance that it has been so generally
considered. It is a fact perfectly familiar to iron-founders, that when a
mass of solid cast-iron is dropped into a pot of molten iron of 21
identical quality, the solid is found to float persistently upon the
molten metal—so persistently that when it is intentionally thrust to
the bottom of the pot, it rises again the moment the submerging
agency is withdrawn. As regards the amount of buoyancy we believe
it may be stated in round numbers to be at least two or three per
cent. It has been suggested by some who are familiar with this
phenomenon that the solid mass may be kept up by a spurious
buoyancy imparted to it by a film of adhering air, or that surface
impurities upon the solid metal may tend to reduce the specific
gravity of the mass and thereby prevent it sinking, and that the fact
of floatation is not absolutely a proof of greater specific lightness. But
in controversion of these suggestions, we can state as the result of
experiment that pieces of cast-iron which have had their surface
roughness entirely removed, leaving the bright metal exposed, still
float on the molten metal, and further that when, under the influence
of the great heat of the molten mass, the solid is gradually melted
away, and consequently any possible surface impurities or adhering
air must necessarily have been removed, the remaining portion
continues to float to the last. The inevitable inference from this is
that in the case of cast-iron the solid is specifically lighter than the
molten, and, therefore, that in passing from the molten to the solid
condition this substance undergoes expansion in bulk.

We are able to offer a confirmation of this inference in the case of

cast-iron by a remarkable phenomenon well known to iron-founders,
but of which we have never met with special notice. When a ladle or
pot of molten iron is drawn from the melting furnace and allowed to
stand at rest, the surface presents a most remarkable and suggestive
appearance. Instead of remaining calm and smooth it is the scene of
a lively commotion: the thin coat of scoria or molten oxide which
forms on the otherwise bright surface of the metal is seen, as fast as
it forms at the circumference of the pot, to be swept by active
convergent currents towards the centre, where it accumulates in a
patch. While this action is proceeding, the entire upper surface of the
metal appears as if it were covered with animated vermicules of
scoria, springing into existence at the circumference of the pot, and
from thence rapidly streaming and wriggling themselves towards the
centre.

22

Fig. 1.

Our illustration (Fig. 1) is intended, so far as such means can do so,

to convey some idea of this remarkable appearance at one instant of
its continued occurrence. To interpret our illustration rightly it is
necessary to imagine this vermicular freckling to be constantly and
rapidly streaming from all points of the periphery of the pot towards
the centre, where, as we have said, it accumulates in the form of a
floating island. We may observe that the motion is most rapid when
the hot metal is first put into the cool ladle: as the fluid metal parts
with some of its heat and the ladle gets hot by absorbing it, this
remarkable surface disturbance becomes less energetic.

Now if we carefully consider this peculiar action and seek a cause for
the phenomenon, we shall be led to the conclusion that it arises from
the expansion of that portion of the molten mass which is in contact
with or close proximity to the comparatively cool sides of the ladle,
which sides act as the chief agent in dispersing the heat of the
melted metal. The motion of the scoria betrays that of the fluid metal
beneath, and careful observation will show that the motion in
question is the result of an upward current of the metal around the
circumference of the ladle, as indicated by the arrows A, B, C in the
accompanying sectional drawing of the ladle (Fig. 2). The 23
upward current of the metal can actually be seen when
specially looked for, at the rim of the pot, where it is deflected into
the convergent horizontal direction and where it presents an
elevatory appearance as shown in the figure. It is difficult to assign to
this effect any other cause than that of an expansion and consequent
reduction of the specific gravity of the fluid metal in contact with or in
close proximity to the cooler sides of the pot, as, according to the
generally entertained idea that contraction universally accompanies
cooling, it would be impossible for the cooler to float on the hotter
metal, and the curious surface-currents above referred to would be in
contrary direction to that which they invariably take, i.e., they would
diverge from the centre instead of converging to it. The external
arrows in the figure represent the radiation of the heat from the
outer sides of the pot, which is the chief cause of cooling.
 Fig. 2.

Turning from cast-iron to other metals we find further manifestations

of this expansive solidification. Bismuth is a notable example. In his
lectures on Heat, Dr. Tyndall exhibited an experiment in which a stout
iron bottle was filled with molten bismuth, and the stopper tightly
closed. The whole was set aside to cool, and as the metal within
approached consolidation the bottle was rent open by its 24
expansion, just as would have been the case had the bottle
been filled with water and exposed to freezing temperature. Mercury
affords another example. Thermometers which have to be exposed to
Arctic temperatures are generally filled with spirit instead of
quicksilver, because the latter has been found to burst the bulbs
when the cold reached the congealing point of the metal, the
bursting being a consequence of the expansion which accompanies
the act of congelation. Silver also expands in passing from the fluid to
the solid state, for we are informed by a practical refiner that solid
floats on molten silver as ice floats on water; it also, as likewise do
gold and copper, exhibits surface converging currents in the melting-
pot like those depicted above for molten iron.

It may, however, be objected that metals are too distantly related to

volcanic substances to justify inferences being drawn from their
behaviour in explanation of volcanic phenomena. With a view
therefore of testing the question at issue with a substance admitted
as closely allied to volcanic material, we appealed to the furnace slag
of iron-works. The following are extracts from the letters of an iron
[2]
manufacturer of great experience to whom we referred the
question:—

“I beg to inform you that cold slag floats in molten slag in the same
way cold iron floats in molten iron.

“I filled a box with hot molten slag run quickly from a blast furnace;
the box was about 5½ feet square by 2 feet deep, and I dropped into
the slag a piece of cold slag weighing 16 lbs., when it came to the
top in a second. I pushed it down to the bottom several times and it
always made its appearance at the top: indeed a small portion of it
remained above the molten slag.”

25
 Fig. 3.

Here then we have a substance closely allied to volcanic material

which manifests the expansile principle in question; but we may go
still further and give evidence from the very fountain-head by
instancing what appears to be a most cogent example of its operation
which we observed on the occasion of a visit to the crater of Vesuvius
in 1865 while a modified eruption was in progress. On this occasion
we observed white-hot lava streaming down from apertures in the
sides of a central cone within the crater and forming a lake of molten
lava on the plateau or bottom of the crater; on the surface of this
molten lake vast cakes of the same lava which had become solidified
were floating, exactly in the same manner as ice floats in water. The
solidified lava had cracked, and divided into cakes, in consequence of
its contraction and also of the uprising of the accumulating fluid lava
on which it floated, more and more space being thus afforded for it
to separate, on account of the crater widening upwards, while
through the joints or fissures the fluid lava could be seen beneath.
But for the decrease in density and consequent expansion in volume
which accompanied solidification, this floating of the solidified lava on
the molten could not have occurred. Reference to Fig. 3, which 26
represents a section of the crater of Vesuvius on the occasion
above referred to, will perhaps assist the reader to a more clear idea
of what we have endeavoured to describe. A A are the streams of
white-hot lava issuing from openings in the sides of the central cone,
and accumulating beneath the solidified crust B B in a lake of molten
lava at C C; the solidified crust B B as it was floated upwards dividing
into separate cakes as represented in Fig. 4. (See also Plate I.)

Fig. 4.
 PLATE I.
CRATER OF VESUVIUS.
1865.

Let us now consider what would be the effect produced upon a 27

spherical mass of molten matter in progress of cooling, first
under the action of the above described expansion which precedes
solidification, and then by the contraction which accompanies the
cooling of a solidified body. The first portion of such a mass to part
with its heat being its external surface, this portion would expand,
but there being no obstacle to resist the expansion there would be no
other result than a temporary slight enlargement of the sphere. This
external portion would on cooling form a solid shell encompassing a
more or less fluid molten nucleus, but as this interior has in its turn,
on approaching the point of solidification, to expand also, and there
being, so to speak, no room for its expansion, by reason of its
confinement within its solid casing, what would be the consequence?
—the shell would be rent or burst open, and a portion of the molten
interior ejected with more or less violence according to
circumstances, and many of the characteristic features of volcanic
action would be thus produced: the thickness of the outer shell, the
size of the vent made by the expanding matter for its escape, and
other conditions conspiring to modify the nature and extent of the
eruption. Thus there would result vast floodings of the exterior
surface of the shell by the so extruded molten matter, volcanoes,
extruded mountains, and other manifestations of eruptive
phenomena. The sectional diagram (Fig. 5) will help to convey a clear
idea of this action. Basing our reasoning on the principle we have
thus enunciated, namely, that molten telluric matter expands on
nearing the point of solidification, and which we have endeavoured to
illustrate by reference to actual examples of its operation, we
consider we are justified in assuming that such a course of volcanic
phenomena has very probably occurred again and again upon the
moon; that this expansion of volume which accompanies the
solidification of molten matter furnishes a key to the solution of the
enigma of volcanic action; and that such theories as depend upon the
agency of gases, vapour, or water are at all events untenable with
regard to the moon, where no gases, vapour, or water, appear to
exist.

Fig. 5. A A. The solidified crust cooling, contracting, and cracking; the

cracking action enhanced by the expansion of the substratum of
molten matter, B B B, which, expanding as it approaches the point of
solidification, injects portions of the molten matter up through the
 contractile cracks, and results in producing craters, mountains of
exudation, and districts flooded with extruded lava, C C C. The nucleus
of intensely hot molten matter.

That an upheaving and ejective force has been in action with varying
intensity beneath the whole of the lunar surface is manifest from the
aspect of its structural details, and we are impressed with the
conviction that the principle we have set forth, namely the 28
paroxysms of expansion which successively occurred as
portions of its molten interior approached solidification, supply us
with a rational cause to which such vast ejective and upheaving
phenomena may be assigned. Many features of terrestrial geology
likewise require such an expansive force whereby to explain them;
we therefore venture to recommend this source and cause of ejective
action to the careful consideration of geologists.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.
When the molten substratum had burst its confines, ejected its
superfluous matter, and produced the resulting volcanic features, it
would, after final solidification, resume the normal process of
contraction upon cooling, and so retreat or shrink away from the
external shell. Let us now consider what would be the result of this.
Evidently the external shell or crust would become relatively too large
to remain at all points in close contact with the subjacent matter. The
consequence of too large a solid shell having to accommodate itself
to a shrunken body underneath, is that the skin, so to term the outer
stratum of solid matter, becomes shrivelled up into alternate ridges
and depressions, or wrinkles. In its attempt to crush down and follow
the contracting substratum, it would have to displace the
superabundant or superfluous material of its former larger surface by
thrusting it (by the action of tangential force) into undulating ridges
as in Fig. 6, or broken elevated ridges as in Fig. 7, or 29
overlappings of the outer crust as in Fig. 8, or ridges capped by
more or less fluid molten matter extruded from beneath, as indicated
in Fig. 9, a class of action which might occur contemporaneously with
the elevation of the ridge or subsequently to its formation.

Fig. 8.
 Fig. 9.

A long-kept shrivelled apple affords an apt illustration of this wrinkle

theory; another example may be observed in the human face and
hand, when age has caused the flesh to shrink and so leave the
comparatively unshrinking skin relatively too large as a covering for
it. We illustrate both of these examples by actual photographs of the
respective objects, which are reproduced on Plate II. Whenever an
outer covering has to accommodate and apply itself to an interior
body that has become too small for it, wrinkles are inevitably
produced. The same action that shrivels the human skin into creases
and wrinkles, has also shrivelled certain regions of the igneous crust
of the earth. A map of a mountainous part of our globe affords
abundant evidence of such a cause having been in action; such maps
are pictures of wrinkles. Several parts of the lunar surface, as we
shall by-and-by see, present us with the same appearances in a
modified degree.

To the few primary causes we have set forth in this chapter—to 30

the alternate expansion and contraction of successive strata of
the lunar sphere, when in a state of transition from an igneous and
molten to a cooled and solidified condition, we believe we shall be
able to refer well nigh all the remarkable and characteristic features
of the lunar surface which will come under our notice in the course of
our survey.
 PLATE II.
BACK of HAND & SHRIVELLED APPLE.
TO ILLUSTRATE the ORIGIN of CERTAIN MOUNTAIN RANGES
BY SHRINKAGE of the GLOBE.

31
 CHAPTER IV.
THE FORM, MAGNITUDE, WEIGHT, AND DENSITY OF THE
LUNAR GLOBE.

We have not hitherto had occasion to refer to what we may term the
physical elements of the moon: by which we mean the various data
concerning form, size, weight, density, &c. of that body, derived from
observation and calculation. To this purpose, therefore, we will now
devote a few pages, confining ourselves to such matters as specially
bear upon the requirements of our subject, omitting such as are
irrelevant to our purpose, and touching but lightly upon such as are
commonly known, or are explained in ordinary elementary treatises
on astronomy.

First, then, as regards the form of the moon. The form of the lunar
disc, when fully illuminated, we perceive to be a perfect circle; that is
to say, the measured diameters in all directions are equal; and we are
therefore led to infer that the real form of the moon is that of a
perfect sphere. We know that the earth and the rest of the planets of
our system are spheroidal, or more or less flattened at the poles, and
we also know that this flattening is a consequence of axial rotation;
the extent of the flattening, or the oblateness of the spheroid,
depending upon the speed of that rotation. But in the case of the
moon the axial rotation is so slow that the flattening produced
thereby, although it must exist, is so slight as to be imperceptible to
our observation. We might therefore conclude that the moon is a
perfectly spherical body, did not theory step in to show us that there
is another cause by which its form is disturbed. Assuming the moon
to have been once in a fluid state, it is demonstrable that the
attraction of the earth would accumulate a mass of matter, like a tidal
elevation, in the direction of a line joining the centres of the two
bodies: and as a consequence, the real shape of the moon 32
must be an ellipsoid, or somewhat egg-shaped body, the major axis
of which is directed towards the earth. That some such phenomenon
has obtained is evident from the coincidence of the times of orbital
revolution and axial rotation of the lunar sphere. “It would be against
all probability,” says Laplace, “to suppose that these two motions had
been at their origin perfectly equal;” but it is sufficient that their
primitive difference was but small, in which case the constant
attraction by the earth of the protuberant part of the moon would
establish the equality which at present exists.

It is, however, sufficient for all purposes with which we are concerned
to regard the moon as a sphere, and the next point to be considered
is its size. To determine this, two data are necessary—its apparent or
angular diameter, and its distance from the earth. The first of these is
obtained by measuring the angle comprised between two lines
directed from the eye to two opposite “limbs” or edges of the moon.
If, for instance, we were to take a pair of compasses and, placing the
joint at the eye, open out the legs till the two points appear to touch
two opposite edges of the moon, the two legs would be inclined at an
angle which would represent the diameter of the moon, and this
angle we could measure by applying a divided arc or protractor to the
compasses. In practice this measurement is made by means of
telescopes attached to accurately divided circles; the difference
between the readings of the circle when the telescope is directed to
opposite limbs of the moon giving its angular diameter at the time of
the observation. But from the fact that the orbit of the moon is an
ellipse, it is evident that she is at some times much nearer to us than
at others, and, as a consequence, her apparent magnitude is
variable: there is also a slight variation depending upon the altitude
of the moon at the time of the measure; the mean diameter,
however, or the diameter at mean distance from the centre of the
earth has, from long course of observation, been found to be 31′ 9″.

To convert this apparent angular diameter into real linear

measurement, it is necessary to know either the distance of the
moon from the earth, or in astronomical language as leading to a
knowledge of that distance, what is the amount of the moon’s
parallax. Parallax, generally, is an apparent change of position 33
of an object arising from change of the point of view. The
parallax of a heavenly body is the angle which the earth would
subtend if it were seen from that body. Supposing an observer on the
moon could measure the earth’s angular diameter, just as we
measure that of the moon, his measurement would represent what is
called the parallax of the moon. But we cannot go to the moon to
make such a measurement; nevertheless there is a simple method,
explained in most treatises on astronomy, which consists in observing
the moon from stations on the earth widely separated, and by which
we can obtain a precisely similar result. Without detailing the
process, it is sufficient for us to know that the angle which would be
subtended by the earth if seen from the moon, or the moon’s
parallax, is according to the latest determination, equal to 1° 54′ 5″.
This value, however, varies considerably with the variations of
distance due to the elliptic orbit of the moon: the number we have
given represents the mean parallax, or the parallax at mean distance.

But we have to turn these angular measurements into miles. To effect

this we have only to work a simple rule of three sum. It will easily be
understood that, as the angular diameter of the earth seen from the
moon is to the angular diameter of the moon seen from the earth, so
is the diameter of the earth in miles to the diameter of the moon in
miles. The diameter of the earth we know to be 7912 miles: putting
this therefore in its proper place in the proportion sum, and duly
working it out by the schoolboy’s rule, we get:—

1°. 54′. 5″ : 31′. 9″ :: 7912 miles. : 2160 miles.

And 2160 miles is therefore the diameter of the lunar globe.

Knowing the diameter, we can easily obtain the other elements of

magnitude. According to the well-known relation of the diameter of a
sphere to its area, we find the area of the moon to be 14,657,000
square miles: or half that number, 7,328,500 miles, as the area of the
hemisphere at any one time presented to our view. And similarly,
from the relation of the solidity of a sphere to its diameter, we find
the solid contents of the moon to be 5276 millions of cubic miles of
matter.

Comparing these data with corresponding dimensions of the 34

earth, we find that the diameter of the moon is 1/3·665; the
area 1/13·4245; and the volume 1/49·1865, of the respective
elements of the earth. Those who prefer a graphical to a numerical
comparison, may judge of the sizes of the two bodies by the
accompanying illustration (Fig. 10). To gain an idea of their distance
from each other it is necessary to suppose the two discs in the
diagram to be 30 inches apart; the real distance of the moon from
the earth being about 238,790 miles at its mean position.

Fig. 10.

Next, we come to what is technically termed the mass, but what in

common language we may call the weight of the moon. It is
important to know this, because the weight of a body taken in
connection with its size furnishes us with a knowledge of its density,
or the specific gravity of the material of which it is composed. But it is
not quite so easy to determine the mass as the dimensions of the
moon: to measure it, we have seen is easy enough; to weigh it is a
comparatively difficult matter. To solve the problem we have to
appeal to Newton’s law of universal gravitation. This law teaches us
that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other
particle with a force which is directly proportional to the mass, and
inversely proportional to the distance of the attracting particles. 35
There are several methods by which this law is applied to the
measurement of the mass of the moon. One of the simplest is by the
agency of the Tides. We know that the moon, attracting the waters,
produces a certain amount of elevation of the aqueous covering of
the earth; and we know that the sun produces also a like elevation,
but to a much smaller extent, by reason of its much greater distance.
Now measuring accurately the heights of the solar and lunar tides,
and making allowance for the difference of distance of the sun and
moon from the earth, we can compare directly the effect that is due
to the sun with the effect that is due to the moon: and since the
masses of the two bodies are just in proportion to the effects they
produce, it is evident that we have a comparison between the mass
of the sun and that of the moon; and knowing what is the sun’s mass
we can, by simple proportion, find that of the moon. Another method
is as follows:—The moon is retained in her orbital path by the
attraction of the earth; if it were not for this attraction she would fly
off from her course in a tangential line. She has thus a constant
tendency to quit her orbit, which the earth’s attraction as constantly
overcomes. It is evident from this that the earth pulls the moon
towards itself by a definite amount in every second of time. But while
the earth is pulling the moon, the moon is also pulling the earth: they
are pulling each other together; and moreover each is exerting a pull
which is proportional to its mass. Knowing, then, the mass of the
earth, which we do with considerable accuracy, we can find what
share of the whole pulling force is due to it, the residue being the
moon’s share: the proportion which this residue bears to the earth’s
share gives us the proportion of the moon’s mass to that of the earth,
and hence the mass of the moon.

There are yet two other methods: one depending upon the
phenomena of nutation, or the attraction of the sun and moon upon
the protruberant matter of the terrestrial spheroid; and the other
upon a displacement of the centre of gravity of the earth and moon,
which shows itself in observations of the sun. By each and all of
these methods has the lunar mass been at various times determined,
and it has been found, as the latest and best accepted value, that the
mass of the moon is one-eightieth that of the earth.

From the known diameter of the earth we ascertain that its 36

volume is 259,360 millions of cubic miles: and from the various
experiments that have been made to determine the mean density of
the earth, it has been found that that mean density is about 5½
times that of water; that is to say, the earth weighs 5½ times heavier
than would a sphere of water of equal size. Now a cubic foot of water
weighs 62·3211 pounds, and from this we can find by simple
multiplication what is the weight of a cubic mile of water, and,
similarly, what would be the weight of 259,360 cubic miles of water,
and the last result multiplied by 5½ will give the weight of the earth
in tons: The calculation, although extremely simple, involves a
confusing heap of figures; but the result, which is all that concerns
us, is, that the weight of the earth is 5842 trillions of tons: and since,
as we have above stated, the mass of the earth is 80 times that of
the moon, it follows that the weight of the moon is 73 trillions of
tons.

The cubical contents of a body compared with its weight gives us its
density. In the moon we have 5276 millions of cubic miles of matter,
the total weight of which is 73 trillions of tons. Now, 5276 millions of
cubic miles of water would weigh about 21½ trillions of tons; and as
this number is to 73 as 1 is to 3·4, it is clear that the density of the
lunar matter is 3·4 greater than water: and inasmuch as the earth is
5½ times denser than water, we see that the moon is about 0·62 as
dense as the earth, or that the material of the moon is lighter, bulk
for bulk, than the mean material of the terraqueous globe in the
proportion of 62 to 100, or, nearly, 6 to 10. This specific gravity of the
lunar material (3·4) we may remark is about the same as that of flint
glass or the diamond: and curiously enough it nearly coincides with
that of some of the aërolites that have from time to time fallen to the
earth; hence support has been claimed for the theory that these
bodies were originally fragments of lunar matter, probably ejected at
some time from the lunar volcanoes with such force as to propel
them so far within the sphere of the earth’s attraction that they have
ultimately been drawn to its surface.

Reverting, now, to the mass of the moon: we must bear in mind that
the mass or weight of a planetary body determines the weight of all
objects on its surface. What we call a pound on the earth, would not
be a pound on the moon; for the following reason:—When we say
that such and such an object weighs so much, we really mean 37
that it is attracted towards the earth with a certain force
depending upon its own weight. This attraction we call gravity; and
the falling of a weight to the earth is an example of the action of the
law of universal gravitation. The earth and the weight fall together—
or are held together if the weight is in contact with the earth—with a
force which depends directly upon the mass of the two, and upon the
distance between them. Newton proved that the attraction of a
sphere upon external objects is precisely as if the whole of its matter
were contained at its centre. So that the attractive force of the earth
upon a ton weight at its surface, is the attraction which 5842 trillions
of tons exert upon one ton situated 3956 miles (the radius of the
earth) distant. If the weight of the earth were only half the above
quantity, it is clear that the attraction would be only half what it is;
and hence the ton weight, being pulled by only half the force, would
only be equal to half a ton; that is to say, only half as much muscular
force (or any other force but gravity) would be required to lift it. It is
plain, therefore, that what weighs a pound on the earth could not
weigh a pound on the moon, which is only 1/80 of the weight of the
earth. What, then, is the relation between a pound on the earth and
the same mass of matter on the moon? It would seem, since the
moon’s mass is 1/80 of the earth, that the pound transported to the
moon ought to weigh the eightieth part of a pound there; and so it
would if the distance from the centre of the moon to its surface were
the same as the distance of the centre of the earth from its surface.
But the radius of the moon is only 1/3·665 that of the earth; and the
force of gravity varies inversely as the square of the distance
between the centres of the gravitating masses. So that the attraction
by the moon of a body at its surface, as compared with that of the
earth, is 1/80 multiplied by the square of 1/3·665; and this, worked
out, is equal to 1/6. The force of gravity upon the moon is, therefore,
1/6 of that on the earth; and hence a pound upon the earth would be
little more than 2½ ounces on the moon; and it follows as a
consequence that any force, such as muscular exertion, or the energy
of chemical, plutonic or explosive forces, would be six times more
effective upon the moon than upon the earth. A man who could jump
six feet from the earth, could with the same muscular effort 38
jump thirty-six feet from the moon; the explosive energy that
would project a body a mile above the earth would project a like
body six miles above the surface of the moon.

It is the practice, in elementary and popular treatises on astronomy,

to state merely the numerical results in giving data such as those
embodied in the foregoing pages; and uninitiated readers, not
knowing the means by which the figures are arrived at, are
sometimes disposed to regard them with a certain amount of doubt
or uncertainty. On this account we have thought it advisable to give,
in as brief and concise a form as possible, the various steps by which
these seemingly unattainable results are obtained.

The data explained in the foregoing text are here collected to

facilitate reference.

Diameter of Moon 2160 miles 1/3·665 that of

earth.
Area 14,657,000 square 1/13·424 ”
miles ”
Area of the visible 7,328,500 square miles
hemisphere
Solid contents 5276 millions of cubic 1/49·186 ”
miles ”
Mass 73 trillions of tons 1/80 ” ”
Density 3·39 (water = 1) 0·62 ” ”
Force of gravity at 1/6 ” ”
surface
Mean distance from earth 238,790 miles.
39
 CHAPTER V.
ON THE EXISTENCE OR NON-EXISTENCE OF A LUNAR
ATMOSPHERE.

At the close of the preceding chapter we stated that any force acting
in opposition to that of gravity would be six times more effective on
the moon than on the earth. But, in fact, it would in many cases be
still more so; at all events, so far as projectile forces are concerned;
for the reason that “the powerful coercer of projectile range,” as the
earth’s atmosphere has been termed, has no counterpart, or at most
a very disproportionate one, upon the moon.

The existence of an atmosphere surrounding the moon has been the

subject of considerable controversy, and a great deal of evidence on
both sides of the question has been offered from time to time, and is
to be found scattered through the records of various classes of
observations. Some of the more important items of this evidence it is
our purpose to set forth in the course of the present chapter.

With the phenomena of the terrestrial atmosphere, with the effects

that are attributable to it, we are all well familiar, and our best course
therefore is to examine, as far as we are able, whether counterparts
of any of these effects are manifested upon the moon. For instance,
the clouds that are generated in and float through our air would, to
an observer on the moon, appear as ever changing bright or dusky
spots, obliterating certain of the permanent details of the earth’s
surface, and probably skirting the terrestrial disc, like the changing
belts we perceive on the planet Jupiter, or diversifying its features
with less regularity, after the manner exhibited by the planet Mars. If
such clouds existed on the moon it is evident that the details of its
surface must be, from time to time, similarly obscured; but no trace
of such obscuration has ever been detected. When the moon is 40
observed with high telescopic powers, all its details come out
sharp and clear, without the least appearance of change or the
slightest symptoms of cloudiness other than the occasional want of
general definition, which may be proved to be the result of
unsteadiness or want of homogeneity in our own atmosphere; for we
must tell the uninitiated that nights of pure, good definition, such as
give the astronomer opportunity of examining with high powers the
minute details of planetary features, are very few and far between.
Out of the three hundred and sixty-five nights of a year there are
probably not a dozen that an astronomer can call really fine: usually,
even on nights that are to all common appearance superbly brilliant,
some strata of air of different densities or temperatures, or in rapid
motion, intervene between the observer and the object of his
observation, and through these, owing to the ever-changing
refractions which the rays of light coming from the object suffer in
their course, observation of the delicate markings of a planet is
impossible: all is blurred and confused, and nothing but bolder
features can be recognized. It has in consequence sometimes
happened that a slight indistinctness of some minute detail of the
moon has been attributed to clouds or mists at the lunar surface,
whereas the real cause has been only a bad condition of our own
atmosphere. It may be confidently asserted that when all
indistinctness due to terrestrial causes is taken account of or
eliminated, there remain no traces whatever of any clouds or mists
upon the surface of the moon.

This is but one proof against the existence of a lunar atmosphere,

and, it may be argued, not a very conclusive one; because there may
still be an atmosphere, though it be not sufficiently aqueous to
condense into clouds and not sufficiently dense to obscure the lunar
details. The probable existence of an atmosphere of such a character
used to be inferred from a phenomenon seen during total eclipses of
the sun. On these occasions the black body of the moon is invariably
surrounded by a luminous halo, or glory, to which the name “corona”
has been applied; and, further, besides this corona, apparently
floating in it and sometimes seemingly attached to the black edge of
the moon, are seen masses of cloud-like matter of a bright red colour,
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