Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/908



ARS is now as much a subject of conversation as politics or art. In Buenos Ayres, Mexico, Caracas, as well as in Paris, St. Petersburg, Budapest, and Stockholm, the latest telescopic investigations are discussed, for it is known that this neighboring world is actually approaching the earth, that astronomers have their eyes upon it, and that luminous projections have been noted of which explanation is possible; and we know, moreover, that the discovery of canal-like lines in the planet has led to the question of possible inhabitants of Mars, and of the probability of a future communication with them.

It is hard to realize that the geographical position of Mars is better known than that of our own globe; but when a picture of the north or south pole of Mars is seen, it must be acknowledged that it is impossible to give the presentment of the same parts of our planet. The districts environing the poles of Mars are better known, both geographically and meteorologically, than those of ours; for, being almost always able to measure the extent of the polar snows, it is seen that they vary with the seasons.

These snows are also observed to brighten and grow warm under the sun, which melts them rapidly in a summer twice as long as ours, until they almost entirely disappear, leaving only a little ice upon a point which we know represents the cold pole, 340 kilometres distant from the geographical pole. None of these details are known about the same points on our own planet, and even the inhabitants of Mars may be ignorant of them if they have not been within reach of them. However, as the sea there is open at the end of the summer, they have better opportunities for exploring their polar regions than we have. We can also say that, generally speaking, the meteorology and the climatology of Mars are more fixed than those of this world. At the present moment nobody can tell what the weather will be to-morrow, but it is known almost for certain what it will be to-morrow or next week or month in any part of Mars, as when it is not winter-time it is always fine. In the equatorial regions and the regions round the poles there is hardly ever a cloud to be seen between the equinox of spring and the equinox of autumn. When it is impossible for us to make a drawing of Mars the hindrance is never due to the atmosphere of that planet, which is pure and transparent, but to the fact of our own being so often thick or disturbed.

We can draw all the geographical configurations, seas, coasts, islands, peninsulas, mouths of rivers, or canals of Mars with accuracy; and we can anticipate what district will appear in the lens of the telescope, for the length of the rotation of the planet is known to the hundredth part of a second. As the planet turns upon its axis more slowly than ours, the calendar of the inhabitants of Mars is composed of two consecutive years of 668 days and a bisextile one of 669 days.

It is not correct to say that the luminous projections can be seen beyond the border of the disc of the planet—they are observed upon the line called the terminator, which separates the hemisphere lighted by the sun from that which is not lighted; and they are only perceived when the globe of Mars exhibits a sensible phase along this line of the terminator. I have made the calculation of the height of these luminous points, and I find it is only 4500 metres (2¾ miles), not higher than Mont Blanc, and perhaps less. The regions in which they appear are a sort of an island called Noachis, another called Hesperia, and a third called Tempe. According to all appearance there is snow upon these high mountains. It is not probable that these luminous points are due to the snow, for they are visible near the