Page:Mars - Lowell.djvu/161

Rh of the same Martian features at substantially the same moment. Several interesting specimens of such pecularities may be seen by the curious in Flammarion's admirable thesarus, "La Planète Mars." In some of these likenesses of the planet it is pretty certain that Mars would never recognize himself.

To have drawings simply swear at one another across a page is, in the interests of deduction, objectionable. For their testimony to be worth having, they must agree to differ. If, therefore, Mars is to be many, his draughtsman must be one. So much, at least, is fulfilled by the drawings in which the changes now to be described are recorded; for they were all made by me, at the same instrument, under the same general atmospheric conditions. As the same personality enters all of them, it stands, as between them, eliminated from all, to increased certainty of deduction. Since, furthermore, the drawings were all made in the months preceding and following one opposition, change due to secular variation is reduced to a minimum. As a matter of fact, the changes are such as to betray their own seasonal character. They constitute a kinematical as opposed to a statical study of the planet’s surface.

The changes are much more evident than might be supposed. Indeed, they are quite unmistakable. As for their importance, it need