Page:Percival Lowell - an afterglow.djvu/126

Percival Lowell

Here is the anon.

The first frost observations have gone like wildfire over the country. Not only the N. Y. Times but the Albuquerque Republican have had editorials on the subject and very nice ones too. And this morning comes a telegram from the Associated Press asking for additional details. It is amusing to see what takes. Today, if possible, I shall send an enlargement of one of our original negatives showing this same frost. The frost quite threw into the shade the little south polar cap. There are some very interesting points about this apparition which I am now working up and from which I desist simply to write to you. The first frost does not appear in the neighborhood of the Cap but way down in latitude 59° and the interesting thing is that this is exactly where the loss by night from the warmth received by day on a nearly airless planet comes out at its least residual, i. e., here it should be coldest at sunrise. It is curious, is it not, that the morning autumnal frost should be not at the pole but way down in almost temperate latitudes? Yet such follows from theory and as you now see is confirmed by observation.

On the 14th we sat up observing and recuperating till 6 A. M. It was the only good night we have had for some time and we made the most of it. I was pretty well used up the next day. We 96