SCENES ON THE PLANETS. 



3+7 



strimients show is connected with the mysterious system of " ca- 

 nals," can be detected, but the " canals " themselves are far be- 

 yond the reach of any telescope except a few of the giants handled 

 by experienced observers. The conviction which seems to have 

 forced its way into the minds even of some conservative astrono- 

 mers, that on Mars the conditions, to use the expression of Pro- 

 fessor Young, " are more nearly earthlike than on any other of 

 the heavenly bodies which we can see with our present telescopes," 

 is sufficient to make the 

 planet a center of undying 

 interest notwithstanding the 

 difficulties with which the 

 amateur is confronted in his 

 endeavors to see the details 

 of its markings. 



In Venus " the fatal gift 

 of beauty " may be said, as 

 far as our observations are 

 concerned, to be matched by 

 the equally fatal gift of 

 brilliance. Whether it be 

 due to atmospheric reflec- 

 tion alone or to the preva- 

 lence of clouds, Venus is 

 so bright that considerable 

 doubt exists as to the actual 

 visibility of any permanent 

 markings on her surface. The detailed representations of the disk 

 of Venus by Mr. Percival Lowell, showing in some respects a re- 

 semblance to the stripings of Mars, can not yet be accepted as de- 

 cisive. More experienced astronomers than Mr. Lowell have been 

 unable to see at all things which he draws with a fearless and un- 

 hesitating pencil. That there are some shadowy features of the 

 planet's surface to be seen in favorable circumstances is prob- 

 able, but the time for drawing a " map of Venus " has not yet 

 come. 



The previous work of Schiaparelli lends a certain degree of 

 probability to Mr. Lowell's observations on the rotation of Venus. 

 This rotation, according to the original announcement of Schiapa- 

 relli, is probably performed in the same period as the revolution 

 around the sun. In other words, Venus, if Schiaparelli and Lowell 

 are right, always presents the same side to the sun, possessing, in 

 consequence, a day hemisphere and a night hemisphere which never 

 interchange places. This condition is so antagonistic to all our 



The Illumination of Venus' s Atmopphere at 

 the beginning of her transit across the 

 Sun. 



