1901.] LOWELL— SUPPOSED SIGNALS FROM MARS. 167 



from Flagstaff to the writer and communicated by him through the 

 usual channels to the astronomical world. The signaling part of 

 it was a tale added by journalistic ingenuity at the time that profes- 

 sion became possessed of the subject. The original dispatch read : 



"Projection observed last night over Icarium Mare, lasting seventy minutes." 



(Signed) " Douglass." 



3. Projections in the case of one heavenly body, the Moon, are not 

 unfamiliar objects. On almost any night when that body shows a 

 terminator, that is a sunset or sunrise edge, a keen eye can detect 

 one or more of them along it without telescopic aid. With Mars 

 the phenomenon is much less common and, though many such 

 projections have in the last few years been seen upon the planet, the 

 sight is one of some rarity. 



4. In the case of the Moon it is possible to find out the cause of 

 the projections. By magnification through a telescope the little knob 

 that breaks the otherwise uniform boundary of light and shade is 

 seen to resolve itself into the tip of a mountain peak or the summit 

 of a crater wall, which catches the light while the lower ground at 

 its foot is plunged in shadow, and so seems to project beyond the 

 rest of the disk. With Mars no such forthright determination of 

 the problem is possible. For no magnification we can apply is 

 potent enough to disclose of itself the character of the country. 

 We are, therefore, obliged to reason upon what we see. 



5. Taking lunar analogies for guide, it was generally inferred that 

 the martian projections too were due to mountain peaks. From 

 which of course it followed, or as one may say preceded, that there 

 were mountains on Mars. But the Flagstaff observations of 1894 

 showed that, on general principles, this was very improbable. The 

 study of the surface markings led the writer to a general theory 

 about the character of the planet, in which mountains not only found 

 no place but to which they were decidedly opposed. At the same 

 time that the theory suggested itself, but independent of it, Mr. 

 Douglass observed several projections, and conceived and published 

 another explanation for them, and this one proved consonant with 

 what the theory demanded, to wit : that, instead of being due to 

 mountains upon the planet's surface, they were due to clouds floating 

 in the planet's air. He showed that the observations were thus 

 much better explained ; in fact, that his observations coui<! hardly 

 be accounted for with probability on the mountain hypotl'esis at all 



