MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 36'.) 



Taking a hasty survey of some of the accomplishments of the past 

 forty years, we note that the earth has been more accurately measured 

 and weighed. The sun, which was supposed during the early part of 

 the last century to be inhabited, and even the abode of the blessed, 

 according to one philosopher, is definitely demonstrated not to be a 

 fit heaven, however much it may fill the requirements of "the other 

 place." All our electric and magnetic storms are probably traceable 

 to solar disturbances. Serious efforts are also being made to found 

 weather prognostications upon well-known cycles of solar conditions. 



The moon, our nearest neighbor, or only child, as you choose, has 

 been awakened out of a supposed sleep of death by Professor Picker- 

 ing. We have been teaching with parrot-like volubility and assur- 

 ance that the moon is a dead world, without a trace of atmosphere or 

 water in either liquid or gaseous form, and that, as a consequence, it 

 was a rugged, barren waste, utterly devoid of any life whatsoever. 

 The above conditions were definitely proven by occulted stars shining 

 with undimmed splendor until blotted out by the moon's disk. This 

 was yesterday. Professor Pickering says that an occulted star is 

 dimmed upon approach to the moon, as any close observer can see. 

 He thinks that there is unquestionably a rare atmosphere, and he be- 

 lieves that certain changes in hues about and within certain craters 

 are due to a low form of vegetable life, perhaps like our fungi. The 

 brilliant white spots, so prominent a feature of lunography, Mr. Pick- 

 ering thinks ai'e due to snow. The average astronomer dislikes to be 

 caught napping, but when Professor Pickering speaks the astronom- 

 ical world listens and takes notes. He has had unusual opportunity 

 to verify his observations and strengthen his conclusions under the 

 most favorable conditions. 



Mercury and Venus still hide their mysteries of topography under 

 a thick veil of dense atmosphere. It is still uncertain whether they 

 rotate faster than the period of their revolution or not. Upon the 

 answer to this question hangs the possibility of their being inhabited. 

 It is probable, however, they are dead worlds which always present 

 the same face to the sun. Mars continues the observed of all ob- 

 servers, because of the wealth of detail visible under favorable con- 

 ditions. The war of theories as to the nature and meaning of the 

 so-called canals is still being waged. Some insist they are mere op- 

 tical illusions, and cite traces of similar appearances upon other 

 planets and the moon, and the fact that some of them enter or cross 

 the supposed seas. Others as stoutly assert they are not only real en- 

 tities, but are water-courses or possibly lines of vegetation accompa- 

 nying such irrigation ditches. This latter view is supported by Mr. 

 Lowell, who has closely observed the planet at the observatory at 

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