NOTES ON MARS. 171 



absence for three minutes, presence one minute, absence eight minutes, 

 and a final brief appearance f ort^'-six minutes after the first sight of it. 



If some genius can prove that these were a series of signals from 

 Mars, it would be a matter of the greatest importance. My own belief 

 is that it was a message from Mars, not from inhabitants of the sur- 

 face, but from the clouds which inhabit its atmosphere. They were 

 giving us an illustration of the efiect on them of sunlight and showing 

 us how thc}^ form and disappear with its absence and presence. 



The cloud which was observed on December 7 and 8 gave us also a 

 scientific message of great importance. It was seen on those two suc- 

 cessive mornings and lasted for an hour each time. It was less on the 

 second morning, as if the moisture had been dissipated, or had been 

 used in some way so that it could not condense into visible clouds. It 

 formed above the deserts on the north side of a large, dark marking 

 on the planet, Icarium Mare, which is supposed to be vegetation. 

 This is significant in two ways. First, it corroborates our idea that 

 the dark markings are vegetation by showing, as we should expect, 

 that the I'egions of vegetation have more moisture in them than the 

 surrounding regions, which are desert. Second, it appeared on the 

 north side of the dark marking, showing that there must have been a 

 motion of the air from the south. That is, at this point on the equator, 

 in a season which corresponds to our April 23, the wind was from the 

 south. At that time the sun was about 13^ north of the equator, and 

 the point beneath most heated by the sun was therefore north also, and 

 the wind was blowing toward that point. This is exactly what we find 

 on the earth in the case of the trade winds, which blow toward the heat 

 equator. And so we have received the most interesting information 

 that in these zones, at least, the winds on Mars and on the earth blow 

 in the same direction. 



Knowing, then, that such similarity exists, scientists can advance 

 with confidence from a knowledge of our own weather conditions to 

 those on Mars. They can have the satisfaction of knowing that their 

 theories are not pure speculation. This, then, is the important message 

 which we have received from Mars. 



IV. Messages from Maes.^ 



We feel that some apology is needed for the appearance in these 

 pages of a note with this sensational heading; but there have been so 

 many paragraphs lately in the daily press under the title that, on the 

 sole ground that this is a chronicle of astronomical and quasi-astro- 

 nomical events, we think the subject should be mentioned. First, a 

 telegram came from America saying that Mr. Douglass, at Lowell 

 Observatory, Ariz., had seen a projection on the northern edge of 



^ Extract from The Observatory, London, February, 1901, p. 102. 



