ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 97 



hundred long, adding to the appearance of artificiality. 

 Sometimes no canals are seen, but they come into view as 

 the polar snows begin to melt; hence the suggestion that 

 they really indicate great canals to carry off the Avater 

 from the rapidly-melting snow and distribute it by irri- 

 gation channels over the adjacent land, which, being 

 rapidly covered with vegetation, causes the change of 

 color which renders them visible. These observations 

 were made by Mr. Percival Lowell during the favorable 

 opposition, in 1894, at his observatory in Arizona, where 

 the exceptional purity of the atmosphere renders it pos- 

 sible almost constantly to observe details which are else- 

 where rarely visible. If future observations should 

 confirm the views as to the artificial nature of these 

 features of the surface of the planet which most nearly 

 resembles our earth, it must be considered to be the most 

 sensational astronomical discovery of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and that which opens up the most exciting possibili- 

 ties as to communication with beings who are sufficiently 

 advanced to execute such widespread and gigantic irri- 

 gation works, 



Saturn's Rings, and the Meteoritic Theory of the 

 Universe. 



The ring around the planet Saturn was long supposed 

 to be single, and to be solid like the planet itself; but 

 with improved telescopes it was found to be double, and 

 with still finer instruments to consist of an indefinite 

 number of rings close together, one of them being very 

 obscure, as if formed of nebulous matter. In the year 

 1859, Clerk-Maxwell, by a profound mathematical in- 



