124 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



studying the Planet of War. Waiting until the out- 

 lines of the oceans and continents had become clearly 

 discernible, he made ('in the wee sma' hours ayont 

 the^twae ' ') an excellent drawing of Mars. When this 

 was compared with the drawing made at an earlier 

 hour by Mr. Lockyer, it was seen that the clouds 

 which had concealed a portion of the planet had, at 

 the later hour, passed completely away, insomuch that 

 the whole of the shore-line, which was at first con- 

 cealed, had been restored to view. And it is worthy of 

 notice, that, referring these events to Martial time, 

 the cloudy weather in this part of Mars appears 

 to have occurred in the forenoon, the midday hour 

 (as often happens on earth) bringing clear weather, 

 which would seem to have lasted until the Martial 

 afternoon was far advanced. 



But we can also learn something of the general 

 progress of the weather during a Martial day. It 

 would seem that, as a rule, the Martial mornings and 

 evenings are misty. This, at least, seems the most 

 satisfactory explanation of the whitish light which is 

 usually seen all round the planet's disc ; for the parts 

 of the planet which lie near the edge of the disc are 

 those where the sun is low that is, where it is either 

 morning or evening out yonder on Mars. The presence, 

 therefore, of this whitish light would seem to indicate 

 misty mornings and misty evenings in Mars. 



It seems clear too that as with ourselves winter 

 is more cloudy than summer ; for it is always noticed 

 that near the Martial solstices the markings on that 



