THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. 265 



beyond the moon, the astronomer has studied the 

 lands and seas of a world which has justly been termed 

 a miniature of our earth : he has watched the clouds 

 which form over the continents and oceans of the 

 planet Mars, and are dissipated even like our own by 

 the solar rays ; he has determined the very constituents 

 of that planet's atmosphere. But more than this, the 

 astronomer has actually studied the condition of parts 

 of Mars, where (if analogy can be trusted) the very 

 inhabitants of that world are unable to penetrate. 

 The ruddy orb (which when these lines appear will be 

 shining conspicuously in our skies after a long absence 

 from the earth's neighbourhood) presents to the astro- 

 nomer its Arctic and Antarctic wastes. He is able to 

 watch the gradual increase of either region as winter pre- 

 vails alternately over the northern and southern hemi- 

 sphere of Mars ; he can measure their gradual reduction 

 with the progress of the Martial summer : and he can 

 infer from their aspect that even in the height of sum- 

 mer there still remain ice-covered regions so wide in 

 their range as doubtless to defy the efforts of the Mar- 

 tialists to penetrate to the poles of the globe on which 

 they live. So that where most probably no living 

 creature on Mars has ever penetrated the astronomer 

 can direct his survey ; and questions which no Martial 

 geographer can pretend to answer the terrestrial astro- 

 nomer can discuss with a considerable degree of con- 

 fidence. It is the same even with the more distant 

 planets Jupiter and Saturn. Despite the vast spaces 

 which separate us from these orbs, we yet know much 



