THE INNER PLANETS. 91 



Proctor gave names to the various Martian 

 features, the reddish-ochre portions of the disc 

 being named continents and the bluish-green 

 portions seas ; and Proctor's views on Mars 

 found favour for many years. In 1877, how- 

 ever, Schiaparelli opened a new era in the study 

 of Mars. In September of that year, during the 

 very favourable opposition of the planet, Schia- 

 parelli, while executing a trigonometrical survey 

 of the disc, discovered that the continents were 

 cut up by numerous long dark streaks, which he 

 called canali. In 1879, to his surprise, he found 

 that some of the canals had become double ; 

 and he confirmed this in 1881 and at subsequent 

 oppositions. Meanwhile, as Schiaparelli was the 

 only observer who had hitherto seen the canals, 

 there was much scepticism as to their reality. 

 In 1886, however, they were seen at the Nice 

 Observatory by Henri Perrotin (1845-1904), 

 who also observed their duplication. Since 

 1886 they have been observed by many astron- 

 omers, including Camille Flammarion in France, 

 William Frederick Denning (born 1848) in 

 England, Vincenzo Cerulli (born 1859) in Italy, 

 Percival Lowell and W. H. Pickering in the 

 United States. In 1892 W. H. Pickering suc- 

 cessfully observed the canals, and discovered 

 at the junctions of two or more canals round 



