May 1, 1888] 



♦ KNO>A/^LEDGE ♦ 



140 



big bull 'gators often go across country from one pond to 

 another, sometimes going many miles. Where ponds or 

 lakes are closely connected there is always found a well- 

 beaten track leading from one to the other. Sometimes 

 they are encountered on the road. These journeys are made 

 near nightfall. 



Besides their skin, the teeth are valuable, being made 

 into "alligator jewellery" — charms, ear-rings, ring-bangles, 

 &c. The teeth are generally secured by burying the head 

 till it decomposes, and then picking out the teeth — a not 

 very pleasant task. The teeth are then bathed in acids, 

 which thoroughly clean and remove all unpleasant smell. 



A full-gi-own 'gator is from 12 to 18 feet long, and dis- 

 plays a remarkable '-openness" when he smilo> in his own 

 peculiarly engaging way. 



CANALS OR RIVERS ON MARS? 



URING the present approach of !Mars, who 

 passed opposition on April 11, careful ob- 

 servations should he made by those who 

 possess large telescopes, or have control of 

 well-provided observatories, on the so-called 

 "canals" of Schiaparelli, and especially on 

 the duplication of the canals. The planet 

 will b3 more favourably situated than Schiaparelli himself 

 supposes for the investigation of these phenomena. He recog- 



serve to show observers of Mars that whatever may be the 

 accuracy of Schiaparelli's observations, he has not correctly 

 delineated the planet's aspect, while it will equally show 

 students of physical geography and believers in the uni- 

 formitarian views now prevailing throughout science gene- 

 rally, that the "' double canals " have probably no objective 

 existence. Yet we cannot reject Schiaparelli's observations, 

 renewed as they have been by himself at successive 

 oppositions of Mars since the phenomenon was first observed, 

 and confirmed by Celoria, Perrotin, and Trepied. 



I suppose Schiaparelli himself has given up the wild 

 notion suggested by him, and accepted by several of the 

 ultra-cautious astronomers of the inductive school (in which 

 r.ashness and caution strangely interchange places), that the 

 can.als and their duplications are the work of Martian 

 inhabitants. For though a purely inductive philosopher 

 (acting on the inductively cautious principle that every- 

 thing observed is to be accepted precisely as observed, and 

 not to be corrected by any such rash process as deductive 

 analvsis) might gladly accept the idea that Martian beings 

 could first construct canals thousands of miles long and 

 twenty or thirty miles wide, and then duplicate these in two 

 years or so of terrestrial time, even inductive caution 

 can scarcely be capable of believing that the second canal 

 of each pair would be destroyed as each i\Iartian summer 

 approached and renewed soon after the next following spring. 



The interpretation which, with deductive r.ashness, I 

 suggested for Schiaparelli's observations soon after they were 

 first announced seems so strikingly confirmed by his later 



Fio. 1.— Chart o£ ilars by Signor Schiaparelli, showing his double canals. 



ni.ses in the appearance and disappearance of double canals 

 a periodicity depending upon the Martian seasons, having 

 observed that they come into view soon after the vernal 

 equinox of the northern hemisphere, and gradually dis- 

 appear — that is, fewer and fewer of them are seen — towards 

 northern midsummer ; and he has invited astronomers to 

 observe whether similar phenomena are to be noticed after 

 the autumnal equinox of the northern hemisphere — that is, 

 after the vernal equinox of the southern hemisphere. But he 

 does not notice that there is reason to expect a recurrence of 

 the phenomena which have perplexed him (and by which 

 he has perplexed many) as the autumnal equinox of the 

 northern hemisphere approaches — and under more favourable 

 conditions than after the equinox, because most of the 

 " canals " are in the northern hemisphere of Mars. 



Fig. 1 i-epresents Schiaparelli's chart of Mars on a 

 modification of Mercator's projection. A glance at it will 



observations and the recognition of a seasonal periodicity in 

 the phenomena, that I venture to recall attention to it now, 

 when it can be tested by observations which may prove 

 even more effective, if not decisive. " Some difference of 

 opinion," said the late Mr. Webb, " may possibly be expected 

 concerning the.se strange appearances" — a tolerably safe 

 prediction — "and the consequent enfeebling (to say the least 

 of it) of the long-admitted terrestrial analogy m.ay be, ^ to 

 some minds, unacceptalile." I have one of those " minds," a 

 mind which obstinately declines to give me the otium cum 

 dijnitiite resulting, so far as I can judge, from the placid 

 acceptance of strange observations as signifying just what 

 they seem to signify, and not at any price to be interpreted 

 according to known laws and established analogies. " But," 

 Mr. Webb went on to say, " the established reputation of 

 the observer " — Schiaparelli — " demands at any rate a 

 respectful attention to his statements." With this opinion 



