April 1, 1895.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



75 



regulates them ; it is, as it were, a Nile embanked and 

 controlled in its course. 



The periodical inundation caused each Martian summer 

 by the melting of the snows is distributed far and wide by 

 this network of canals, which seem to be the chief, if not 

 the only means by which water, and with it organic life, 

 can be distributed over the surface of this planet. At this 

 season the canals appear encompassed by a dark zone 

 forming a species of temporary sea. The canals of the 

 surrounding region then become darker and wider, and cover 

 vast tracts of land. Things remain in this state until the 

 polar snow is at its minimum. The melting process is 

 at an end, the breadth of the canals diminishes, the 

 temporary seas disappear, and the continents become 

 yellow once more. This great phenomenon occurs in all the 

 region comprised between the pole and the sixtieth degree 

 of latitude, and is renewed every summer. Over the 

 planet's whole surface the canal system is unstable. 

 When the canals become troubled, and their contours 

 doubtful and ill-defined, it seems as if the water must be 

 very low, or have entirely disappeared. Nothing remains 

 where the canals once were ; or, rather, we descry a 

 yellowish streak, differing very little from the surroundmg 

 territory. In the months that precede and follow the 

 great northern inundation, towards the period of the 

 equinoxes, the canals become doubled. In consequence 

 of a rapid modification which is efi'ected in a few days, 

 perhaps even in a few hours, such and such a canal is 

 transformed throughout its whole length into two parallel 

 lines, which run with the geometrical precision of the 

 two rails of a railway, and follow the exact direction of the 

 primitive canal. These newer canals have, hke the first, 

 a width of from fifty to a hundred kilometi'es or more, and 

 are separated by an interval of from fifty to five or six 

 hundred kilometres. The colour of these lines varies from 

 black to red, and is easily distinguishable from the yellow 

 of the continents. The intermediary space is generally 

 yellow, sometimes whitish. This gemination also takes 

 place in the lakes, which become duplicated as well. 



Whatever may be the explanation of these changes, 

 unknown to our earth, we may conclude that on the 

 surface of the planet Mars water circulates, not by a 

 system of clouds, rains or springs like ours, but by the 

 melting of the polar snow, and by the horizontal and 

 interlaced canals which distribute it over the entire body 

 of the continents. Then it seems to evaporate and to 

 become condensed almost solely on the colder polar zones 

 which receive it in the state of snow. 



Mars, then, is (juite another world, differing greatly 

 from the one we inhabit, yet no less alive than ours, 

 in more active motion, and more agitated in some respects, 

 though with a climate which is doubtless very agreeable 

 from the constant serenity and from the absence of inclement 

 weather, rains and tempests, which characterize, unhappily, 

 the great majority of earthly climates. The days are 

 slightly longer there than with us, and the year is nearly 

 twice as long as ours. 



WITH THE SECOND PEARY GREENLAND 

 EXPEDITION. 



By EiviNT) AsTRUP {Firxt Oificer, Pearij Expeditimis). 



THE Frtlcnn left us in Inglefield Gulf, on the coast 

 of Greenland, towards the close of August, 1893, 

 and from that moment all communication with 

 the outer world was at an end. During the next 

 few days we finished building our house, which 

 Peary christened "Anniversary Lodge," in commemoration 



of his second wedding day, which he kept in this forlorn spot 

 together with his wife. I was busily engaged in bringing 

 some five thousand pounds of provisions upon the inland ice, 

 which in this locality lies four English miles from the coast, 

 and at a height of about three thousand feet above the sea. 

 Twenty native Eskimo assisted in the work. It was to have 

 been done by the mules, but as only three of these animals 

 out of the eight we brought were alive, and as they soon 

 showed themselves as incapable of traversing the ground 

 in Greenland as of standing the severe climate, they had 

 to be destroyed. By the 29th all provisions had been 

 brought up, and on September 2nd, assisted by Lee, 

 Davidson, and Carr, and with some forty dogs, the laborious 

 work of transporting all the goods on sledges inland, across 

 the plateau in a north-easterly direction, was commenced. 

 Originally it was the intention to have a limited depot of a 

 portion of the provisions established a couple of hundred 



The Edge of the Great " lee-Cap." 



miles from the coast ; but this plan had to be modified, 

 and the u-holr quantity of five thousand poimds of provisions 

 was brought, though, of course, not so far. By this means 

 the exhaustive labour on the main journey in the first 

 heavy land risings was avoided, as our sleighs were almost 

 empty until the depot was reached. 



The weather during the first half of September was 

 fairly favourable, the lowest temperature not being below 

 thirty degrees of frost (Fahrenheit). But progress was, 

 nevertheless, slow. We had to cover every distance 

 advanced five or six times, and we had much trouble with 

 the dogs, which were strange to each other as well as to 

 us. The three sledges made in Christiania proved invalu- 

 able, as all the sleighing material which had been specially 

 constructed in America was a complete failure. About 

 the middle of September I awoke one morning with a 

 splitting headache, which grew worse as the day advanced, 

 and early in the afternoon I turned into my sleeping-bag, 

 to see if I could sleep it off. But in the night fever set 

 in, and I had to remain in the bag all the next day, and as 

 I was worse on the following morning, my companions 

 advised me to return to the house and consult the doctor. 

 A couple of good dog-spans brought us to the edge of the 

 inland ice on the same day, and a few hours later we 

 were at the lodge, where the kindest attention was shown 

 me by Dr. Vincent. He declared that I had symptoms of 

 typhoid fever, caused by the repeated " eating of diseased 

 pemmican." The greater part of the pemmican with the 



