250 



KNOWLEDGE, 



[NOVEMBEB, 1902. 



P Rniooiii.-, \V. 



" I'.vrir, W. 



■' IVniisi, K. 



i Dnifonis, W. 



' Aiulroinodie, B) 



< ATidronicdiD, K 



• rrsocMiiii.i-k W. +0'26 

 a2VulpotMila-, W. +0-05 

 KilVjjfisi, \V. OOO 



/3 Pci-soi, i;. fons 



-0 03 

 -0-07 

 -010 

 + 009 

 -0 03 

 -008 



1 Aiiri^ii-, E. -0 02 



Y I'orn'i, K. OOO 



^ Trianguli, K. +0(12 



v\iHlr<>iiic(la>, W. -005 



IVgasi, W. +0 29 



i Pcrsci, K. -002 



. Aiirigie, E. + 015 



a Aurigir, E. +(r()l 



a (Vj.liei, W. + U05 



C Cvgiii, W. -UU2 



I put tlioso numbers forward merely to give my readers 

 a <i;eneral idea of wliat we can do with the Durliam ahnu- 

 cantar. I do not wish at present to base any statement 

 upon them as to the relative merits of the alnuK'antar an<l 

 the best transit circles ; that must wait until observa- 

 tions have accumulated, and until some retinemeuts of 

 ccirrecti(.)n have been applied to tliem which were neglected 

 iu these first reductions. But in any case it is evident 

 that an instrument that can do work like this at the very 

 beL,'inninL;' of its use cannot be disregarded as a rival, no 

 iiiatti-r wliat other claimants are iu the field. 



THE CANALS OF MARS. 



By B. W. Lane. 



The object of this paper is to describe a series of ex- 

 periments wliich some friends and I have been performing 

 ■with a view to tlie settlement of this matter. The i-esults 

 appear to me to offer a complete explanation of these 

 ajipearauces. 



While reading M. Antoniadi's article on " Mars " in 

 the April number of Knowledge, I was particularly 

 struck by liis statement that only one or two of the canals 

 were ever seen at one time (I use the terms "canal," "sea," 

 " gulf," &c., for convenience only). From this arose the 

 idea that possibly the atmospheric vibrations might cause 

 such an apparent lengthening of the gulfs on the planet as 

 to suggest the canal sufficiently to make it visible in 

 Hashes. I accordingly determined to test the matter by 

 means of hot air currents, and a drawing of the planet 

 without any canals marked upon it, viewed by means of a 

 telescope. 



Asa sort of chance, however, T made a blank drawing 

 of the planet like Pig. 1, and placed it at a distance of ten 

 feet from a friend of mine, and asked her to draw what 

 she saw. As 1 say, it was only a chance experiment, and 

 I did not expect any results, and was astonished when, 

 after first saying (after drawing in the seas) that she could 

 see nothing more, and then, gazing awhile, she drew iu two 

 lines resembling in general character those seen on the 

 actual planet. The positions, however, were different 

 from those given by Schiaparelli. 



The original blank drawing, however, was slightly 

 inaccurate, so, having made another as accurate as I could, 

 copied from one of Schiajiarelli's, I tried the experiment 

 with tlie improved drawing on another lady. This 

 lime I drew the seas iu roughly for her, and left her only 

 to fill in anything else she could see. I was very careful 

 not to suggest Hues to her, in fact, to make certain, I 

 mentioned s]K)ts and shading as the things to be looked 

 for. In spite of this, however, after ten minutes' work 

 she had produced — copied off this blank drawing — a 

 drawing in all essential respects like Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is as 

 accurate a copy as I could make from hers. Fig. '2 

 is Schiaparelli's drawing of the same regiou, with 

 the canals inserted. It will be at once seen by com- 

 jtarison that the system produced by this optical 

 delusion is ])recisely similar to that seen on the .surface 

 of Mais. 



I have since exj>erimei)t<'d with two boys, lx)th aged 

 eleven years, who had never in their lives beard of either 

 Mars or the canals. Their attempts are reproduced in 

 Figs. 4 and .5. Again it will be seen that, with tlie excep- 

 tion of one canal in each drawing, they are all in the same 

 positions as those of Schiajiarelli. 



Altogether I have exjierimentcd with five persons, of 

 wliora one only faili'd to see the canals on the blank 



FiG. 3. 



drawing. One of the boys refused to believe that the 

 drawing I show-ed him was the same as that from which 

 he had copied the lines, so certain was he that they had 

 been actual realities. Two acquaintances of mine have 

 both been instituting similar experiments and have ai'rived 

 at identically the same results. Thus it appears ]irobable 

 that the mere shajje of the oceans of Mars is sufticient to 

 give rise to the appearance of the complicateil system 

 discovered by Schiaparelli. 



As well as setting other people to do it, I have myself 

 been mapping out the canals which I could see on this 

 drawing. I do not give my map because it is identical 

 with Fig. 2 except for about three minor lines. I have 

 frequently seen these pseudo-canals doubled, and, when 

 my eyes have been in the best condition, have seen not two 

 canals only, but four or five at a time, and have sometimes 

 seen one or more canals so firmly marked that I have had 



