172 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[July 1, 1897. 



Moeris Lacus and Libya regions invaded by the expansion 

 of the Syrtis Major (Plate, Fig. 6). 



Finally, in 1894, it would appear that the invasion had 

 actually reached Lake Ma?ris, which, according to Mr. 

 Lowell, had ceased to exist as a " lake," forming a simple 

 bay of the Hourglass Sea (Plate, Fig. 7). As, however, 

 some observers — amid whom Mr. Stanley Williams, I'Abbe 

 Moreux, and the writer — had distinctly seen this spot at 

 the time, it is more prudent to consider Lake Mccris, or at 

 least its eastern half, free to some extent from the Syrtis 

 Major at the 1891 opposition. 



The final disappearance of the lake into the dark 

 material was completed during the last apparition. Libya, 

 as pointed out by Mr. Lowell in 1891, was, after such a 

 protracted obscuration, seen quite clear again in 1896 and 

 1897. All observers agree on this point. Figs. 8 and 9 of 

 the Plate are among the very latest representations of the 

 Syrtis Major, the former being due to the pencil of the 

 Kev. T. E. R. Phillips — one of the best hving observers in 

 England — while the latter is a copy of a drawing taken here 

 in December last with M. Flammarion's nine and three- 

 quarter inch equatorial, power three hundred, and showing 

 a mottled appearance of the surface of the sea, not unlike, 

 perhaps, Prof. Barnard's " mountainous country " of 1894. 

 Another feature of the 1836-1897 apparition of Mars in 

 the region in question is the formation of a " new " canal, 

 running from the mouth of the ancient Astapus to the 

 Boreosyrtis. This canal was for some time lately an 

 exceedingly obvious marking, and in October, 1896, was 

 darker than the Nilosyrtis. Since then its visibility has 

 gradually decreased. Mr. Lowell's 1894 map shows this 

 feature, and so do some old drawings by Franzenau 



in 1864, 

 Boeddicker 

 and Burton in 

 1882. These 

 occasional 

 appearances of 

 the same ob- 

 ject make it 

 evident that 

 we have to 

 deal here with 

 some kind of 

 stability, or, 

 rather, with 

 a periodical 

 return to 

 analogous 

 conditions. As 

 much might 

 be said of 

 another canal 

 seen by Mr. 

 Stanley 

 Williams in 

 1890, uniting 

 Lake Mwris to 

 the Syrtis 

 some time and 



SYRT/S 



Seph^stuj 



Fig. 10. — Map showiug tlie theatre of the 

 changes in tlic Hourglass Sea and Libya Regions 

 from 1864 to 1897. 



Minor, which then became invisible for 

 reappeared in 1890. 



We exhibit in Fig. 10 the result of our discussion of 

 the most trustworthy drawings of Mars made by the best 

 observers of the planet, past or present. The intricate 

 invasion by the dark material of the Syrtis of the bright 

 continent to the east is shown as accurately as possible. 

 But the successive shores of the Syrtis are drawn on the 

 supposition that Lake Mceris has remained fixed in the 

 meantime. Such, however, is not the case ; and our 



impression is that the lake has advanced towards the sea by a 

 quantity comparabU to that by which the Syrtis advanced 

 towards tJie lake. The attraction will thus have been 

 mutual. 



These displacements of" seas" and "lakes " (or "forests " 

 and "oases"), absurd and imaginary as they might seem 

 to the ordinary reader, are simply familiar occurrences 

 to the areographer. Evidently the surface of Mars has 

 some fixed areographical markings ; but the stability of 

 the lesser details and of the polygonations of the canal 

 system is so frail, that at times the changes assume a 

 fantastic, grotesque, and almost ridiculous character. 



We will not attempt to explain these extraordinary 

 phenomena, which are besides quite inexplicable by any 

 analogies drawn from our own earth. It would be leaving 

 the solid ground of science for the inextricable maze of con- 

 jecture. Vegetation offers no very satisfactory explanation 

 of such appearances, water (inundations, etc.) a positively 

 unsatisfactory one, the occasional formation of cloud over 

 certain regions an untenable one. Perhaps the least im- 

 probable — not to say the most plausible— clue to the 

 mystery still attaches to the over bold and almost absurd 

 assumption that what we are witnessing on Mars is the 

 work of rational beings, immeasurably superior to man, 

 and capable of dealing with thousands and thousands of 

 square miles of grey and yellow material with more ease 

 than we can cultivate or destroy vegetation in a garden 

 one acre in extent. 



THE LANGUAGE OF SHAKESPEARE'S 

 GREENWOOD.-II. 



By George Morley, Author of ^^ Leafy Warwickshire," 

 "In Rustic Livery," "Sweet Audrey," "In Russet 

 Mantle Clad," etc. 



IN the core of nature's heart, words that come 

 " trippingly from the tongue," as Hamlet would 

 say, are those most in use with the rustic. A desire 

 for condensation and abbreviation is also apparent. 

 The peasant will say, " Adone, will ye?" meaning 

 " Have done," thus merging two English words in one. 

 When the Bidford Audrey or Phyllis is troubled in love 

 affairs the fond mother will say, " Hey, lassie ! adone wi' 

 it, or I shanna catch a blench on thy eye no-ways. Now 

 do adone." 



" A blench " is a term conveying an enigma to the 

 townsman in the sense in which the rustic uses it. To 

 the townsman "a blench " would seem to imply a sudden 

 whiteness or pallor of the countenance, as a blanching of 

 the face. In the dialect of the Warwickshire peasant it 

 has a totally different signification. " A blench " means 

 a glimpse, a glance, a look. A greenwood maiden gives 

 her lover " a blench on her bonnie eye " ; a gamekeeper 

 catches " a blench " or a glimpse of the poacher setting 

 his nets in forbidden preserves ; and Grandfer William 

 takes a good " blench " at the smart coaching party dashing 

 gaily through his Sleepy Hollow. 



In the word " on," used in place of " of, " we catch what 

 I may call " a blench " of Shakespeare's application of his 

 homely mother tongue. 



" We are such stuff 

 As dreams are made o//," 



says the immortal Warwickshire poet in " The Tempest " 

 (Act IV., Scene 1) ; and in more than three centuries from 

 the date of that play the peasant of Shakespeare's green- 

 wood may be heard saying, " That dream as I tolled thee 

 on as my butty had," or " A man as I knows on." With 

 the rural dweller in this delightful county it is always 

 " on " and never " of " ; and if the truth must be said, it 



