252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



an orange-yellow color ; these shadows become darker by degrees, 

 concentrate themselves and absorb bodies by changing into groups of 

 more or less black lines ; at the same time the orange color extends, 

 and finally, with but little exception, covers the whole of the so-called 

 continental zone. 



The large areas of the so-called "Alcionia" ocean and gulf, which 

 in 1879 appeared to belong to the " ocean," resolved themselves into 

 complicated bunches of definite lines. Finally, one could see what we 

 have every reason to believe is the true aspect of the planet. Besides 

 this, we noticed the peculiar and unexpected phenomena of the doub- 

 ling of the canals, which will probably tend to considerably alter the 

 present views of the physical characters of the planet. This doubling 

 is clearly not an optical effect, dependent upon the increased optic 

 power, as is the case in the double stars ; nor is it produced by the 

 longitudinal division of a canal. It takes place under the following 

 circumstances : To the right or left of an existing line, without any 

 change in its direction or position, another parallel line is produced 

 which differs from the first in appearance and direction only in excep- 

 tional cases. Between the lines so produced, the distance varied 

 from 12° to 6° (350 to 700 kilometres). Among certain of the lines 

 doubling could only be suspected, but not observable at the small dis- 

 tance (5°) separating them. Sometimes a line was darker or broader 

 at two or more points, and the accompanying line would also show 

 this peculiar feature. The length of each pair may differ considerably, 

 and vary from 15° to 80°. Some were of a reddish-brown color, some- 

 what darker than the ground from which they could be distinguished ; 

 others, generally the finer ones, were very dark. The broader ones 

 formed true bands, the sides of which were perfectly parallel. They 

 followed (as far as could be judged without exact measurements) the 

 direction of the large circles of the planet, and only in a few cases 

 were they bent off toward the side. No irregularities could be ob- 

 served among them with the magnifying (417) power used. Certain 

 of them show such great regularity that they might be designated as 

 a series of parallel lines drawn by the aid of a ruler. In some cases, 

 several pairs would combine, one behind the other, and form a double 

 polygonal line ; with very definitely marked angles such a series would 

 occupy a great extent. This phenomenon of doubling appears to be 

 connected with certain epochs — and it takes place almost simultane- 

 ously over the entire surface of the planet, covered by the bright por- 

 tions (continents ?). Not a trace of these was observed in 1877 dur- 

 ing the weeks which followed the southern solstice of thcvplanet. A 

 single isolated instance was noticed in 1879 on the 26th of December. 

 The appearance of this doubling was the more surprising, as a careful 

 examination on December 23d and 24th gave no cause for suspecting 

 any such change. During the last opposition, a reappearance of this 

 phenomenon was impatiently looked for, but it did not show itself for 



