MARS IN HIS ICY CUIRASS 95 



ochre regions are construed to be deserts of sand and 

 rock intrinsically of that color. "White dots too are 

 scattered over the disk, dazzling diamond points that 

 deck the planet's features to a richness beyond the power 

 of pencil to portray, so minute are they that good see- 

 ing is necessary to disclose them." 



6. The fact that certain permanent markings (to 

 be described hereafter) appear on the dark blue regions 

 as well as on the ochre, leads him to assume that both are 

 land, the former, in his opinion, being probably the 

 basins of evaporated oceans and now covered with veg- 

 etation. 



7. But the distinctive feature which constitutes 

 the corner-stone of Mr. LowelFs theory consists of cer- 

 tain curious markings crossing Mars' disk that by their 

 regularity and other singular characteristics seem to 

 proclaim methodical design. These markings Mr. Low- 

 ell, following Schiaparelli, not only likens to canals, but 

 goes farther and declares them actually to be such. 

 Until very recently the genuineness of these markings, 

 on account of their exceeding faintness and the want of 

 sufficient corroborative testimony, was questioned, but 

 of late photographic reproductions have partially con- 

 firmed ocular report. When the reader considers that 

 the disk presented by Mars is no greater than that of- 

 fered by a silver dollar at the distance of about 300 

 yards, he will see that statements as to minutiae should 

 be received with extreme caution. Professor Lowell 

 does not claim that the actual channels are wide enough 

 to be descried from here, but that the supposed strips of 

 cultivation paralleling them aid in delineating their 

 courses against the prevailing ochre background. 



These "canals," Mr. Lowell reports, follow the arcs 

 of the planet's great circles, so that we who look cen- 

 trally down upon them see apparently straight lines. 



