THE STRANGE MARKINGS ON MARS. 



45 



structed a chart of Mars, which was published in his most famous 

 book, " Other Worlds than Ours," and which is reproduced with 

 this article. The most hasty comparison of this chart with the 

 drawings of Cassini and Herschel shows that an enormous ad- 

 vance had been made since the time 

 of the latter, incomparably greater, 

 in fact, than had been accomplished 

 in the hundred and more years that 

 elapsed between Cassini and Herschel. 

 Yet if we should place any single one 

 of Dawes's drawings side by side with 

 those of the old observers, the differ- 

 ence would not appear by any means 

 so striking, for, the reader must rec- 

 ollect, Mr. Proctor's chart was con- 

 structed by inspecting and comparing 

 twenty -seven of Dawes's sketches, 

 representing the planet at different 

 periods of its rotation, so that all 

 sides of it were successively viewed 

 in the best position for observation. 

 If we had an equally numerous se- 

 ries of Cassini's, or preferably of 

 Herschel's sketches, made in a simi- 

 lar manner, we should probably be 

 able to construct from them a chart 

 which, while it certainly would be old dbawings of mars. 



greatly inferior to Proctor's in its details, would nevertheless 

 make it clear that the earlier observers saw many of the principal 

 markings that are shown in the more modern map. 



Still more detailed charts of Mars followed that of Mr. Proctor, 

 notably those of M. Flammarion, and Mr. Green, the latter being 

 a very beautiful work based upon a series of splendid drawings 

 made by Mr. Green in the island of Madeira. But no very con- 

 siderable advance was made in areography, as the geography of 

 Mars has been called, until Signor Schiaparelli published the 

 results of his surprising observations made during the very favor- 

 able opposition of Mars in 1877. Although Schiaparelli has re- 

 peated these observations again and again, and they have been 

 confirmed, in part at least, by several able observers, there is a 

 disposition in some quarters to cast doubt upon them, and to 

 ascribe them to the effects of optical illusion or some other hallu- 

 cination. Considering the wonderful character of these observa- 

 tions, and the immense advance that they constitute in the study 

 of the surface of Mars, there is, perhaps, the shadow of an excuse 

 for some incredulity about them. Yet I think the reader will be 



VOL. XXXT. 3* 



