4 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



convinced, after inspecting Schiaparelli's map, and hearing the 

 story of what he has seen, that to throw discredit upon the sub- 

 stantial accuracy of his observations, marvelous though they may 

 appear, is to do serious injustice to the great Italian astronomer. 



And, now, what is it that Schiaparelli has seen on Mars ? Many 

 readers will probably at once answer " canals," for the fame of 

 " Schiaparelli's canals " has become wide-spread, and that very 

 word has, perhaps, done as much as anything to foster incredulity 

 in regard to these discoveries. It is true that Schiaparelli himself 

 suggested the name canals to describe the strange lines that he 

 found traversing the continents of Mars, and forming, as it were, 

 a network of intercommunication between its seas; but, at the 

 same time, he indicated that that name was simply to be taken, 

 for lack of a better, as descriptive of their general appearance, 

 and not as implying that they were canals in our sense of the 

 word. Of course, the term was at once restricted, in popular ac- 

 ceptation, to its terrestrial sense, and there have not been wanting 

 speculations about the engineers who constructed those wonderful 

 canals on Mars ! Mr. Proctor rather helped on this fanciful inter- 

 pretation of Schiaparelli's discovery by throwing out the sugges- 

 tion that, owing to the slight force of gravity on Mars, we should 

 not be too hasty in setting limits to the engineering achievements 

 of the giants who might dwell upon that planet ! 



But, setting aside the manifestly false analogy which would 

 make of Schiaparelli's " canals " actual artificial water-courses, 

 we shall find that the real facts are not the less wonderful and 

 suggestive of interesting reflections. Schiaparelli's first observa- 

 tions of these singular objects were made, as I have already said, 

 during the opposition of Mars in 1877. It will be remembered 

 that it was at that very same opposition that Prof. Hall, using 

 the great Washington telescope, at that time the most powerful 

 refractor in the world, discovered the moons of Mars. Yet Prof. 

 Hall saw nothing wonderful or very unusual on the disk of the 

 planet; and Schiaparelli, on the other hand, failed to discover 

 the little moons. Hall's discovery was made in August ; Schia- 

 parelli's began in September. All this is very singular ; but it 

 seems still more strange that, while the moons of Mars, having 

 once been discovered, were afterward seen with comparatively 

 small telescopes, the' canals have never been seen with the great 

 glass at Washington, and that only three or four observers be- 

 sides Schiaparelli have ever seen them. In the last annual report 

 of the Naval Observatory for the year ending June, 1888, it is 

 stated that the great telescope had been in constant use, under 

 the charge of Prof. Hall, and that the surfaces of both Saturn 

 and Mars were constantly and carefully examined, and drawings 

 made from time to time. In the case of the latter planet the 



