MARS, BY THE LATEST OBSERVATIONS. 189 



tinents. Three-fourths of the surface of our globe is covered with 

 water. The terra firma is divided chiefly into three great islands or 

 continents, one extending from east to west, and constituting Europe 

 and Asia ; the second, situated to the south of Europe, in shape like a 

 V with rounded angles, is Africa ; the third is on the opposite side of 

 the earth, and lies north and south, forming two V's, one above the 

 other. If to these we add the minor continent of Australia, lying to 

 the south of Asia, we have a general idea of the configuration of our 

 globe. 



It is different with the surface of Mars, where there is more land 

 than sea, and where the continents, instead of being islands emerg- 

 ing from the liquid element, seem rather to make the oceans mere 

 inland seas — genuine mediterraneans. In Mars there is neither an 

 Atlantic nor a Pacific, and the journey round it might be made dry- 

 shod. Its seas are mediterraneans, with gulfs of various shapes, ex- 

 tending hither and thither in great numbers into the terra firma, 

 after the manner of our Red Sea. 



Fig. 2. 



limflimmumMJ 



Chart of the Surface of Maes, showing the Distribution of Land and Water. 



The second character, which also would make Mars recognizable at 

 a distance, is that the seas lie in the southern hemisphere mostly, oc- 

 cupying but little space in the northern, and that these northern and 

 southern seas are joined together by a thread of water. On the entire 

 surface of Mars there are three such threads of water extending from 

 the south to the north, but, as they are so wide apart, it is but rarely 



