XIII., numbers 8 and 9, for
October and November, 1894. In this report also appeared Schiaparelli's
Map of Mars in 1888, which the Editor has not reproduced in this
connection.
The introduction to-day of the wireless telegraphy, assuming a daily
increasing importance, furnishes some reasonable hope that the
marvellous statements given in Mr. Dodd's narrative may be more widely
verified in the future, and point the way to a realization of the daring
and thrilling conception of interplanetary communication.
THE PLANET MARS.
BY GIOVANNI SCHIAPARELLI.
THE PLANET MARS.
BY GIOVANNI SCHIAPARELLI.
Many of the first astronomers who studied Mars with the telescope had
noted on the outline of its disk two brilliant white spots of rounded
form and of variable size. In process of time it was observed that while
the ordinary spots upon Mars were displaced rapidly in consequence of
its daily rotation, changing in a few hours both their position and
their perspective, the two white spots remained sensibly motionless at
their posts. It was concluded rightly from this that they must occupy
the poles of rotation of the planet, or at least must be found very near
to them. Consequently they were given the name of polar caps or spots.
And not without reason is it conjectured that these represent upon Mars
that immense mass of snow and ice which still to-day prevents navigators
from reaching the poles of the earth. We are led to this conclusion not
only by the analogy of aspect and of place, but also by another
important observation.
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