To
the general water system belongs an entire series of small internal
seas, of which the Hadriacum and the Tyrrhenum communicate with it by
wide mouths, whilst the Cimmerium, the Sirenum, and the Solis Lacus are
connected with it only by means of narrow canals. We shall notice in
the first four a parallel arrangement, which certainly is not
accidental, as also not without reason is the corresponding position of
the peninsulas of Ausonia, Hesperia, and Atlantis. The color of the seas
of Mars is generally brown, mixed with gray, but not always of equal
intensity in all places, nor is it the same in the same place at all
times. From an absolute black it may descend to a light-gray or to an
ash color. Such a diversity of colors may have its origin in various
causes, and is not without analogy also upon the earth, where it is
noted that the seas of the warm zone are usually much darker than those
nearer the pole. The water of the Baltic, for example, has a light,
muddy color that is not observed in the Mediterranean. And thus in the
seas of Mars we see the color become darker when the sun approaches
their zenith, and summer begins to rule in that region.
All of the remainder of the planet, as far as the north pole is occupied
by the mass of the continents, in which, save in a few areas of
relatively small extent, an orange color predominates, which sometimes
reaches a dark red tint, and in others descends to yellow and white.
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