Its surface is little less than that of the Bay of Bengal. In this case
we see clearly the dark surface of the sea continued without apparent
interruption into that canal. Inasmuch as the surfaces called seas are
truly a liquid expanse, we cannot doubt that the canals are a simple
prolongation of them, crossing the yellow areas or continents.
Of the remainder, that the lines called canals are truly great furrows
or depressions in the surface of the planet, destined for the passage of
the liquid mass and constituting for it a true hydrographic system, is
demonstrated by the phenomena which are observed during the melting of
the northern snows. We have already remarked that at the time of melting
they appear surrounded by a dark zone, forming a species of temporary
sea. At that time the canals of the surrounding region become blacker
and wider, increasing to the point of converting at a certain time all
of the yellow region comprised between the edge of the snow and the
parallel of 60 degrees north latitude into numerous islands of small
extent. Such a state of things does not cease until the snow, reduced to
its minimum area, ceases to melt. Then the breadth of the canals
diminishes, the temporary sea disappears, and the yellow region again
returns to its former area. The different phases of these vast phenomena
are renewed at each return of the seasons, and we were able to observe
them in all their particulars very easily during the oppositions of
1882, 1884, and 1886, when the planet presented its northern pole to
terrestrial spectators.
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