At other times true enlargements are produced, expanding to
100, 200 or more kilometers (60 to 120 miles) in breadth, and this
sometimes happens for canals very far from the north pole, according to
laws which are unknown. This occurred in Hydaspes in 1864, in Simois in
1879, in Ackeron in 1884, and in Triton in 1888. The diligent and minute
study of the transformations of each canal may lead later to a knowledge
of the causes of these effects.
But the most surprising phenomenon pertaining to the canals of Mars is
their germination, which seems to occur principally in the months which
precede and in those which follow the great northern inundation--at
about the times of the equinoxes. In consequence of a rapid process,
which certainly lasts at most a few days, or even perhaps, only a few
hours, and of which it has not yet been possible to determine the
particulars with certainty, a given canal changes its appearance and is
found transformed through all its length into two lines or uniform
stripes more or less parallel to one another, and which run straight and
equal with the exact geometrical precision of the two rails of a
railroad. But this exact course is the only point of resemblance with
the rails, because in dimensions there is no comparison possible, as it
is easy to imagine. These two lines follow very nearly the direction of
the original canal and end in the place where it ended. One of these is
often superposed as exactly as possible upon the former line, the other
being drawn anew; but in this case the original line loses all the small
irregularities and curvature that it may have originally possessed.
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