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Gratacap, L. P.

"The Certainty of a Future Life in Mars"

All that we may hope is that with time the uncertainty of the
problem will gradually diminish, demonstrating if not what the
geminations are, at least what they cannot be. We may also confide a
little in what Galileo called "the courtesy of nature," thanks to which
a ray of light from an unexpected source will sometimes illuminate an
investigation at first believed inaccessible to our speculations, and of
which we have a beautiful example in celestial chemistry. Let us
therefore hope and study.

FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: Pyrois I take to be some terrestrial region, although I
have not been able to find any translation of the name.--Translator.]
[Footnote B: This observation of the dark color which deep water
exhibits when seen from above is found already noted by the first author
of antique memory, for in the Iliad (verses 770-771 of Book V) it is
described how "the sentinel from the high sentry box extends his glance
over the wine-colored sea, [Greek: _oinopa phonton_]." In the version of
Monti the adjective indicating the color is lost.]
[Footnote C: In a footnote the author refers to a drawing of Mars made
by himself, September 15, 1892, and says, ... "At the top of the disk
the Mare Erythraeum and the Mare Australe appear divided by a great
curved peninsula, shaped like a sickle, producing an unusual appearance
in the area called Deucalionis Regio, which was prolonged that year so
as to reach the islands of Noachis and Argyre.


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