The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-07-07

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The shaded portions Of the diagram
represent the land the white spots show
the relative distribution of the water
The upper part of each diagram repre-
sents the north, and the breaks in the
bounding circles show the positions of
the poles. Each pole is surrounded by a
patch of Ice, marking the middle of the
polar re gions. The following are the ref
erences
A. Dawes Continent.
B. Dawes Ocean.
&. Cas-ini Land.
H. Dslambre Sea.
f.. De La Rue Sea.
f. Fontana Land.
III. Her-chel tSr W. Continent
j. Maraldi Sea.
K Kepler Land.
L.. Lockyer Land.
NJ. Nader Continent.
N Tycho Sea-
p. Phillips Land.
K. Secchi Continent.
A comparison of the above diagrams
with hemisphere map of our world, will
show several important differences. On
the earth the land lies in compact, though
irregular, masses, and the tides of the
ocean have free course except where they
pass between islands, or through channels
which separate islands from the main
land. The surface of Mars is marked by
numerous seas of the bottle-neck form,
and these run between continents and
lengthy peninsulas; only one well defined
island being visible, and that is probably
a Volcano. On Mars the land and water
are nearly equal, while on the earth the
waters cover nearly three fOurths of the
entire surface. The land of Mars is of
ruddy color, and if is the reflection of the
solar rays from this which gives the red
appearance of the planet. The water is
of greenish hue (as seen through the
telescOpe), and the latter fact indicates
condition similar to the waters of the
earth, which are blue or green according
to the distance from the shore. The ap
parent hue of the waters is undoubtedly
modified somewhat by the passage of the
rays of light through the Martial atmOs-
phere before they pass through "the etbe-
real void to impinge on the aerial envel-
ope which surrounds our earth. Mars
presents a very large extent of coast line
as compared with the earth, and it is ap
parent from the diagram that it ispOssible
to travel by land to almost every part Of
ton.
The phenomena of tides as witnessed
on the earth are but family reproduced on
Mars, and for the reason that he has no
attendant satellite. With us the attraction
of the moon is to that of the sun as 81 to
20. Hence the magnitude of our tides
being represented by z, that due to the sun
would be represented by 2. The greater
III fofapoa nf MorS will couoo tho N airht of
the tidal wave in the larger oceans to be
small, not exceeding 3 OF inches. The rush
of water through the narrow inlets will,
be somewhat greater, though slight-iust
enough to keep up moderate circulation
in the waters With such land contour
on our earth the greater tides would
cause rapid changes in the plan of the
continents; in Mars we have no apparent
element of mutability in this direction.
The permanence of such an outline as il
presented by Mars would be practically
impossible were he attended by moon of
considerable weight. Here we have one
among numerous examples of" the eternal
fitness OF things" TO their surrounding
conditions.
In this lesser tidal flow, we have also an
absence of the forces which have pro
duced such great changes in the earths
surface, in cutting channels through what
was once an isthmus, and the separating
an island from the main land. But, mas.
much as Mars exhibits greater prOpoS-
sity for channel forming tnan is indicated
in the case of our earth, we can but con-
clude that the original volcanic action
which elevated the land masses above his
mean surface. operated largely in lines of
force, whereas the upheavals of the earth
were often effected in points, as Is attested
by our own numerous lslandic formations.
And, strangely enough, these elevating
forces appear to have operated in the pO-
lar regions nearly parallel TO the plane Of
the equator, while in the equatorial re-
giOns these lines Of upheavsl are more
nearly perpendicular to the direction of
rotation on the axis. This irregularity of
formation Is undoubtedly due to the great
eccentricity of the orbit of Mars the
more important ruptures in the once
thin crust occurring near the time of the
perihelion.
The ice patches at the poles of Mars,
which have been observed to increase
and decrease regularly as each pole is
alternately turned away from the sun or
towards him, are almost conclusive evi.
dence of the existence of an atmosphere
similar to that of the earth, in which the
processes of evaporation and rainfall,
melting and thawing, are perpetually
going on, as in the case of the earth. But
the amount of solar heat and solar evap-
Grafton must be much more variable than
with us, owing to the great eccentricity
Of the orbit of the planet. This will also
give rise to much greater differences of
extreme and average temperature in tie
two hemispheres than with us, and hence
give possibility of far wider range, and
much greater differences in the modes of
existence than are known on the earth.
From this We may infer that the number
of classes and species of vegetables and
animals is much greater, while the mum.
ber of individuals of each order is much
smaller on the surface of Mars than on
that of the earth, and it is very probable