New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-16

upon a. an inconvenience is therefore, reality,
very important part OF the esrths economy ~ ,ne
earths gravity were reduced TO that IN Mercury HI VIZ
plants would suffer- flowers droop or keep their hesds
erect according to their structure, and IT is
necessary 10 continuance in life that plant whose
proper condition that OF uprightness shoud remain
and that that which droops should droop NJ pope
stamens and pstls would not be properly aIlusteu ior
tae fertilization of the germs And 80 IL mas ppeh 70
pole is engaged in keeping the snowirop the eroous
SC. IN their proper. position In tae case o, od
he changed The same difficulty applies to the planet
Mars which is so much smaller than the earth.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANET VENUS
But now pass from Mercury to the next planet
Venus Venus is the most beautiful. and we would
imagine from ordinary appearances 10 be the nobest OF
all except the sun and moon. You Will remember
MiltoD's words:
Nov glo Mt The srI 'S.I ,s5
The starry host' brightest
But Venus, examined by the telescope, docs not re-
ward the astronomers well as YOU might expect she
is too eoriousy illuminated by the and the applica-
ton of the telescope is disappointing. Again. we never
see Venus under proper conditions You never see the
whole portion OF the illuminated surface. Look at TINS
diagram. You have the path of the earth here, and
the path of Venus is inside When Venus is nearest
to the earth the lies in the same direction,
and therefore Venus her darkened side and can
not be seen When beyond the sun his brightness
obscrlres her. The only time Venus can be studied Is
when she the two opposite sides OF her PATH and
then she either gbbous moon or half moon
We know with respect TO Venus that she, beng very
much to the! than the earth is. must have
great deal more heat Her heat is not great that
Mercury; still she has much heat as the earth
has. In other respects Venus is more like the earth
Although Venus has yet being nearer the sun
she must have tides and they barely comparable
with those that exist on the earth.
But there is one peculiarly the condition OF Venus
that seems very unfavorable to life, know 1t here
Of Tho
who seem to have been able to spots Venus pro
badly on account Of the cearness of the atmOsp here
which at all in England, the axis instead
OF being slopng at small angle, has large angle
Only for "A short time would she have equal day and
night but when the northern pole is toward the sun, all
the polar parts would be continually turned toward the
sun ; not merely small part hut very nearly half OF
the planet on that side When the southern pole would
be turned toward the sun. that side would have CON
tnual day, and there would be continual night over
nearly half of the planet. SO there would be very
great change the condition of the planet In Winter and
Summer The year of Venus is about seven and hall
months. II be remembered that this sun shines
with twice the and twice the heat that ii does
toward the earth The change between the two condi
tons Winter and Summer would be more serious
than the extreme and cold either condition. III
explanation of this let Us take Newiork You know the
pole raised about degrees In Spring the sun rises to
hight about so degrees above the horizon III Summer
20 degrees higher Winter 1t rises % degrees lower at
midday Suppose instead Of % degrees the change
amounted TO 80 degrees Then you would have
at the New-York Of venus-yOu would have 1t 90
degrees higher in Summer, and 10 degrees north
OF the point overhead The sun is circing
about the pole. round aud round There would be day
all the time and then there would be that tremendous
sun, with all the effect Of tropical sunshine There
would end of the day and the accumulation Of
the Summer by Venus must be enormously great
Coz Sid is
degrees above the horizon but in Winter it is 80 degrees
below. IL does not rise at all above the horizon Ii Is
continual night and that after that extremely heated
Summer These changes not agreeable 10 our ideas
of the possibilities of life They suggest this possibility
emigration. That is absolutely necessary to certain
classes beings here this earth Now human beings
on earth do migrate, whole but 1t IL thought
that the inhabitants OF Venus. II there are any, must
migrate always always to be IN parts where the
does not rise too high That would be quite pos
sbe; he an absolute essential condition there,
not for portion OF living beings as here but for ALL
RELATIONS OF THE MOON TO THE EARTH.
shall only pause speak of the earth in relation to
the Our earth has a companion. the moon. We
LOOK upon it satellite. but another member
of the inner family of planets II you member
of a world crcling around distant star. you would
be enabled to distinguish the motion OF the from
that Of the earth IL is only from our earth that II
go around II really goes around the sun
Every world have that peculiarly mat II must
its inhabitants to be the center OF the whole
universe. In Venus Mars, in even the asteroids each
he the ceEtpr of the universe Thus the astron
Omers of old time fell into the mistake of thinking the
earth was he x o center 81 f ena il planet that we
study very fully indeed We have here the orbits
here that of the earh there that OF Mars portion
of the time the face Mars turned toward the sun
and also turned toward the earth ana thus liuin-
mated il studied to great advantage You conceive
therefore how it is have been able 10
take such pictures as these OF the planet having iea
lures resembling those OF the earth There is an appear
ance bright white points at opposite sides which
have always been called the snowy polls OF Mars Her
schel was the first to perceive that they waxed ana
waned in size He noticed that the axis was inclined
very much like that OF our earth or rather more tan our
EARTH nearly like IT tnat the same sort of seasons
prevail He Dotced that when the summer was IN pro
gress the polar regions seemed smaller than IN winter
That the first thing to show mat the planet was
like earth. our snowy regions do not cover more
than the arctic regions, and they occupy about the
proportions as those OF Marss surface. since INC
polar do extend further therefore the same
sort OF climate IL seemed probable prevailed thete'
Other features corresponding TO the ldea OF the In
habitants Of Mars were noticed. Some portions nave
greenish hue as though there were oceans Inc pian
cts continents, or what we call continents were RUGBY
white surfaces sometimes seemed TO form over these
continents and 10 melt away during the day
If clouds were being disspated by the action OF the
sun.
THE VEGETATION OF MARS.
There were others, French astronomers, who sug-
gested that the vegetation in Mars instead OF green,
may be red. Spring may. indeed come there. blushing
like a maid We have evidence though that that is
the How do know that these green regions
oceans, the white regions snow II is somewhat bold
say soto say that that must be the case May not
the white region be frozen carbOnc acid and the
something altogether different from what we have
earthi That argument Is put forward by Dr..
Whewell, and it lis very difficult 10 overcome
il. man might certainly be thought very bold,
on considering that he could come 10 Mars
than 90OOOOOO miles say what ITS surface contains.
But know now certainly as though we had taken
water from ii and had IL analysed by chemist, or
drank it, know certainly that water exists there.
The spectroscope comes III here When the sun is not
nigh above the horizon recognize IN It's spectrum
number of sharply defined dark lines As his light
shines through the vapOrs atmosphere the physi
know that these lines due in
our atmosphere. Here take the opportunity 10 cor
injustice. OF which have often been guilty of.
IN one of
I have been saying my lectures that secchi and
Jansen found out That these sreaks were due TO water
EnLt l-Ill In