The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-11-10
Mars.
PROT, R. A. Proctor, 81. Nicholas

/
When Calico turned toward Mars tn,
telescope with which he had discovered
the moons of Jupiter, the crescent form
of Venus, and many other wonders il
the heavens he was altogether disap
pointed. His telescope was indeed toe
small to show any features of interest In
Mars, though the planet of war is much
nearer to us than Jupiter. Mars is bu,
small world. The diameter of the
planet is about four thousand four hun
bred miles, that Of our earth being
nearly eight thousand. Jupiter, though
much farther away, has his immense di.
ameter of more than eighty thousand
miles TO make up, and much more than
make up, for the effect of distance.
With this noble system of moons he APP
pears remarkable object even with a
small telescope, but Mars shows fewer
features of interest even with telescopes
of considerable size.
1t was not, then, till very powerful
telescopes had been constructed that
astronomers learned what we know about
Mars.
1t is found that his surface is divided
into land and water, like the surface of
our own earth. But his seas and oceans
are not nearly so large compared with
his continents and lands. You know
that on our own earth the water covers
SO much larger n surface than the land
that the great continents are in reality
islands. Europe, Asia and Africa to-
gether form one great island; North
and South America another, not quite
so large; then come Australia, Green
land, Madagascar, and 80 forth; all the
lands being islands, larger or smaller.
On the other hand, except the Caspian
Sea and the sea of Aral, there are no
large seas entirely land-bound. In the
case of Mars very different state of
things prevails, as you will see from the
three accompanying pictures (hithcrto
unpublished), drawn by the famous
English observer, Dawes (called the
Eagle-eyed). The third and best was
drawn with telescope constructed by
your famous optician, Alvan Clark, of
Cambridge, Massachusetts,. The dark
parts are in the seas, the light parts be-
ing land, or in some cases cloud or snow.
But in these pictures most of the lighter
portions represent land; for they have
been seen often 80 shaped, whereas
clouds, of course. would change in
shape.
The planet Mars, like our earth, turns
on its axis, so that it has day and night
as we have. The length of its day is not
very different from that Of our own day.
Our earth turns once on it axis in --
but before reading on, try to complete
this sentence for yourself. Every one
knows that the earth's turning on its
axis produces day and night, and nine
persons out of ten, if asked how long the
earth takes in turning round her axis,
will answer twenty-four hours; and ii
asked how many times she turns on her
axis in year, will say 365 times, or if
disposed to be very exact, "about 1851
times" But neither answer is correct.
The earth turns on her axis about 366t
times in each year, and each turning oc'
cupies twenty-three hours fifty-six min
utes and four seconds and one-tenth of
a second. We, taking the ordinary day
as the time of turning or rotation,
lose count of one rotation each year. 1t
is necessary to mention this, in order
that when l tell you how long the day
Of Mars is, you may be able correctly to
compare it with our own day. Mars,
then, turns on his axis in twenty-four
hours thirty-seven minutes twenty-five
seconds and seventeenth parts of sec
ond. So that Mars requires forty-one
minutes eighteen seconds and six-tenths
Of second longer to turn his small
body once round than our earth requires
to turn her much larger body. The
common day of Mars is, however, only
about thirty-nine minutes longer than
our common day.
Mars has long year, taking no less
than six hundred and eighty-seven Of
our days to complete his circuit around
the sun, SO that his year lasts only about
one month and half less than two of
ours.
Like the earth, Mars has seasons, for
his polar axis, like that of the earth, is
LIANT, and at one part of his years
brings his northern regions more fully
into sunlight, at which time summer
prevails there and winter in his south
ern regions; when at the opposite part OF
his year his southern regions are turned
more fully sunward and have their sum-
mer, while winter prevails over his
northern regions.
Around his poles, as around the
earth's, there are great masses of ice, in
somuch that it is very doubtful whether
any inhabitants of Mars have been able
to penetrate to his poles, any more than
Kane or Hayesor Mares or Parry, despite
their courage and endurance, have been
able to reach our northern pole, or Cook
or Wilkes or James Ross our antarctic
pole.
In the summer of either hemisphere
of Mars, the north polar SHOWS become
greatly reduced in extent, as is natural,
while in winter they reach to low lati-
tudes, showing that in parts of the planet
corresponding to the United States, or
mid Europe, as to latitude, bitter cold
ceust prevail for several weeks in sue
MISSION.