The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-18
THE MARIAN FORESTS
VERIFIED BY OBSERVATIONS AT
THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY.
Remarkable Evidence of the Passage
of the Seasons, FoIiage Changing
from Green to Yellow.
TInYaII

what theory led US to expect would occur.
1t is six weeks since the Ganges showed
double at a time and in a manner parallel
ing its appearances at the last opposition.
The Prison and Euphrates are now in like
manner contemplating their behavior of
two years ago.
Nor Is this all. The surface of the planet,
both in the light and the dark regions, is
undergoing the same metamorphosis it did
then In other words, the seasonal changes
observed in the last Marian year are re-
peating themselves in this one. That these
seasonal changes are the effect Of vegeta-
ton upon the planet we showed then to be
almost certainly the fact. The observations
of this year help to confirm our deduction.
The seasonal history ST the two success
sive Marian years thus paralleling itself
is in detail most interesting to witness. We
will begin with the behavior of the Syrtis
Major and then pass on to that of the
double canals. The Syrtis Major is the
most important of the dark areas on the
planet. 1t is a curious funnel-shaped mark
ing, large toward the south, and contract
ing steadily ~northward till it comes to an
end in two canals that curve respectively
east and west away from it, forming the
Astapus and the Nilosyrtis.
1t is historically of great interest, because
- NA~ A&ASS AA&A AAAA5 "ANA ~
tainty on the planet by Huygens. in 1863,
and by it's identification first enabled the
planets rotation period to be found. 1t
was then and long afterward believed to
be a great sea or ocean, it's blue-green col
or seeming to render this a most probable
supposition. More minute examination has
now, as We have said, rendered it practi-
cally certain that it is, in fact, not an
ocean at all, but the largest fertile region
on fhn NJ + rfa zoo ifG hEla-Oraap hue
being due to vegetation, leaves and grasses,
or whatever relatives of such may conSti-
tute the Martian flora.
The following account of it's successive
appearances will show the reader the rea-
sons upon which this deduction of its char
acter is based. Early in the Marian year
the planets southern hemisphere, the Syr-
tbs Major, and the great contiguous dark
area, under the same name, to the south,
and now more commonly known as the
Tyrrheniurn, presents the appearance of one
nearly uniform blue green surface. The
only discernibIe dIversities in it are the
deeper tint of its northern end, the COM
paratively narrow neck of the funnel and
of two long bands which join it to the polar
sea, traversing about sixty degrees of lati-
tude in order to do SO. These bands are of
a. deeper color than the rest of the region,
but not so dark as the bottom of the Syrtis
itself.
THE SEASONS ON MARS.
Such is the appearance during the spring
months, and such it continues to be into
what corresponds in the Marian calendar
to our May and June. After the summer
s~olstice of the Marian southern hemi-
sphere, when the season passes from it's
June into it's July, the extreme southern
parts of the dark area fade and turn stead
lily from a deep blue green to a fainter one
and then into an orange ochre.
Shortly after this there appears in the
Syrtis Major itself strange mottlings, curl
Gus causewaylike appearances and rhom-
boidal areas of a perceptibly lighter tint
than their surroundings. These then change
further from a faint blue green to an
orange ochre, just as happened before in
the parts of the surface further south.
These causeways, as we may designate
them Tor distinction, are very singular
looking marks indeed they stretch from
the so-called continental bright areas of
the planet over to the so-called islands to
the south, and look precisely as if they
were actual causeways connecting the two.
There are a great many of them all around
the planet. In the region we are now re-
viewing there are two, both of them strik-
Pons, the former joining Harnmonis Cornu.
the great cape on the west side of the Syr-
ter connecting in like manner the Gree
Promontorium the cape on the east side Of
the Syrtis, with Hellas. They both reach
Hellas at almost, if not exactly, the same
point,
gionS were first seen in 1894, about the tenth
of the Marian July.
To understand the significance of their
appearance this year we must note the
time of the Marian year, owing to the diff
ferent speeds with which the earth and
Mars revolve about the sun. The earth
oVertakes Mars once in about two years
and two months. Such meetings are called
oppositions, because the planet is then seen
in the opposite part of the sky from the
sun. Now. as the periods of the two plan
cts are not exact multiples of each other,
Mars has made, like the earth. about two
of it's months more than a revolution since
the two planets met. In consequence We
see him at a time about two months later
in his year, with his reasons corresponding
~ advanced.
Thus, when observations began this year,
it was not in Marian time about the LIST
of May, but about the LIST of July. Now
as soon as the planet was looked az there
was the Lunae Pons distinctly visible. 1t
appears ~slngularly enough in the very frst
drawing made. on July %, Our July, this
is, for it may be well to caution the reader
to keep the two calendars distinct. Close
as The two dates of detection are for the
two Marian years, it is quite possible that
the phenomena required even nearer the
same Marian date than this, For, In the
first place, owing to the rotation of the
planet the same side of his surface is not
presented to the earth favorably for OBJ
DAYS. and ii may therefore very well hap
pen that an event taking place at the
beginning of this observations gap may
not be noticed as having happened till the
end of it.
MR.. LOWELL'S OBSERVATION.
In the next place different observers diff
fer in what they must readily perceive, and
it so CHANGED that the observer, Mr.. Lowell,
who first saw the lunae Pons on both &C.
| casions had not observed at just that Mar
| tian time. 1t is interesting to note that
these causeways are apparently OFFICIALLY
connected with Mr.. Douglass's canals in
the dark regions, the one probably lying
| alongside the other. In addition to the
| causeways are the rhomboidal and other
bright areas that s~easonably arise in the
| Svrt:s. Like the causeways, they have
made their appearance after the summer
solstice of the southern hemisphere at both
oppositions.
called Oenotria, looking like a long sand
bar left high and dry on the recedlng OF
the tide. is on the western coast OF the
Syrtis and separated from Aeria by d deep
blue green canal. 1t Is, however, not an
inundation or tide, but parching, that IN all
probability produces the metamorphosis we
detect. The growth that in the heyday of
its springtiIne looks so green, ~quickeIied
by the water liberated from the south polar
cap. has by the first of its July passed into
the sere and yellow leaf.
The speed with which it undergoes its
changes is doubtless due to the greater
aridity of Mars, the water not being sufi-
cient in amount to keep it longer alive.
That all this was Eegetal. not marine, Is
pretty conclusiyeiy shown, for the theory
that the so-called seas should show differ
emit tints implies that they We're shallow
enough to be seen through highly i'm
probable superstition on the face OF it. That
fhev hanged from blue green to orange
ochre over hundreds of sauar miles inn
plies, on the supposition that they aresseas,
an immense transference Of water, which
would occasion a corresponding darkenlng