Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-04-26

Mars resembled that of the earth; the
moving patches of changing forms were
clouds: the whittier patch of unchanging
| form round the pole must be snow. No
| less agreeable was the evidence of land
and sea, afforded by the rosy white out
! lines on the darker background, both of
unvarying forms.
For full two hours I contemplated this
| scene before [ retired to rest, and in that
time l had evidence of still further anal
| ogy. The outlines of land and sea,
! though unvarying in form, were not sta
tionary; in the course of the. two hours
during which my inspection lasted they
! had all moved eastwards, not a great dis
| lance, but still perceptibly; those to the
extreme east slowly disappearing, While
fresh outlines made their appearance
| on the western extremity. Clearly,
therefore, Mars, like the earth, revolved
upon it's axis from west TO east.
Cheered by these discoveries, | retired
| to rest, and slept long and soundly--.
| about seven OF eight hours.
When | awoke, changes had taken
place on the hemispherical map Of Mars
| exactly the changes which l had eX-
pected. It was no longer the same; all
| the old outlines Of oceans, seas, conti-
| nents and islands had moved eastwards,
and most of them had disappeared, while
| fresh outlines of other oceans, seas, con-
from the west. Eager to make the ac-
quaintance of these scenes at closer quar-
| tiers. / raised the electric pressure upon
| the regulator, and again started forward
at nearly full speed, from forty to fifty
miles a second. At first gradually, but
more and more rapidly as / proceeded,
| the round orb expanded, till it's diameter
appeared four or five times as large
as that of the full moon, while the
| outlines Of oceans, seas, continents,
| islands, snow and moving clouds be-
| came much more distinct. The rosy hue
which had formerly colored the whole
! had also become much fainter, and, IN
deed, was now scarcely perceptlble. Inns
! puzzled me. 1t was the only point IN
which the analogy between the earth and
| Mars failed. The white crescent of the
! former had presented no such colored
| appearance as / receded from it, neither
! when | was near, nor when was taf
away. When the round orb in front OF
me had expanded till it's diameter ap..
peared to be ten or twelve times that OF
| the full moon, judged it prudent some
what to slacken speed and proceed more
| cautiously, though the Shooting Star
| still shot through the ether at rate
| which, [ knew, would bring me to my
destination in less than an hour. Rapidly,
rapidly and still more rapidly, the great
round orb grew larger and larger, and
steered my way towards it. At last
| could plainly see through the drifting
| and separating clouds the forms OF
majestic-looking rivers winding their
! way slowly and gracefully from the east,
and expanding gradually into wide es-
| tuaries as they poured their Watery
| tribute into a large ocean to the west.
AS had bird s-eye view of the scene,
1 could not easily judge of the heights
OF the mountain ranges and watersheds
| whence the rivers derived their tributary
streams, though, from the dark shadows
| east on the valleys and plains at their
bases, inferred that some of them were
very high.
While absorbed in contemplation of
this wonderful sight, moving my stele,,
scope slowly from point to point, and
scanning each feature with the closest
| attention. a sudden and starting
event took place. In moment-lr
| the twinkling Of an eye-the whole
scene disappeared. Mars was no longer
| visible. A white sheet or curtain seemed
| to have dropped down from the sky III
| front of my telescope. "Startled' is hard
| ly a strong enough term to express my
| feelings; / was positively frightened, and
| lowered my telescope to look Tor the
| cause.
The more comprehensive view of the
| sky afforded by the naked eye explained
| the mystery. A celestial body, large,
white and circular, had come between
me and the planet, and eclipsed it. Be
| fore [ could form any rational conclu-
| sion as to what this might be, 1T had
| PASSED, and Mars was once more visible
| The truth then flashed upon me. The
| unexpected intruder, who had thus rude
| " interposed himself, was satellite of
| the planet-too small 70 pc visible TO ter
restriaI astronomers, though large enough
to cover the whole disk of Mars from the
position which / occupied. a slight
| change in my position With respect to
Mars, combined with rapid observa-
| ton of the angular velocity and appar-
| ent diameter of the satellite, gave me
| sufficient data to form a rough estimate
of the latters size and distance from the
| planet, and Of the period Of it's revolu-
| tion. These | found to be as follows:
Real diameter of satellite, about
/ miles.
Distance of satellite from Mars, about
$4,000 miles.
| Period of revolution round Mars, about
| 80 hours.
| might easily have obtained more ac-
| curate results; might have followed and
| overtaken the satellite, and examined lt
| at as close a distance as [ pleased; but
with the great and glorious orb OF the
planet itself in full view and now so near,
| + did not care to waste time upon an in
|
| in area, and apparently void of all life
and vegetation. | accordingly resumed
my journey.
had not proceeded many minutes,
however, when | was again startled Dy
observing a second eclipse of Mars and
by another satellite; though this time
the eclipse was only a partial one, the
apparent diameter of the satellite being
only about one-ffth of that of the planet:
The duration of this eclipse, like that OF
the former, was very brief; and a rough
calculation of distances and angular We
locity gave me the following results:
Real diameter of second satellite, about
miles.
Distance from Mars, about $500 miles.
Period of revolution, about hours ~
minutes.
did not stop to obtain more accurate
figures with respect to this satellite
either, as was burning with impotence
to reach my destination, now so near:
Subsequently l had an opportunity OF
| coo;n0 # vary close indeed: but [ must