The Project Gutenberg EBook of To Mars via The Moon, by Mark Wicks

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Title: To Mars via The Moon
An Astronomical Story

Author: Mark Wicks

Release Date: December 27, 2008 [EBook #27633]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note

The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully
preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Plate XVI is missing from the scanned image files. The reference within
the Maps and Plates list has been preserved.

TO MARS _via_ THE MOON

[Illustration: _Drawn by M. Wicks_

VIEW FROM THE AIR-SHIP, OVER THE CANALS AND THE CITY OF SIRAPION

"What a splendid view we then had over the country all around us!...
Across the country, in line after line, were the canals which we had
been so anxious to see, extending as far as the eye could reach!"]

To Mars _via_ The Moon

_AN ASTRONOMICAL STORY_

BY
MARK WICKS

"_It is astronomy which will eventually be the chief educator and
emancipator of the human race._"--SIR EDWIN ARNOLD.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
1911

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

TO

PROFESSOR PERCIVAL LOWELL

A.B., LL.D.

_Director of the Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona_

TO WHOSE CAREFUL AND PAINSTAKING RESEARCHES,
EXTENDING OVER MANY YEARS, THE WORLD OWES
SO MUCH OF ITS KNOWLEDGE OF

THE PLANET MARS,

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY
ONE WHO HAS DERIVED INFINITE PLEASURE FROM
THE PERUSAL OF HIS WORKS ON
THE SUBJECT

PREFACE

In the course of my experience as an occasional lecturer during the past
twelve years, I have been much impressed by the keen interest evinced,
even by the most unlettered persons, when astronomical subjects are
dealt with in plain untechnical language which they can really grasp and
understand.

The pertinent questions whi