r the more distant planet almost exactly the
same as that of mild and equable southern England, and a disappearance
of the vast snowfields of its polar regions as rapid and complete as
what occurs with us! If the moon, even at its equator, has not its
temperature raised above the freezing-point of water, how can the more
_distant_ Mars, with its _oblique_ noon-day sun falling upon the
snow-caps, receive heat enough, first to raise their temperature to 32 deg.
F., and then to melt with marked rapidity the vast frozen plains of its
polar regions?

Mr. Lowell is however so regardless of the ordinary teachings of
meteorological science that he actually accounts for the supposed mild
climate of the polar regions of Mars by the absence of water on its
surface and in its atmosphere. He concludes his fifth chapter with the
following words: "Could our earth but get rid of its oceans, we too
might have temperate regions stretching to the poles." Here he runs
counter to two of the best-established laws of terrestrial climatology--
the wonderful equalising effects of warm ocean-currents which are the
chief agents in diminishing polar cold; the equally striking effects of
warm moist winds derived from these oceans, and the great storehouse of
heat we possess in our vapour-laden atmosphere, its vapour being
primarily derived from these same oceans! But, in Mr. Lowell's opinion,
all our meteorologists are quite mistaken. Our oceans are our great
drawbacks. Only get rid of them and we should enjoy the exquisite
climate of Mars--with its absence of clouds and fog, of rain or rivers,
and its delightful expanses of perennial deserts, varied towards the
poles by a scanty snow-fall in winter, the melting of which might, with
great care, supply us with the necessary moisture to grow wheat and
cabbages for about one-tenth, or more likely one-hundredth, of our
present population. I hope I may be excused for not treating such an
argument seriously. The various considerations now advanced, especially
those which show the enormous cumulative and conservative effect of our
dense and water-laden atmosphere, and the disastrous effect--judging by
the actual condition of the moon--which the loss of it would have upon
our temperature, seem to me quite sufficient to demonstrate important
errors in the data or fallacies in the complex mathematical argument by
which Mr. Lowell has attempted to uphold his views as to the temperature
and consequent climatic