f his observatory is of the very best, and
the "seeing" at Flagstaff is described as excellent. In support of the
latter statement, Mr. Lampland, of the Lowell Observatory, maintains
that the faintest stars shown on charts made at the Lick Observatory
with the 36-inch telescope there, are _perfectly visible_ with the
24-inch telescope at Flagstaff.

Professor Lowell is, indeed, generally at issue with the other observers
of Mars. He finds the canals extremely narrow and sharply defined, and
he attributes the blurred and hazy appearance, which they have presented
to other astronomers, to the unsteady and imperfect atmospheric
conditions in which their observations have been made. He assigns to the
thinnest a width of two or three miles, and from fifteen to twenty to
the larger. Relatively to their width, however, he finds their length
enormous. Many of them are 2000 miles long, while one is even as much
as 3540. Such lengths as these are very great in comparison with the
smallness of the planet. He considers that the canals stand in some
peculiar relation to the polar cap, for they crowd together in its
neighbourhood. In place, too, of ill-defined condensations, he sees
sharp black spots where the canals meet and intersect, and to these he
gives the name of "Oases." He further lays particular stress upon a dark
band of a blue tint, which is always seen closely to surround the edges
of the polar caps all the time that they are disappearing; and this he
takes to be a proof that the white material is something which actually
_melts_. Of all substances which we know, water alone, he affirms, would
act in such a manner.

The question of melting at all may seem strange in a planet which is
situated so far from the sun, and possesses such a rarefied atmosphere.
But Professor Lowell considers that this very thinness of the atmosphere
allows the direct solar rays to fall with great intensity upon the
planet's surface, and that this heating effect is accentuated by the
great length of the Martian summer. In consequence he concludes that,
although the general climate of Mars is decidedly cold, it is above the
freezing point of water.

The observations at Flagstaff appear to do away with the old idea that
the darkish areas are seas, for numerous lines belonging to the
so-called "canal system" are seen to traverse them. Again, there is no
star-like image of the sun reflected from them, as there would be, of
course, from the surfac