f in 1879. On the 26th of December, this year--a little
before the spring equinox, which occurred on Mars on the 21st of
January, 1880--I noticed the doubling of the Nile [a canal thus named]
between the Lakes of the Moon and the Ceraunic Gulf. These two regular,
equal, and parallel lines caused me, I confess, a profound surprise,
the more so because a few days earlier, on the 23d and the 24th of
December, I had carefully observed that very region without discovering
anything of the kind.

"I awaited with curiosity the return of the planet in 1881, to see if an
analogous phenomenon would present itself in the same place, and I saw
the same thing reappear on the 11th of January, 1882, one month after
the spring equinox--which occurred on the 8th of December, 1881. The
duplication was still more evident at the end of February. On this same
date, the 11th of January, another duplication had already taken place,
that of the middle portion of the canal of the Cyclops, adjoining
Elysium. [Elysium is a part of one of the continental areas.]

"Yet greater was my astonishment when, on the 19th of January, I saw the
canal Jamuna, which was then in the center of the disk, formed very
rigidly of two parallel straight lines, crossing the space which
separates the Niliac Lake from the Gulf of Aurora. At first sight I
believed it was an illusion, caused by fatigue of the eye and some new
kind of strabismus, but I had to yield to the evidence. After the 19th
of January I simply passed from wonder to wonder; successively the
Orontes, the Euphrates, the Phison, the Ganges, and the larger part of
the other canals, displayed themselves very clearly and indisputably
duplicated. There were not less than twenty examples of duplication, of
which seventeen were observed in the space of a month, from the 19th of
January to the 19th of February.

"In certain cases it was possible to observe precursory symptoms which
are not lacking in interest. Thus, on the 13th of January, a light,
ill-defined shade extended alongside the Ganges; on the 18th and the
19th one could only distinguish a series of white spots; on the 20th the
shadow was still indecisive, but on the 21st the duplication was
perfectly clear, such as I observed it until the 23d of February. The
duplication of the Euphrates, of the canal of the Titans, and of the
Pyriphlegethon also began in an uncertain and nebulous form.

"These duplications are not an optical effect depending on in