white patch
is the supposed Polar Snow Cap.]

As is shown by the maps of Mars, the surface is occupied by shadings
which seem to indicate the existence of water and lands. Those
portions of the area which are taken to be land are very much divided
by what appear to be narrow seas. The general geographic conditions
differ much from those of our own sphere in that the parts of the
planet about the water level are not grouped in great continents, and
there are no large oceans. The only likeness to the conditions of our
earth which we can perceive is in a general pointing of the somewhat
triangular masses of what appears to be land toward one pole. As a
whole, the conditions of the Martial lands and seas as regards their
form, at least, is more like that of Europe than that of any other
part of the earth's surface. Europe in the early Tertiary times had a
configuration even more like that of Mars than it exhibits at present,
for in that period the land was very much more divided than it now is.

If the lands of Mars are framed as are those of our own earth, there
should be ridges of mountains constituting what we may term the
backbones of the continent. As yet such have not been discerned, which
may be due to the fact that they have not been carefully looked for.
The only peculiar physical features which have as yet been discerned
on the lands of Mars are certain long, straight, rather narrow
crevicelike openings, which have received the name of "canals." These
features are very indistinct, and are just on the limit of visibility.
As yet they have been carefully observed by but few students, so that
their features are not yet well recorded; as far as we know them,
these fissures have no likeness in the existing conditions of our
earth. It is difficult to understand how they are formed or preserved
on a surface which is evidently subjected to rainfalls.

It will require much more efficient telescopes than we now have before
it will be possible to begin any satisfactory study on the geography
of this marvellous planet. We can not hope as yet to obtain any
indications as to the details of its structure; we can not see closely
enough to determine whether rivers exist, or whether there is a
coating which we may interpret as vegetation, changing its hues in the
different seasons of the year. An advance in our instruments of
research during the coming century, if made with the same speed as
during the last, will perhaps enable