Mars and Its Canals
by Percival Lowell
About this book
In the days before telescope photography, astronomers had to draw what they thought they saw through the eyepiece throughout the long dark nights. Sometimes they saw saw more than there really was to see, and a bit over 100 years ago Percival Lowell published books on what he was sure were canals on Mars, signs of intelligent civilization. (In case you too are skeptical, we also have at Librivox a criticism of Lowell's theories in a book published a year later (in 1907) by Alfred Russel Wallace.) - Summary by ToddHW
Chapters (34)
1Preface
2On Exploration
3A Departure-point
4A Bird’s-eye View of Past Martian Discovery
5The Polar Caps
6Behavior of the Polar Caps
7Martian Polar Expeditions
8White Spots
9Climate and Weather
10Mountains and Cloud
11The Blue-green Areas
12Vegetation
13Terraqueousness and Terrestriality
14The Reddish-ochre Tracts
15Summary
16The Canals
17Their System
18Gemination of the Canals
19The Double Canals, Parts 1 and 2
20The Double Canals, Parts 3 and 4
21Canals in the Dark Regions
22Oases
23Carets on the Borders of the Great Diaphragm
24The Canals Photographed
25Canals: Kinematic
26Canal Development Individually Instanced
27Hibernation of the Canals
28Arctic Canals and Polar Rifts
29Oases: Kinematic
30Constitution of the Canals and Oases
31Life
32Evidence
33The Husbanding of Water
34Conclusion
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