See [page 225], Notes on Mars.
The following notes of the conditions of Mars and its tiny satellites are furnished by our mundane astronomers, and will give an idea of the problems that demanded solution by the Lunarians in their famous contract. Gravity on Mars is four-tenths as much as on the Earth. The atmospheric pressure is two and a quarter pounds per square inch against 15 pounds on the Earth. The climate of the poles is much milder than the same regions of Earth, although there are heavy falls of snow. In June and July 1892, 1,600,000 square miles of snow melted off in the southern zone of Mars. April 9, 1890, 3,000,000 square miles of snow fell. Ice is not formed anywhere except close to the poles in winter time. The channels are connected from sea to sea. They are 60 miles wide and from 3,000 to 4,000 miles long in a straight line. There are many of the channels that are duplicates, the duplicate being parallel with and 200 to 400 miles from the main channel. There are from 7 to 20 of these duplicate channels. Most of the surface of Mars is boggy syrtis, neither sea nor good dry land. Clouds float 20 miles high—4 times as high as on Earth.
The year of Mars is equal to 687 of our days. His day is 24 hours and 37 minutes. His diameter is about 4,500 miles; his distance from the sun 145,000,000 of miles; his nearest position to the Earth 35,000,000 miles.
The moon Phobos is 8 to 9 miles in diameter. It is 3,760 miles from the surface of Mars, and revolves around him in 7 hours and 39 minutes, at a rate of 79.6 per minute. It rises in the west and sets in the east. Its orbit is 36,486 miles. Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west, so to Mars, does the Earth, Sun and Moon. The diameter of Deimos 6 to 7 miles, distance from the surface of Mars 12,500 miles and his revolution is performed in 30 hours and 18 minutes, rate 50 miles a minute.
FOOTNOTES
[1] After reaching home and looking over the notes of the survey, I found the number of the stake to be between 1175 and 1185, and it was set on Saturday afternoon, October 25, 1879.
[2] Plastidule is the lowest, or unit molecule of protoplasm.
[3] The Professor probably referred to the instruction found in Matt. 19: 12.
[4] A Kik is worth about 10 cents American money.