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It does not seem possible that any considerable fall of such snow could take place, nor is there any necessity of supposing actual snow or ice to account for the white caps. " In support of his claim concerning the existence of lights seen at the pole of Mars, Gardner quoted Professor Lowell who notes that on June 7, 1894, he was watching Mars and suddenly saw two points of light flash out from the middle of the polar cap. They were dazzling bright. The lights shone for a few minutes and then disappeared. Green, some years earlier, in 1846, also saw two spots of light at the pole of Mars. Lowell tried to explain the lights he saw as reflections of sunlight by polar ice, but Gardner denies this, quoting Professor Pickering who saw a vast area of white form at the pole of Mars within twenty-four hours, visible as a white cap, and then gradually disappeared. Also Lowell saw a band of dark blue, which he took to be water from the melting ice or snow cap. Gardner believes that the so- called Martian ice cap was really fog and clouds, which also could appear and disappear so rapidly. He writes: "What Lowell really did see was a direct beam - two direct beams at the same moment - flashing from the central sun of Mars out through the aperture of the Martian pole. Does not the blue rim around that area to which Lowell referred indicate the optical appearance of the reflecting surface of the planet gradually curving over to the interior so that at a certain part of the curve it begins to cease reflecting the light? And the fact that it is not seen often simply shows that it is only visible when Mars is in a certain position with relation to the earth, when we are able to penetrate the mouth of the polar opening and catch the on oe direct beam. "Why have scientists never compared the facts of the light cap of Mars with the light that plays over our own polar regions? Do they forget that the auroral display has been observed to take place without any reference to the changing of the magnetic needle? And if the aurora is shown to be independent of magnetic conditions, what else can it be due to than a source of light? Is not the reflection of the aurora light from the higher reaches of the atmosphere comparable to the projection of the light of the Martian caps into the higher reaches of the Martian atmosphere? And how do scientists explain the fact that the aurora is only seen distinctly in the very far north and only seen in a fragmentary way when we get further south?" In support of his view that the polar caps of Mars are not formed of ice and snow but represent the light of its central sun shining through the polar opening, Gardner says: