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But it was not before 1877 that a fundamentally new discovery in areography gave a truly sensational turn to speculation about life on ``the red planet. In that year Mars made one of its nearest approaches to the earth, and was so situated in its orbit that it could be observed to great advantage from the northern hemisphere of the earth.
He could not resist the testimony of the polar snows, whose suggestive conduct was in such striking accord with what occurs upon the earth. Gradually, as telescopes improved and observers increased in number, the principal features of the planet were disclosed and charted, and ``areography, as the geography of Mars was called, took its place among the recognized branches of astronomical study.
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