[1] _Astronomy and Astrophysics_, iii. 752, and _Astron. Soc. of the
Pacific, Publications_, vi. 273 and ix. 109.
[2] According to Percival Lowell these results were, however,
inconclusive because the strong atmospheric lines lie redwards beyond
the part of the spectrum then possible to observe. Subsequently, by
experimenting with sensitizing dyes, Dr Slipher of the Lowell
Observatory succeeded in 1908 in photographing the spectrum far into
the red. Comparison spectrograms of Mars and the Moon, taken by him
at equal altitudes on such plates, eight in all, show the "a" band,
the great band of water-vapour was distinctly stronger in the
spectrum of Mars, thus affording what appeared decisive evidence of
water vapour in the atmosphere of the planet.
[3] Lowell, _Mars and its Canals_, p. 101.
[4] _Phil. Trans._, vol. 202 A, p. 525.
[5] _Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences_, vol. xlii. No. 25.
[6] Professor F. W. Very concurs with Lowell (_Phil. Mag._, 1908).
[7] According to Lowell, the climatic conditions are proportionally
warm in summer.
[8] The great space penetration of the Lowell Observatory is shown in
the case of stars. More stars have been mapped there in a given space
than at the Lick, and Mr Ritchey of the Yerkes Observatory found
stars easily visible there which were only just perceptible at
Yerkes.
[9] As against this, Lowell's answer is that the effect is not
optical; for the belt surrounds the _melting_, not the _making_ cap.
[10] For limits of this theory and Lowell's view of its
inapplicability to Mars, see _Astrophys. Jour._, Sept. 1907.
[11] Prof. Lowell's theory is supported by so much evidence of
different kinds that his own exposition should be read _in extenso_
in _Mars and its canals_ and _Mars as the abode of life_. In order,
however, that his views may be adequately presented here, he has
kindly supplied the following summary in his own words:--
"Owing to inadequate atmospheric advantages generally, much
misapprehension exists as to the definiteness with which the surface
of Mars is seen under good conditions. In steady air the canals are
perfectly distinct lines, not unlike the Fraunhofer ones of the
Spectrum, pencil lines or gossamer filaments according to size. All
the observers at Flagstaff concur in this. The photographs of them
taken there also confirm it up to the limit of their ability. Careful
experiments by the same observers on artificial lines show that if
the canals had breaks amounting to 16 m. across, such breaks would be
visible. None are; while the lines themselves are thousands of miles
long and perfectly straight (_Astrophys. Journ._, Sept. 1907).
Between expert observers representing the planet at the same epoch
the accordance is striking; differences in drawings are differences
of time and are due to seasonal and secular changes in the planet
itself. These seasonal changes have been carefully followed at
Flagstaff, and the law governing them detected. They are found to
depend upon the melting of the polar caps. After the melting is under
way the canals next the cap proceed to darken, and the darkening
thence progresses regularly down the latitudes. Twice this happens
every Martian year, first from one cap and then six Martian months
later from the other. The action reminds one of the quickening of the
Nile valley after the melting of the snows in Abyssinia; only with
planet-wide rhythm. Some of the canals are paired. The phenomenon is
peculiar to certain canals, for only about one-tenth of the whole
number, 56 out of 585, ever show double and these do so regularly.
Each double has its special width; this width between the pair being
400 m. in some cases, only 75 in others. Careful plotting has
disclosed the fact that the doubles cluster round the planet's
equator, rarely pass 40° Lat., and never occur at the poles, though
the planet's axial tilt reveals all its latitudes to us in turn. They
are thus features of those latitudes where the surface is greatest
compared with the area of the polar cap, which is suggestive. Space
precludes mention of many other equally striking peculiarities of the
canals' positioning and development. At the junctions of the canals
are small, dark round spots, which also wax and wane with the
seasons. These facts and a host of others of like significance have
led Lowell to the conclusion that the whole canal system is of
artificial origin, first because of each appearance and secondly
because of the laws governing its development. Every opposition has
added to the assurance that the canals are artificial; both by
disclosing their peculiarities better and better and by removing
generic doubts as to the planet's habitability. The warmer
temperature disclosed from Lowell's investigation on the subject, and
the spectrographic detection by Slipher of water-vapour in the
Martian air, are among the latest of these confirmations."--[ED.]
[12] _Bulletin Lowell Obsy., Monthly Notices, R.A.S._ (1905), 66, p.
51.
[13] _St Petersburg Memoirs_, series viii., Phys. Mars-classe, vol.
viii.
MARSALA, a seaport of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 19 m. by rail
S. of Trapani. Pop. (1881), 19,732; (1901), 57,567. The low coast on
which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island. The town is
the seat of a bishop, and the cathedral contains 16 grey marble columns,
which are said to have been intended for Canterbury Cathedral in
England, the vessel conveying them having been wrecked here. The town
owes its importance mainly to the trade in Marsala wine.
Marsala occupies the site of _Lilybaeum_, the principal stronghold of
the Carthaginians in Sicily, founded by Himilco after the abandonment of
_Motya_. Neither Pyrrhus nor the Romans were able to reduce it by siege,
but it was surrendered to the latter in 241 B.C. at the end of the First
Punic War. In the later wars it was a starting point for the Roman
expeditions against Carthage; and under Roman rule it enjoyed
considerable prosperity (_C.I.L._ x. p. 742). It obtained municipal
rights from Augustus and became a colony under Pertinax or Septimus
Severus. The Saracens gave it its present name, _Marsa Ali_, port of
Ali. The harbour, which lay on the north-east, was destroyed by Charles
V. to prevent its occupation by pirates. The modern harbour lies to the
south-east. In 1860 Garibaldi landed at Marsala with 1000 men and began
his campaign in Sicily. Scanty remains of the ancient _Lilybaeum_
(fragments of the city walls, of squared stones, and some foundations of
buildings between the walls and the sea) are visible; and the so-called
grotto and spring of the Sibyl may be mentioned. To the east of the town
is a great fosse which defended it on the land side, and beyond this
again are quarries like those of Syracuse on a small scale. The modern
town takes the shape of the Roman camp within the earlier city, one of
the gates of which still existed in 1887. The main street (the Cassaro)
perpetuates the name _castrum_.
MARSDEN, WILLIAM (1754-1836), English orientalist, the son of a Dublin
merchant, was born at Verval, Co. Wicklow on the 16th of November 1754.
He was educated in Dublin, and having obtained an appointment in the
civil service of the East India Company arrived at Benkulen, Sumatra, in
1771. There he soon rose to the office of principal secretary to the
government, and acquired a knowledge of the Malay language and country.
Returning to England in 1779 with a pension, he wrote his _History of
Sumatra_, published in 1783. Marsden was appointed in 1795 second
secretary and afterwards first secretary to the admiralty. In 1807 he
retired and published in 1812 his _Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay
Language_, and in 1818 his translation of the _Travels of Marco Polo_.
He was a member of many learned societies, and treasurer and
vice-president of the Royal Society. In 1834 he presented his collection
of oriental coins to the British Museum, and his library of books and
Oriental MSS. to King's College, London. He died on the 6th of October
1836.
Marsden's other works are: _Numismata orientalia_ (London, 1823-1825);
_Catalogue of Dictionaries, Vocabularies, Grammars and Alphabets_
(1796); and several papers on Eastern topics in the _Philosophical
Transactions_ and the _Archaelogia_.
MARSEILLES, a city of southern France, chief seaport of France and of
the Mediterranean, 219 m. S. by E. of Lyons and 534 m. S.S.E. of Paris,
by the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway. Pop. (1906), commune 517,498;
town 421,116. Marseilles is situated on the Golfe du Lion on the eastern
shore of a bay protected to the south by Cape Croisette but open towards
the west; to the east the horizon is bounded by an amphitheatre of
hills, those in the foreground clothed with vegetation while the more
distant eminences are bare and rugged. The city is built on undulating
ground and the south-western and most aristocratic quarter covers the
slopes of the ridge crowned by a fort and the church of Notre-Dame de la
Garde and projecting westward into the bay to form a protection for the
harbour. The newest and most pleasant portion lies on the south-eastern
slope of the ridge, between the southern end of the Rue Paradis and the
Prado avenues, which is better protected than most other quarters from
the mistral that blows down the Rhone valley, and where in summer the
temperature is always a little lower than in the centre of the town. The
old harbour of Marseilles opens on the west to the Golfe du Lion, the
famous Rue Cannebière[1] prolonged by the Rue Noailles leading E.N.E.
from its inner end. These two streets are the centre of the life of the
city. Continued in the Allées de Meilhan and the Boulevard de la
Madeleine, they form one of its main arteries. The other, at right
angles with the first, connects the Place d'Aix with the spacious and
fashionable Promenade du Prado, by way of the Cours Belsunce and the Rue
de Rome. Other fine streets--the Rue St Ferréol, the Rue Paradis and the
Rue Breteuil are to the south of the Cannebière running parallel with
the Rue de Rome. To these must be added the neighbouring avenue of
Pierre Puget named after the sculptor whose statue stands in the Borély
Park. The Prado, with its avenues of trees and fine houses, runs to
within a quarter of a mile of the Huveaune, a stream that borders the
city on the south-east, then turns off at right angles and extends to
the sea, coming to an end close to the Borély Park and the race-course.
From its extremity the Chemin de la Corniche runs northwards along the
coast, fringed by villas and bathing establishments, to the Anse des
Catalans, a distance of 4½ miles.
The old town of Marseilles is bounded W. by the Joliette basin and the
sea, E. by the Cours Belsunce, S. by the northern quay of the old port,
and N. by the Boulevard des Dames. It consists of a labyrinth of steep,
dark and narrow streets inhabited by a seafaring population. Through its
centre runs the broad Rue de la République, extending from the
Cannebière to the Place de la Joliette. The entrance to the old harbour
is defended by Fort St Jean on the north and Fort St Nicolas on the
south. Behind the latter is the Anse (Creek) de la Réserve. Beyond this
again, situated in succession along the shore, come the Château du
Pharo, given by the empress Eugénie to the town, the Anse du Pharo, the
military exercising ground, and the Anse des Catalans. To the old
harbour, which covers only 70 acres with a mean depth of 19½ ft. and is
now used by sailing vessels, the basin of La Joliette (55 acres) with an
entrance harbour was added in 1853. Communicating with the old harbour
by a channel which passes behind Fort St Jean, this dock opens on the
south into the outer harbour, opposite the palace and the Anse du Pharo.
A series of similar basins separated from the roadstead by a jetty 2½ m.
long was subsequently added along the shore to the north, viz. the
basins of Lazaret and Arenc, bordered by the harbour railway station and
the extensive warehouses of the Compagnie des Docks et Entrepôts, the
Bassin de la Gare Maritime with the warehouses of the chamber of
commerce; the Bassin National with the refitting basin, comprising six
dry docks behind it; and the Bassin de la Pinède entered from the
northern outer harbour. These new docks have a water area of 414 acres
and over 11 m. of quays, and are commodious and deep enough for the
largest vessels to manoeuvre easily.
In the roads to the south-west of the port lie the islands of Ratonneau
and Pomègue, united by a jetty forming a quarantine port. Between them
and the mainland is the islet of Château d'If, in which the scene of
part of Dumas' _Monte Cristo_ is laid.
Marseilles possesses few remains of either the Greek or Roman periods of
occupation, and is poor in medieval buildings. The old cathedral of la
Major (Sainte-Marie-Majeure), dating chiefly from the 12th century and
built on the ruins of a temple of Diana, is in bad preservation. The
chapel of St Lazare (late 15th century) in the left aisle is in the
earliest Renaissance style, and a bas-relief of white porcelain by Lucca
della Robbia is of artistic value. Beside this church and alongside the
Joliette basin is a modern building begun in 1852, opened for worship in
1893 and recognized as the finest modern cathedral in France. It is a
Byzantine basilica, in the form of a Latin cross, 460 ft. long, built in
green Florentine stone blended with white stone from the neighbourhood
of Arles. The four towers which surmount it--two at the west front, one
over the crossing, one at the east end--are roofed with cupolas. Near
the cathedral stands the bishop's palace, and the Place de la Major,
which they overlook, is embellished with the statue of Bishop Belsunce,
who displayed great devotion during the plague of 1720-1721. The
celebrated Notre-Dame de la Garde, the steeple of which, surmounted by a
gilded statue of the Virgin, 30 ft. in height, rises 150 ft. above the
summit of the hill on which it stands, commands a view of the whole port
and town, as well as of the surrounding mountains and the neighbouring
sea. The present chapel is modern and occupies the site of one built in
1214.
On the south side of the old harbour near the Fort St Nicolas stands the
church of St Victor, built in the 13th century and once attached to an
abbey founded early in the 4th century. With its lofty crenellated walls
and square towers built of large blocks of uncemented stone, it
resembles a fortress. St Victor is built above crypts dating mainly
from the 11th century but also embodying architecture of the Carolingian
period and of the early centuries of the Christian era. Tradition
relates that St Lazarus inhabited the catacombs under St Victor; and the
black image of the Virgin, still preserved there, is popularly
attributed to St Luke. The spire, which is the only relic of the ancient
church of Accoules, marks the centre of Old Marseilles. At its foot are
a "calvary" and a curious underground chapel in rock work, both modern.
Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, also in the old town, occupies the place of
what was the citadel of the Massaliots when they were besieged by Julius
Caesar.
Of the civil buildings of the city, the prefecture, one of the finest in
France, the Palais de Justice, in front of which is the statue of the
advocate Antoine Berryer (1790-1868) and the Exchange, all date from the
latter half of the 19th century. The Exchange, built at the expense of
the Chamber of Commerce, includes the spacious hall of that institution
with its fine mural paintings and gilding. The hôtel-de-ville (17th
century) stands on the northern quay of the old harbour. All these
buildings are surpassed by the Palais Longchamp (1862-1870), situated in
the north-east of the town at the end of the Boulevard Longchamp. The
centre of the building is occupied by a monumental _château d'eau_
(reservoir). Colonnades branch off from this, uniting it on the left to
the picture gallery, with a fine collection of ancient and modern works,
and on the right to the natural history museum, remarkable for its
conchological department and collection of ammonites. In front are
ornamental grounds; behind are extensive zoological gardens, with the
astronomical observatory. The museum of antiquities is established in
the Château Borély (1766-1778) in a fine park at the end of the Prado.
It includes a Phoenician collection (containing the remains that support
the hypothesis of the Phoenician origin of Marseilles), an Egyptian
collection, numerous Greek, Latin, and Christian inscriptions in stone,
&c. A special building within the city contains the school of art with a
valuable library and a collection of medals and coins annexed to it. The
city also has a colonial museum and a laboratory of marine zoology. The
triumphal arch of Aix, originally dedicated to the victors of the
Trocadéro, was in 1830 appropriated to the conquests of the empire.
The canal de Marseille, constructed from 1837 to 1848, which has
metamorphosed the town and its arid surroundings by bringing to them the
waters of the Durance, leaves the river opposite Pertuis. It has a
length of 97 miles (including its four main branches) of which 13 are
underground, and irrigates some 7500 acres. After crossing the valley of
the Arc, between Aix and Rognac, by the magnificent aqueduct of
Roquefavour, it purifies its waters, charged with ooze, in the basins of
Réaltort. It draws about 2200 gallons of water per second from the
Durance, supplies 2450 horse-power to works in the vicinity of
Marseilles, and ensures a good water-supply and efficient sanitation to
the city.
Marseilles is the headquarters of the XV. army corps and the seat of a
bishop and a prefect. It has tribunals of first instance and of
commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade arbitration, and a
branch of the Bank of France. The educational institutions include a
faculty of science, a school of medicine and pharmacy, and a faculty
(_faculté libre_) of law, these three forming part of the university of
Aix-Marseille; lycées for boys and girls, a conservatoire of music, a
school of fine art, a higher school of commerce, a school for ships'
boys, a school of navigation and industrial schools for both sexes.
_Trade and Industry._--Marseilles is the western emporium for the
Levant trade and the French gate of the Far East. It suffers, however,
from the competition of Genoa, which is linked with the Rhine basin by
the Simplon and St Gotthard railway routes, and from lack of
communication with the inland waterways of France. In January 1902 the
chamber of deputies voted £3,656,000 for the construction of a canal
from Marseilles to the Rhone at Arles. This scheme was designed to
overcome the difficulties of egress from the Rhone and to make the
city the natural outlet of the rich Rhone basin. Much of the activity
of the port is due to the demand for raw material created by the
industries of Marseilles itself. The imports include raw silk, sesame,
ground-nuts and other oil-producing fruits and seeds largely used in
the soap manufacture, cereals and flour, wool, hides and skins, olive
and other oils, raw cotton, sheep and other livestock, woven goods,
table fruit, wine, potatoes and dry vegetables, lead, cocoon silk,
coffee, coal, timber. The total value of imports was £64,189,000 in
1907, an increase of £18,000,000 in the preceding decade. The exports,
of which the total value was £52,901,000 (an increase of £21,000,000
in the decade) included cotton fabrics, silk fabrics, cereals and
flour, hides and skins, wool fabrics, worked skins, olive and other
oils, chemical products, wine, refined sugar, raw cotton, wool, coal,
building-material, machinery and pottery.
The port is the centre for numerous lines of steamers, of which the
chief are the Messageries Maritimes, which ply to the eastern
Mediterranean, the east coast of Africa, Australia, India, Indo-China,
Havre and London, and the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, whose
vessels run to Algiers, Tunis, Malta, Corsica, Morocco and the
Antilles. In addition many important foreign lines call at the port,
among them being the P. and O., the Orient, the North German Lloyd,
and the German East Africa lines.
Marseilles has five chief railway stations, two of which serve the new
harbours, while one is alongside the old port; the city is on the main
line of the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway from the Riviera and
Toulon to Paris via Arles, Avignon and Lyons, another less important
line connecting it with Aix.
Soap-making, introduced in antiquity from Savona and Genoa, is carried
on in upwards of fifty factories. These utilize the products of the
oil-distilleries and of the chemical works, the latter being also an
important adjunct to the manufacture of candles, another leading
industry. A large quantity of iron, copper and other ores is smelted
in the blast-furnaces of Saint Louis in the vicinity and in other
foundries, and the Mediterranean Engineering Company and other
companies have large workshops for the construction or repair of
marine steam-engines and every branch of iron shipbuilding. To these
industries must be added flour-milling, the manufacture of semolina
and other farinaceous foods and of biscuits, bricks and tiles, rope,
casks, capsules for bottles and other tin-goods, tanning, distilling,
brewing and sulphur- and sugar-refining. There are state tobacco and
match factories.
_History._--The Greek colony of Massalia (Lat. _Massilia_) was founded
by the mariners of Phocaea in Asia Minor, about 600 B.C. The settlement
of the Greeks in waters which the Carthaginians reserved for their own
commerce was not effected without a naval conflict; it is not improbable
that the Phoenicians were settled at Marseilles before the Greek period,
and that the name of the town is the Phoenician for "settlement."
Whether the judges (_sophetim_, "suffetes") of the Phoenician
sacrificial tablet of Marseilles were the rulers of a city existing
before the advent of the Phocaeans, or were consuls for Punic residents
in the Greek period, is disputed. In 542 B.C. the fall of the Phocaean
cities before the Persians probably sent new settlers to the Ligurian
coast and cut off the remote city of Massalia from close connexion with
the mother country. Isolated amid alien populations, the Massaliots made
their way by prudence in dealing with the inland tribes, by vigilant
administration of their oligarchical government, and by frugality united
to remarkable commercial and naval enterprise. Their colonies spread
east and west along the coast from Monaco to Cape St Martin in Spain,
carrying with them the worship of Artemis; the inland trade, in which
wine was an important element, can be traced by finds of Massalian coins
across Gaul and through the Alps as far as Tirol. In the 4th century
B.C. the Massaliot Pytheas visited the coasts of Gaul, Britain and
Germany, and Euthymenes is said to have sailed down the west coast of
Africa as far as Senegal. The great rival of Massalian trade was
Carthage, and in the Punic Wars the city took the side of Rome, and was
rewarded by Roman assistance in the subjugation of the native tribes of
Liguria. In the war between Caesar and Pompey Massilia took Pompey's
side and in A.D. 49 offered a vain resistance to Caesar's lieutenant
Trebonius. In memory of its ancient services the city, "without which,"
as Cicero says, "Rome had never triumphed over the Transalpine nations,"
was left as a _civitas libera_, but her power was broken and most of her
dependencies taken from her. From this time Massilia has little place in
Roman history; it became for a time an important school of letters and
medicine, but its commercial and intellectual importance declined. The
town appears to have been christianized before the end of the 3rd
century, and at the beginning of the 4th century was the scene of the
martyrdom of St Victor. Its reputation partly revived through the names
of Gennadius and Cassian, which give it prominence in the history of
Semi-Pelagianism and the foundation of western monachism.
After the ravages of successive invaders, Marseilles was repeopled in
the 10th century under the protection of its viscounts. The town
gradually bought up their rights, and at the beginning of the 13th
century was formed into a republic, governed by a _podestat_, who was
appointed for life, and exercised his office in conjunction with 3
notables, and a municipal council, composed of 80 citizens, 3 clerics,
and 6 principal tradesmen. During the rest of the middle ages, however,
the higher town was governed by the bishop, and had its harbour at the
creek of La Joliette which at that period ran inland to the north of the
old town. The southern suburb was governed by the abbot of St Victor,
and owned the Port des Catalans. Situated between the two, the lower
town, the republic, retained the old harbour, and was the most powerful
of the three divisions. The period of the crusades brought prosperity to
Marseilles, though throughout the middle ages it suffered from the
competition of Pisa, Genoa and Venice. In 1245 and 1256 Charles of
Anjou, count of Provence, whose predecessors had left the citizens a
large measure of independence, established his authority above that of
the republic. In 1423 Alphonso V. of Aragon sacked the town. King René,
who had made it his winter residence, however, caused trade, arts and
manufactures again to flourish. On the embodiment of Provence in the
kingdom of France in 1481, Marseilles preserved a separate
administration directed by royal officials. Under Francis I. the
disaffected constable Charles de Bourbon vainly besieged the town with
the imperial forces in 1524. During the wars of religion, Marseilles
took part against the Protestants, and long refused to acknowledge Henry
IV. The loss of the ancient liberties of the town brought new
disturbances under the Fronde, which Louis XIV. came in person to
suppress. He entered the town by a breach in the walls and afterwards
had Fort St Nicolas constructed. Marseilles repeatedly suffered from the
plague, notably from May 1720 to May 1721.
During the Revolution the people rose against the aristocracy, who up to
that time had governed the commune. In the Terror they rebelled against
the Convention, but were promptly subdued by General Carteaux. The wars
of the empire, by dealing a blow to their maritime commerce, excited the
hatred of the inhabitants against Napoleon, and they hailed the return
of the Bourbons and the defeat of Waterloo. The news of the latter
provoked a bloody reaction in the town against those suspected of
imperialism. The prosperity of the city received a considerable impulse
from the conquest of Algeria and from the opening of the Suez Canal.
See P. Castanier, _Histoire de la Provence dans l'antiquité_, vol. ii.
(Paris, 1896); E. Caman, _Marseille au XX^me siècle_ (Paris, 1905); P.
Joanne, _Marseille et ses environs_.