[1]1
10, Ampton Road,
Edgbaston,
Brimingham
13 Dec[embe]r 1907
Dear Sir
I thank you very much for the copy of your book which you have very kindly sent me. I received it just as I left home & had the pleasure of reading it while I was away. I do not think that Lowell2 could possibly answer your case against him if he was in a position to consider argument. But I doubt whether he is in such a position. His [2] belief is a crank & quite beyond reasoning.
I am sending you a copy of my Phil May3 paper. It translates into symbols much of your temperature argument. The lower temperature in elevated regions appears to come out from the alternation of day & night in a more or less satisfactory way.
The one point on which I do not feel convinced is the Johnstone Stoney4 argument that there is no water [3] vapour. The temperature of mars being too low, the molecular velocity is very much decreased & the vapors may be therefore retained. It seems to me still possible that the "snow caps" are ice crystals. But I do not think there an ever be melting. There may be sublimation & redeposition as hoar frost. This would I believe take place even at very low temperatures.
Again thank you for your book & for the pleasure which I have had reading it.
I remain | Yours faithfully | JH Poynting [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP566.566)]
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Please cite as “WCP566,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP566