The Italian astronomer and statesman Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli reported observing about 100 of these markings, beginning in 1877, and described them as canali (Italian: “channels”), a neutral term that implied nothing about their origin. Other observers had earlier noted similar markings, but Schiaparelli’s writings first drew wide attention to the subject. About the turn of the 20th century the American astronomer Percival Lowell became the champion of those who believed the markings to be bands of vegetation, kilometres wide, bordering irrigation ditches, or canals, dug by intelligent beings to carry water from the polar caps. Lowell and others described canal networks studded with dark intersections called oases and covering much of the surface of the planet. Occasionally the lines were perceived as doubled; i.e., two parallel lines became visible where only a single canal had been seen before.