diff options
Diffstat (limited to '44270-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 44270-0.txt | 4520 |
1 files changed, 4520 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/44270-0.txt b/44270-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03197ee --- /dev/null +++ b/44270-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4520 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44270 *** + +MARS AND ITS MYSTERY + + +[Illustration: LOWELL'S GLOBE OF MARS, 1903. _Frontispiece_] + + + + + MARS + AND ITS MYSTERY + + BY + EDWARD S. MORSE + + MEMBER NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES + + Author of "Japanese Homes and their Surroundings," + "Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes," etc. + + _ILLUSTRATED_ + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1906 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1906, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved_ + + Published October, 1906 + + + THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. + + + + + To + PERCIVAL LOWELL + WHO HAS BY HIS ENERGY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT + ESTABLISHED A NEW STANDARD FOR + THE STUDY OF MARS + THIS BOOK + IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following pages have been written for the general reader. The +controversies over the interpretation of the curious markings of Mars +and the wide divergence of opinion as to their nature first turned my +attention to the matter. The question of intelligence in other worlds +is of perennial interest to everyone, and that question may possibly +be settled by an unprejudiced study of our neighboring planet Mars. +Knowing the many analogies between Mars and the Earth, we are justified +in asking what conditions really exist in Mars. Instead of flouting at +every attempt to interpret the various and complicated markings of its +surface, we should soberly consider any rational explanation of these +enigmas from the postulate that the two spheres, so near together in +space, cannot be so far apart physically, and from the fact that as +intelligence is broadly modifying the appearance of the surface of the +Earth, a similar intelligence may also be marking the face of Mars. + +A student familiar with a general knowledge of the heavens, a +fair acquaintance with the surface features of the Earth, with an +appreciation of the doctrine of probabilities, and capable of +estimating the value of evidence, is quite as well equipped to examine +and discuss the nature of the markings of Mars as the astronomer. +If, furthermore, he is gifted with imagination and is free from all +prejudice in the matter, he may have a slight advantage. Astronomers +are probably the most exact of all students as to their facts, and in +this discussion there is no attempt to introduce evidence they do not +supply, as the frequent quotations from their writings will show. + +Having studied Mars through nearly one presentation of the planet with +the great refractor at the Lowell Observatory, what I saw with my own +eyes, uninfluenced by what others saw, will be presented in a short +chapter at the end of this book. + +I wish to express my obligations to Professor Percival Lowell for the +privileges of his observatory, for many of the illustrations in this +book, and for his unbounded hospitality during my visit to Flagstaff. +I am also deeply indebted to Mr. Russell Robb for valuable assistance +during the preparation of the manuscript. + + E. S. M. + + SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, + October, 1906. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Page + I. INTRODUCTION 1 + II. IMMEASURABLE DISTANCES OF SPACE 7 + III. OTHER WORLDS INHABITED 14 + IV. LOWELL'S BOOK ON MARS 31 + V. TESTIMONY OF ASTRONOMERS 51 + VI. THE STUDY OF PLANETARY MARKINGS 70 + VII. DIFFICULTIES OF SEEING 79 + VIII. VARIATION IN DRAWING 94 + IX. THEORIES REGARDING THE CANALS 100 + X. COMMENTS AND CRITICISM 125 + XI. ATMOSPHERE AND MOISTURE 134 + XII. NOTES ON IRRIGATION 141 + XIII. VARIETY OF CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH LIFE EXISTS 147 + XIV. MY OWN WORK 158 + XV. WHAT THE MARTIANS MIGHT SAY OF US 166 + XVI. SCHIAPARELLI, LOWELL, PERROTIN, THOLLON 172 + XVII. LAST WORDS 180 + INDEX 189 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + LOWELL'S GLOBE OF MARS _Frontispiece_ + Fig. 1. PLANISPHERE OF EARTH _Page_ 61 + + PLATES + + I. TOBACCO CULTIVATION UNDER CLOTH, PORTO RICO _Page_ 50 + II. DRAWINGS OF SOLAR CORONA " 96 + III. CHINESE BOWL, SHOWING CRACKLE " 107 + IV. MUD CRACKS ON SHORE OF ROGER'S LAKE, ARIZONA " 108 + V. NATURAL LINES, CRACKS, FISSURES, ETC. " 112 + VI. ARTIFICIAL LINES, RAILWAYS, STREETS, CANALS, ETC. " 113 + VII. DOME OF LOWELL OBSERVATORY, FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA " 158 + VIII. TWENTY-FOUR INCH TELESCOPE, LOWELL OBSERVATORY " 160 + IX. DRAWINGS OF CANALS OF MARS BY THE AUTHOR " 162 + + PORTRAITS + + GIOVANNI VIRGINIO SCHIAPARELLI _Page_ 172 + PERCIVAL LOWELL " 174 + HENRI PERROTIN " 176 + M. THOLLON " 178 + + + + + _Life not wholly unlike that on the earth may therefore exist + upon Mars for anything we know to the contrary._ + + SIMON NEWCOMB. + + + + +MARS AND ITS MYSTERY + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTION + + +Had some one asked, fifty years ago, Is the Sun composed of chemical +elements with which we are familiar? Shall we ever know? the question +would not have been deemed worthy of a second thought. Realizing +what has been accomplished, not only regarding the constitution of +the Sun, but of the most remote stars, we are encouraged to ask: Is +Mars inhabited? Shall we ever know? To what groups of students are +we to appeal for an answer? If we want to know the diameter of Mars, +its weight, the form of its orbit, the inclination of its axis, the +period of its revolution around the Sun, and its rotation period, +its ephemeris and its albedo, we ask the astronomer, for he has the +instruments with which to observe and measure, and the mathematical +knowledge necessary to reduce the measurements. If Mars were +incandescent, we should appeal to the astrophysicist for information +regarding its chemical composition. If, however, we want to know the +probability of Mars being the abode of life, we should appeal to one +who is familiar with the conditions of life upon our own globe. If the +question is asked as to the existence of intelligence on the planet, +we endeavor to trace evidences of its surface markings, and their +character, whether natural or artificial. Knowing how profoundly man +has changed the appearance of the surface features of our own globe in +the removal of vast forests, in the irrigation of enormous tracts of +sterile plain, the filling up of certain areas, like Peking, Tokio, +London, with material having a different reflecting surface, we are to +scan the surface of Mars for similar modifications, and for an answer +ask those who are familiar with physical geography, with meteorology, +with geology, including the character of natural cracks or crannies, +deep cañon, or range of mountains, or any of the great cataclysms which +have scarred the face of the Earth. Taking the great mass of facts +as they are presented to us by astronomers, to what class are we to +appeal as to the probability of life in other worlds? What class will +form the most rational conclusions? Will it be the circle-squarers, +perpetual-motion cranks, spiritualists, survivals of a past who believe +the world is flat, those who have "anthropomorphic conceptions of +the Supreme" and Hebraic conceptions of the origin of things, or will +it be those who value observation and experiment, who appreciate the +importance of large numbers, and who are endowed with a tithe of +imagination? Most certainly the latter class. + +In approaching the interpretation of the markings of Mars we should +first glance at a brief historical summary of what has already been +done. We should examine the testimony of those who have seen and +drawn the canals; we are then better prepared to examine the records +of the latest observations and the explanation of their nature. In +the meantime an inquiry must be made as to whether the mathematical +astronomer, after all, is best fitted to judge of the surface features +of a planet. Next we should take up in the following order the +evidences, which are overwhelming, that a network of lines, geodetic +in their character, mark the surface of Mars. It has been claimed +that these lines show the result of irrigation, and, therefore, the +irrigation features of our own planet should be examined. It has been +objected that many astronomers have not been able to see the markings, +and consequently their existence has been doubted. It will then be +proper to point out that the difficulties of seeing are very great, +and that the acutest eyesight, coupled with long practice, is necessary +to recognize the markings. It has been objected that the drawings of +the minuter details of Mars vary with different observers. It will +be necessary to show that every kind of research employing graphic +representation labors under the same difficulty, and none more so than +astronomy. It has been objected that there is not sufficient moisture +and atmosphere in Mars to sustain life, and this must be answered by +those only who are familiar with conditions affecting life on our own +planet. + +Various theories have been advanced, some of them physical, to +explain the markings of Mars, and these must be considered, and, if +possible, answered. Comments and criticism are difficult to repress, +as the discoveries of Schiaparelli and the additional discoveries and +deductions of Lowell have evoked discussions, which, in some instances, +have been harsh and unreasonable, and, in one case, positively +ridiculous. Schiaparelli has been called an impostor, and Lowell has +come in for his full share of vituperation and innuendo. If this +portion of the discussion is considered unparliamentary, the attitude +and language of certain astronomers have provoked it. + +A brief account is presented of what the author was enabled to draw of +the Martian details, with a transcript of his notes made at the time +of observation, and finally a little imaginary sketch is given as to +how the world would look from Mars; and if similar kinds of astronomers +existed there, what comments and objections they might offer as to the +inhabitability of the Earth. + +Such flights of the imagination are justified in that it gives one +a chance to appreciate the weakness of some of the arguments urged +against the idea of intelligence in Mars. + +It will be objected that some of the names herein quoted are not +recognized as astronomers. I can only say that in every instance +I have found references to the writings and essays of those that +might be objected to in the pages of the "Observatory," and other +reputable astronomical journals, and in no instances accompanied by +adverse comment or criticism. If astronomers--even the distinguished +Schiaparelli--quote these names in scientific memoirs, I may venture to +do the same in a book written for the general reader. The objection, +however, has always presented itself with every controversy; it was +conspicuously marked in the passionate discussions over Darwin's +"Origin of Species." The intelligent laity recognized the truth of +Darwin's proposition long before the zoölogist began to waver. Essays +by the unprofessional supporting Darwin's contention were discredited +because the writers were not trained naturalists. The history of +invention is crowded with instances where devices and processes have +been invented by men whose trades or professions were the least likely +to enable them to originate such ideas. + + + + +II + +IMMEASURABLE DISTANCES OF SPACE + + _It is therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that + beings not only animated but endowed with reason inhabit + countless worlds in space._ + + SIMON NEWCOMB. + + +Until within recent centuries, man has not only believed that he and +his kind were the only intelligent creatures in the universe, but +that the little round ball on which he lived was the dominant part +thereof. So rooted for ages was this conviction that it became fixed +in man's mental structure, and hence the survival of the idea that +still lingers in the minds of a few to-day. The conclusion was natural, +however, for the behavior of the starry heavens and the Sun and the +Moon seemed sufficient evidence that man, and the surface upon which +he lived, was the centre of the universe. The stars were bright points +of light, the Moon a silver disk, and the Sun a heat and light giving +ball of fire, equally diminutive and not far away. Let one realize for +a moment the experience of these early people. Everything aerial, +with the exception of feathery birds, fluffy bats and flying insects, +was composed of the lightest particles--cottony seeds, reluctantly +falling snow-flakes, motes in the air, smoke and vaporous cloud, and, +in contrast, the rock-foundationed and irregular surface upon which +the people dwelt, and flat as far as man had reached. What wonder, +then, that man viewed these brilliant points and dazzling disks as +objects of no great size and not far away, hauled across the heavens +by unseen spirits of some kind. The marvel of it all is, not that +they believed as they did, but that any other views of cosmography +could have been established. And yet the successive increments of +astronomical knowledge, founded apparently on the soundest mathematics, +were adopted in their turn. What more convincing than the epicyclic +theory of Ptolemy, buttressed by figures so ingenious and convincing, +that the theory might have lasted till now except for the truer +understanding of planetary movements in relation to that of the Earth? +All through this history are found traces of the barriers erected by +prejudiced conservatives, of which the attitude of Tycho Brahe is a +good example, though in this case it was probably his belief in the +Hebraic conception of the universe which excited his opposition to +Kepler's views, a conception which, unfortunately for the progress of +astronomical research, still lingers among certain observers to-day and +places them in precisely the same category with Tycho Brahe. + +With the gradual accumulation of knowledge it was found that of all +the innumerable illuminated bodies in the heavens, only one,--just +one,--the Moon, revolved around the Earth, and that the Earth instead +of being all dominant in the affairs of the universe, played a very +minor part, and, instead of being master, was a very humble midget +revolving around the Sun; that, indeed, with the exception of the +Moon, there were visible to the naked eye only three bright points +of light in the whole range of the heavens more insignificant in +size,--Mercury, Venus, and Mars,--while the other planets were vastly +larger, and had many more satellites revolving around them. Then it +was found that, with the exception of the few planets, the myriad +stars had no connection with the Sun whatsoever, that the Sun was +no longer the centre of a great universe. Later it was discovered +through spectroscopic analysis that all the myriad of stars were +composed of chemical elements similar to our Sun. Here, then, was the +startling revelation that our Sun was simply a star, and that the stars +represented a "universe of Suns," and, if we could get near any one +star of the millions that sparkle in the heavens telescopically, we +should see it as a round ball emitting light and heat. It was perhaps +humiliating to find that our Sun was so insignificant in size that +from Sirius, for example, it could not be seen with the naked eye, so +small indeed that in the close companionship of other stars it would be +swallowed up by their greater size and brilliancy. + +To assume, then, that our Sun, so identical to the stars in heat and +light emitting properties, was the only Sun that had revolving around +it a few minute balls, would be as absurd as if one should go on a +pebbly beach, extending from Labrador to Florida for example, and +picking up a single pebble, should have the hardihood to assert that +this pebble was the only one, among the millions of pebbles, upon which +would be found the bits of seaweed and little snails which it might +support. The overwhelming vastness of the universe is entirely beyond +the grasp of the human mind. The mere statement that it requires so +many years for the light to reach us from a certain star, the parallax +of which has been rudely established, affords one only a faint glimmer +of the truth. The swing of our Earth about the Sun gives us a base line +of 186,000,000 of miles, and yet, with this enormous base from which +to subtend an angle, only a very few of the myriad of stars show the +slightest displacement; the others exhibit no more signs of divergence +than if while looking at them we had simply moved our heads from one +side to the other! Fixed stars they appear to be, and are so called, +though we are told they are all drifting in various directions, as our +star-Sun is. + +Only by reducing all these vast distances and dimensions to a minute +scale can the mind realize the futility of ever comprehending the +illimitable distances of space. + +In order to consider the attitude of the Earth in relation to the +Sun and the nearest fixed star, we will reduce the Sun's diameter of +866,000 miles to the dimensions of a ball one inch in diameter; the +Earth reduced to the same scale would be a minute speck less than one +one-hundredth of an inch in diameter; a perforation in paper made by +the finest cambric needle would represent the size of this minute +speck, the Earth. Following this scale we should place this speck nine +feet from the inch ball, this distance representing 93,000,000 of +miles, the Earth's distance from the Sun; Mars would be a still smaller +speck a step farther off. Let us now proceed to Boston Common, for +example, and on the smooth playground place our inch ball representing +the Sun; taking three good steps we should place our minute speck, +representing the Earth, upon the ground where it would be immediately +lost in the fine gravel; another step and we would place a still +smaller particle, representing Mars. How big a circle on the Earth's +surface, using the inch ball as a centre, should we have to describe in +order to include the nearest fixed star? Such a circle would reach to +Detroit, Michigan, and Columbus, Ohio, or Wilmington, North Carolina! +To find a circle which would include eight other fixed stars next in +distance, and only eight of the thousands which render the heavens +so beautiful on a clear winter's night--we should run such a circle +through the centre of Hudson Bay, the waters of southern Greenland, +Lake Winnipeg, and New Orleans! + +In this broad way only can we form a dim conception of the overwhelming +distances of space, and, in this absolutely unthinkable space, our +little Sun, with its constant rain of meteoric dust, an occasional +comet, and its microscopic planets are literally bunched together. To +admit, as we must then, that one of these motes has had irrigating +canals on various parts of its surface since prehistoric times, and the +other mote has nothing of the sort despite the geodetic lines that are +seen marking its surface, is simply preposterous. Their disposition, +their visibility coincident with the Martian summer, becoming apparent +only when the snow caps melt, their convergence towards centres of +distribution, all go to prove by the simplest analogy an identity of +structure. Certainly the overwhelming force of Lowell's observations +and arguments baffles any other reasonable explanation of the character +and purpose of these markings. Here are the lines, some following the +arcs of great circles, all appearing precisely when they should appear, +and in progressive strength from the north when the vivifying water +from the melting snow cap first starts the vegetation. Why certain +parallels or doublings are observed in some of the canals is about as +puzzling to us as the checkerboard townships of the West would appear +to a Martian, where some would be yellow with the ripening grain while +others, uncultivated, would appear of a different color. + + + + +III + +OTHER WORLDS INHABITED + + _Whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary + companions or not is to us a matter of pure conjecture, + which may or may not enter into our conception of the + universe. But probably every thoughtful person believes + with regard to those distant suns that there is in space + something besides our system on which they shine._ + + TYNDALL. + + +It would be a waste of time to attempt an interpretation of the +markings of Mars as a result of intelligent effort, if it could be +proved beyond a reasonable doubt that our globe was not only unique +among the bodies which probably accompany the innumerable suns, but was +the only body, among them all, sustaining creatures of intelligence. If +life exists in other planets of a nature with which we are familiar, +then the physical conditions must be similar to those of our own +planet. Later we shall point out the infinite variety of conditions +under which life--even man--exists on this globe, and it will be +shown that the question of higher or lower temperature, more or less +humidity, higher or lower atmospheric pressure, greater or less force +of gravity, can have but little weight in discussing the probability of +life in other worlds. + +In a planet devoid of atmosphere, or a sphere glowing with its own +heat, we may decide without question that life does not exist. Even +in a globe in many respects like our own it would be hazardous to +conjecture the kinds of organic forms in which it is manifested. +Reasoning from analogy, if life exists in Mars, or other spheres in +infinite space, it must have originated under much the same conditions +as it originated here; at the outset the most primitive bits of +protoplasm. But has life appeared in Mars? Tyndall, in graphic words, +pictures the rounding of worlds from nebulous haze, and then says, +"For eons, the immensity of which overwhelms man's conception, the +Earth was unfit to maintain what we call life. It is now covered +with visible living things. They are not formed of matter different +from that around them. They are, on the contrary, bone of its bone +and flesh of its flesh." Mars must come in the same category. It is +a part of the original nidus from which our world was condensed, and +however life originated in the past, the conditions for its origin, +at least, must have been as favorable on the surface of Mars, as on +the surface of the Earth, and, so far as we know to the contrary, even +more favorable. In the beginning, Mars cooled and hardened with all +those behaviors of contraction, condensation of vapor on its surface, +erosion, etc., and it is impossible to avoid the conviction that life, +as on our Earth, arose under the same physical conditions. Recalling +the resemblance which Mars bears to the Earth, and the data which have +already been established, we behold a world in many respects like ours, +with its sunsets and sunrises, winds that sweep over its surface, the +dust storms from the deserts, its snow-storms and snow-drifts, its +dazzling fields of white in the north, with an occasional snow-storm +that whitens the planet far down in latitude; the seasonal changes, +and, most important of all, the melting ice caps, with rivulets and +torrents, temporary arctic seas and frozen pools, its great expanses +of vegetation and sterile plains. We have in Mars the variety of +conditions under which life has assumed its infinite variety of aspects +on the Earth, and which, by analogy, should have passed through similar +stages in Mars. Life at the outset must have been protoplasmic; then +came contractile tissue, muscular bundles, hardened structures within +and without for their support, nerves to animate the muscles, and +protection for nerve-trunk, either rigid or flexible. Hard parts might +vary under a different force of gravity, though there might appear +types of structure that could be classified with our own. + +All such conditions, however, are mere surmises, for about such matters +we can reason only from analogy. The first proposition to establish is +that the conception of the plurality of worlds is not unreasonable, and +second, that many of the most eminent astronomers have believed in the +inhabitability of other worlds, and this justifies a reasonable man to +follow the inquiry. The belief is based upon legitimate analogies which +have thus far guided man in every generalization, in the establishment +of principles, and are continually appealed to in the details of every +day's experience. + +From remote times it has been taken for granted by the best minds +that other worlds besides ours sustain life. The early belief in the +plurality of worlds was based on the idea that since spheres like ours +had been fashioned by the Almighty they must have been made for the +same purpose for which our globe seemed intended, to sustain life, and +Scripture was freely quoted in support of the idea. + +Sir David Brewster, in his book "More Worlds Than One," says that the +doctrine of the plurality of worlds was maintained by almost all the +distinguished astronomers and writers who have flourished since the +true figure of the Earth was determined: "Giordano Bruno of Nola, +Kepler, and Tycho believed in it; and Cardinal Cusa and Bruno, before +the discovery of binary systems among the stars, believed also that +the stars were inhabited. Sir Isaac Newton likewise adopted it, and +Dr. Bentley, Master of Trinity College, in his eighth sermon on the +Confutation of Atheism from the origin and frame of the world, has ably +maintained the same doctrine. In our own day we may number among its +supporters the distinguished names of Laplace, Sir William and Sir John +Herschel, Dr. Chalmers, Isaac Taylor, and M. Arago." + +The attitude of the intelligent world to-day is well shown in a recent +number of London "Nature," where in a review of a book by Wallace, +endeavoring to show that this world alone sustains life, the reviewer +ends by saying: "To consider this Earth as the only inhabited body in +the stellar universe, a reversion to prehistoric ideas, may or may not +be an advance, but it will require very strong arguments before we can +be brought to consider that its isolation in the Cosmos is indeed a +fact." Until the discovery by Schiaparelli of the network of lines in +Mars, laid out with seemingly intelligent precision, the arguments for +the inhabitability of other worlds were based entirely upon analogy. +Sir Richard Owen, the great comparative anatomist, in supporting the +contention that life existed in other planets, said: "The grounds of +belief vary with the probability of a proposition; if nothing better +than analogy can be had--on analogy will belief be based." + +Professor O. M. Mitchell, the first director of the Cincinnati +Observatory, in his work on "Popular Astronomy," says, in regard to the +doctrine of the plurality of worlds: "It would be most incredible to +assert, as some have done, that our planet, so small and insignificant +in its proportions when compared with other planets with which it is +allied, is the only world in the whole universe filled with sentient, +rational and intelligent beings capable of comprehending the grand +mysteries of the physical universe." + +The eminent French astronomer, M. Flammarion, has, in an eloquent +passage in his "Plurality of Worlds," portrayed the vastness of the +universe and the utter insignificance of our Earth in the immensity of +space: "If advancing with the velocity of light[1] we could traverse +from century to century this unlimited number of suns and spheres +without ever meeting any limit to this prodigious immensity where God +brings forth worlds and beings; looking behind, but no longer knowing +in what part of the infinite to find this grain of dust called the +Earth, we should stop fascinated and confounded by such a spectacle, +and uniting our voice to the concert of universal nature we should say +from the depths of our soul, Almighty God! how senseless we were to +believe that there was nothing beyond the Earth, and that our abode +alone possessed the privilege of reflecting thy greatness and honor." + +Compare these elevating thoughts with the shrunken attitude of one who +has the conceit to imagine that he and his kind are not only alone +in the universe but superadds to this monstrous conception the idea +that the millions of great suns are designedly waltzing around solely +for his edification and amusement, unmindful of the heedless way in +which the millions of his race regard the overpowering majesty of the +heavens. To the thousand millions that live to-day, and the thousand, +thousand millions that have perished in the past, the starry heavens +have never excited an emotion grateful, reverent, or curious, unless +a flaming comet, or an eclipse of the Sun or Moon occurred, and then +with superstitious fear have they gone grovelling in the dust. + +An astronomer imbued with Hebraic conceptions of the universe is +poorly equipped to appreciate the arguments in favor of life in other +worlds. He may be keen in perceiving lines in the spectrum, and the +significance of their lateral displacement, but possessed with a +belief--the result of early training--that a little two-legged human +molecule could command the Sun and Moon to stand still, a realization +of his own insignificance, or the possibility of intelligence in other +worlds, must forever remain beyond his grasp. Emerson said "the dogmas +shrivel as dry leaves at the door of the observatory." They never +shrivel for such minds, but grow and flourish with a density that +obscures by, its rankness every rational conception of the heavens +above. As an illustration of the attitude of such mentalities we have +to go back fifty years, for few survive to-day. Edward Hitchcock, +Professor of Geology and Theology at Amherst, wrote a book just fifty +years ago entitled "Plurality of Worlds," in which he denounces the +idea; but observe the precise way in which he lays down the law: "The +planets had no vital tendencies, they could have had such given only by +an additional act or series of acts of creative power. As mere inert +globes, they had no settled destiny to be the seats of life; they could +have had such a destiny only by the appointment of Him who creates +living things and puts them in the places which he chooses for them" +(page 352). + +It may be objected that it is useless to bring up these old theological +conceptions, as the world has happily gone beyond them, and only in an +atavistic manner do we find a few still holding them; nevertheless it +may be safely asserted that fifty years hence we shall look back upon +the attitude of certain astronomers to-day with much the same pity and +amusement which excites us when we regard the attitude of a similar +class in the middle of the last century. + +Tyndall expresses the universal belief of thinkers in whatever line +of work, that life is by no means confined to this Earth. He says: +"Whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or +not is to us a matter of pure conjecture, which may or may not enter +into our conception of the universe. But probably every thoughtful man +believes, with regard to these distant Suns, that there is, in space, +something besides our system on which they shine." + +One class of objectors to the idea that other worlds are inhabited +endeavors to show that our position in the universe is unique, that the +solar system itself is quite unlike anything existing elsewhere, and, +to cap the climax, that our own little world has just the right amount +of water, air, and gravitational force to enable it to be the abode of +intelligent life, and nowhere else in the broad expanse of heaven can +such physical habitudes be found as will enable life to originate or to +exist! + +In a memoir on the "Evolution of the Solar System," by Professor T. +J. J. See, the author, while not denying the possibility of other +systems like our own, still considers our system unique. Here are his +words: "Therefore, while observation gives us no grounds for denying +the existence of other systems like our own, it does not enable us +to affirm, or even to render probable, that such systems do exist." +Because a number of binary stars have been discovered in which the two +stars are nearly equal in mass, and their orbits highly eccentric, he +therefore concludes that the millions of stars that stud the heavens +are probably without satellites. The unreasonableness of this attitude +is emphasized by realizing that these innumerable suns are similar +to our own Sun, as revealed by the spectroscope, and have a similar +eruptive energy. Professor Newcomb, however, says: "Evidence is +continually increasing that dark and opaque worlds like ours exist and +revolve around their primaries." Had Mr. See discovered that every +star of the many million was accompanied by another star nearly equal +in mass, with its marked eccentric behavior, then only would he be +justified in his inference that our solar system was indeed unique. +When one realizes that the stars are at such unimaginable distances +that the highest powers of the telescope reveal even the nearest of +them only as points of light--not as disks--and when one further +realizes that the satellites of our Sun, even the largest of them, +are diminutive globes compared to the vastness of the Sun, it seems +unreasonable if not impossible to entertain the idea that none of these +remote stars are accompanied by satellites, and that, therefore, this +little Sun of ours stands without parallel in the universe. + +Tyndall, in his famous reply to the critics of his Belfast address, +in speaking of the origin of life, referred to the Nebular Theory +as follows: "According to it our sun and planets were once diffused +through space as an impalpable haze out of which by condensation +came the solar system. What caused it to condense? Loss of heat. +What rounded the sun and planets? That which rounds a tear, +molecular force." In these terse and graphic expressions we are made +to understand the universality of law. So far as we have sounded +the depths of the stellar universe we see the same obedience to +gravitational laws, the same flashing lines in the spectrum. We +encounter no phenomena that cannot be explained, or at least inferred, +by the knowledge we have obtained from our little mote of the Cosmos. + +Mr. See thinks it remarkable that "previous investigators have almost +invariably approached the problem of cosmogony from the point of +view of the planets and satellites, and that no considerable attempt +has been made to inquire into the development of the great number of +systems observed among the fixed stars." It is true our planetary +system has been used as a standard of measurement for the universe, +and a very comprehensive standard it has proved to be. The law of +universal gravitation was based on terrestrial and lunar observations, +spectroscopic analysis was determined in a terrestrial laboratory. As +George Iles says, a coal of fire may be raked from a grate and broken +up to illustrate the rapid cooling of smaller masses. Even a child's +spinning top may be used in an astronomical lecture. The study of our +Sun led to the study of the fixed stars, and so our little system +has thus far furnished us with examples and illustrations by which we +interpret the universe. + +In our solar system we have a fair sample of the Cosmos in miniature, +though our Sun is so modest in size, compared with the great orbs that +appeal to us by their number and brilliancy. So far as our telescopes +have sounded the heavens we find nebulous clouds in their structure +showing inchoate masses, orbital and spiral arrangements, condensations +in their centres. We have the binaries with their extraordinary +properties, we have variables with their dark bodies revolving around +their primaries. In our little system we also have dark bodies +revolving around a luminous primary, from one of which we endeavor +to interpret the mysteries of the universe; we have loose masses, +as in comets with enormously elongated orbits; we have spheres of +insignificant size, with small bodies revolving around them, and these +epitomes revolving around a central sun; we have one of these bodies +with meteoric rings; and, in the case of our own globe, a satellite of +such size that except in the form of its orbit it might well represent +a binary in embryo;--and, finally, a host of bodies big enough to +reflect the rays of the sun, pursuing their various orbital paths. +We are told that the stars are as distant from each other as we are +from them. We may regard these systems of nebulæ, variables, doubles, +etc., as different kinds or species of heavenly bodies; and to assert +that our system is the only individual of the species in the universe +seems contrary to all celestial analogy, for do we not have hundreds of +binaries, thousands of variables, millions of suns, revealing the same +fiery energy and consuming the same elemental fuel? + +Professor Newcomb in his "Reminiscences" describes his first sweeping +the heavens, at random, with the then new twenty-six inch refractor +at the Naval Observatory and discovering a little cluster of stars so +small and faint that the individual stars eluded even the great power +of this instrument. He says: "I could not help the vain longing which +one must sometimes feel under such circumstances, to know what beings +might live on planets belonging to what, from an earthly point of view, +seemed to be on the border of creation itself." One would suppose that +this expression of a longing to ascertain the character of the beings +inhabiting planets circling these distant suns would induce one to +study a planet analogous to our Earth, and so near in comparison to +these unimaginable distances as to be within a hand's grasp, so to +speak. The little interest Professor Newcomb has taken in the subject +is well expressed in his late book "Astronomy for Everybody." In his +chapter on Mars, in which _Everybody_ is certainly interested, he says: +"The reader will excuse me for saying anything in this chapter about +the possible inhabitants of Mars. He knows just as much of the subject +as I do, and that is nothing at all." He might at least have given the +various pronouncements of Schiaparelli, Lowell, and others as to the +probable character of these remarkable markings on Mars, and their +supposed significance. + +While Professor Newcomb's attitude on the question of the plurality +of worlds has been somewhat conservative in the past he has lately, +however, expressed himself on the question in no uncertain terms. In a +recent article in "Harper's Magazine," entitled "Probability of Life +in Other Worlds," he has lent his sanction to the rational idea that +other worlds may be the abode of intelligent creatures. His recognition +of the principle will do much to offset the influence if it ever had +any, of a recent book published in England by Alfred Russel Wallace, +in which the distinguished author attempts to show that this world +stands alone as the abode of intelligent life. Despite his epoch-making +work with Darwin, nearly fifty years ago, which must forever merit our +gratitude, and the charm of his various essays on protective coloring, +mimicry, theory of birds' nests, etc., he has since those lucid days +expressed convictions of such a nature that if a future DeMorgan +should write on human paradoxes he would classify Mr. Wallace as chief +among them. A profound believer in evolution, he exempts man from the +inexorable logic of the principle with about as much reason as if, +confessing his belief in the nebular hypothesis, he should insist that +the Earth was an exception. + +But to return to Professor Newcomb's recent utterances. In the +above-mentioned article he says: "Not only does life, but intelligence, +flourish on this globe under great variety of conditions as regards +temperature and surroundings, and no sound reason can be shown +why, under certain conditions which are frequent in the universe, +intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development." Again +he says: "Life, not wholly unlike that on the Earth, may therefore +exist upon Mars, for anything we know to the contrary. More than this +we cannot say." In his final summing up Professor Newcomb says: "It is +therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings not only animated +but endowed with reason inhabit countless worlds in space." + +It would seem as if a mind capable of entertaining an idea of our +uniqueness in the universe betrays the survival of a mental condition +which, centuries ago, regarded the stars as bits of luminous material +expressly designed to illuminate this little earth, around which they +all pursued their daily paths. + + + + +IV + +LOWELL'S BOOK ON MARS + + _This whole arrangement presents an indescribable + simplicity and symmetry which cannot be the work of chance._ + + SCHIAPARELLI, in writing of the canals. + + +In a discussion of the surface markings of Mars a broad sketch of +what has already been accomplished in the study of that planet +should be given for the general reader. I know of no better way of +doing this than by giving a brief abstract of Percival Lowell's +epoch-making work entitled "Mars." In this book he presents in a clear +and striking manner the results of his own work covering continuous +observations of the planet for many years. The preface is dated from +Flagstaff, Arizona, 1895. Since that time he has issued three volumes +of Memoirs, in quarto, of the Lowell Observatory, and a number of +Bulletins in which he presents many additional facts confirming +previous observations, besides new observations; and finally, in a late +Bulletin, he has presented photographs of Mars made by his assistant, +Mr. Lampland, in which a number of canals plainly show, thus setting +forever at rest the question of the subjective character of the +markings. The student must, however, follow the advice of an English +reviewer and by all means read the book. + +"To determine," says Mr. Lowell, "whether a planet be the abode of +life in the least resembling that with which we are acquainted, two +questions about it must be answered in turn: first, are its physical +conditions such as render it, in our general sense, habitable; and +secondly, are there any signs of its actual habitation? These problems +must be attacked in their order, for unless we can answer the first +satisfactorily, it were largely futile to seek for evidence of the +second." The reason why Mars in certain years becomes so conspicuous +is that its orbit is highly eccentric. Every two years--the period of +its revolution about the Sun--brings it nearest to the Sun, and once in +fifteen years we find ourselves between it and the Sun at its nearest +approach. + +Huyghens, in 1659, made a drawing of the dark region on Mars now known +as the Syrtis Major, and, through its disappearance and reappearance, +he discovered that the planet rotated on its axis, and roughly +determined a daily period of twenty-four hours. For the first time it +was known that Mars had a day and a night. As some doubts existed as to +the correctness of Huyghens's figures, Cassini in 1666 determined anew +the rotation period of Mars and found it to be twenty-four hours and +forty minutes. From the white polar caps, the study of which we first +owe to Maraldi, it was found that the tilt of its axis to the plane +of its orbit was very nearly the same as that of the Earth. As this +inclination determines the seasons, it was seen that Mars, like the +Earth, had its spring, summer, autumn, and winter. A polar flattening +was also observed which was slightly in excess of ours. + +"To all forms of life of which we have any conception, two things in +Nature are vital, air and water." Has it an atmosphere? Without air +no change could take place. The Moon without air remains unchanged, +except what gravitation accomplishes in pulling down crater walls. +"With Mars it is otherwise. Over the surface of that planet changes do +occur, changes upon a scale vast enough to be visible from the Earth." +The first sign of change occurs in the polar snow cap. It dwindles in +size every two years (the time of a single revolution of Mars around +the sun). For nearly two hundred years these white polar caps have +been observed to wax and wane. As the Martian winter comes on in the +northern hemisphere, for example, the polar cap extends its borders to +the temperate zone. As summer comes on the snow cap is seen to dwindle +gradually away, till by early autumn it presents but a tiny patch a +few hundred miles across. Schiaparelli observed changes in tint which +he noticed were correlated with the seasons. In 1894 observations +were made continuously from early June till late in November. These +dates, in Mars, represent the last of April till the last of August. +During this time marked changes took place in the bluish-green areas +of the planet. A wave of seasonal change swept down from the pole to +the equator. The fact of this occurrence constitutes positive proof of +the presence of an atmosphere. In another way the evidence was shown. +A series of measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of +Mars were made, and these indicated that a visible layer of twilight +atmosphere had been measured. This, Lowell explains by a diagram and +other data. It is found, according to Lowell's observations, that the +atmosphere is much freer from clouds than had been supposed. He shows +conclusively that it is much rarer than that of the Earth. Appearances +have been seen, however, which are best explained by assuming them to +be clouds. + +During the opposition of 1892, Mr. Douglass, at that time an assistant +astronomer at the Lowell Observatory, made a special study of the +terminator of Mars.[2] A careful study of the terminator for almost +every degree of latitude was made, and 733 irregularities were +detected. Of this large number, 694 were not only recorded, but +measured; and of these, 403 were depressions, and 291 were elevations +of the surface. Many of these irregularities were supposed to be +clouds, but the arguments to support this attribution are too technical +to be presented here. Unmistakable clouds have also been seen moving at +a definite rate of speed, as if carried along by the wind. + +"To sum up, now, what we know about the atmosphere of Mars: we have +proof positive that Mars has an atmosphere; we have reason to believe +this atmosphere to be very thin,--thinner at least by half than the air +upon the summit of the Himalayas,--and in constitution, not to differ +greatly from our own." + +As to the existence of water on the planet, one has only to consider +the polar snow caps. In the height of the southern winter, the +polar cap of snow measures over two thousand miles across, covering +fifty-five degrees of latitude, with one unbroken waste of white. As +spring advances the snow begins to melt, disappearing rapidly as summer +comes on, and, as it melts, a dark band is seen bordering this edge. As +the snow recedes the dark band recedes. This band is, therefore, not a +permanent marking on the planet, but obviously water, the result of the +melting snow--an arctic sea, in fact. This band is irregular, varying +in width in different longitudes, as if the water filled up large areas +of depression. When finally the snow cap disappears, as it did for the +first time on record on the notable occasion of October 13, 1894, the +dark band, which had become thinner, disappeared also, leaving only a +yellow stretch of surface. An additional proof that this dark band is +water, was established by Professor W. H. Pickering, for he discovered +that the light reflected from its surface was polarized. The absurdity +of the suggestion that these white polar caps are not snow, but +congealed carbonic acid gas, is fully shown by Lowell. + +The asymmetry of the outline of these snow caps is paralleled by the +irregularity of the Earth's polar caps. Glints of brilliant light +are seen to flash out from this region, as if produced by sunlight +reflected from a sloping surface. On comparing these flashes of light +with observations made by Green, in 1877, they were found to be in +the same place. Detached fields of snow were also observed below +the receding line, an evidence that these regions were at a higher +elevation. As before stated, on October 13, 1894, for the first time in +the record of polar observations, the southern polar cap disappeared +entirely. In this connection it may be of interest to observe that in +the United States, in the summer of 1894, the temperature ranged a few +degrees above the normal. (For this fact I am indebted to Professor +Cleveland Abbe, E. S. M.) + +The large, irregular, dark regions on the planet have been supposed +to be bodies of water, or seas, and have been described and named +as such by astronomers. Lowell shows, however, that there is every +reason to doubt this conclusion. "To begin with, they are of every +grade of tint,--a very curious feature for seas to exhibit, unless +they were everywhere but a few feet deep; which, again, is a most +singular characteristic for seas that cover hundreds of thousands of +square miles in extent,--seas, that is, as large as the Bay of Bengal. +The Martian surface would have to be amazingly flat for this to be +possible. We know it to be relatively flat, but to be as flat as all +this would seem to pass the bounds of credible simplicity. Here, also, +Professor W. H. Pickering's polariscope investigations come in with +effect, for he found the light from the supposed seas to show no trace +of polarization. Hence, these were probably not water." + +Lowell also shows that if these regions were seas, or water surfaces +of the shallowest kind, sunlight would certainly be reflected from +some portion of the surface so as to be visible from the Earth. A +calculation of the region from which such a beam of light might be +reflected has been carefully made, but no light of this nature has ever +been seen. These regions change in color, and Schiaparelli suggested +that in some way these changes were dependent on the Martian seasons. +Lowell, by continuous observations covering many presentations of the +planet, has demonstrated that the changes in color are synchronous +with the seasons, and they further show that these regions change in +expanse as well. The reader must refer to Lowell's book to understand +the very minute way in which the author traces out the behavior of +these so-called seas as the Martian summer advances and autumn comes +on. His evidence is overwhelming that the regions heretofore regarded +as seas are vast tracts of vegetation, doubtless on lower levels, or +depressions of the surface, old sea bottoms, in fact, where springs +and the natural settlings of stray waters might keep the ground +sufficiently moist to support a scanty growth. The regions not marked +by the dark shading, from their reddish and yellowish tinge, have +always been regarded as land, probably desert land, as they remain +fixed from year to year, dead and unchangeable as deserts are. + +The question naturally arises, if the water of Mars is piled up at +the poles as snow, how does it find its way back on its melting? +A discovery made by Schiaparelli in 1877 revealed the existence +of various lines marking the surface which he called _canali_, or +channels.[3] These lines cover the face of the planet like a net, they +are laid out with geodetic precision. "The lines start from points on +the coast of the blue-green regions, commonly well-marked bays, and +proceed directly to what seem centres in the middle of the continent, +since, most surprisingly, they meet there other lines that have come +to the same spot with apparently a like determinate intent." In other +words these lines--fine, straight, dark, as if cut by an engraver, some +of them running for hundreds of miles--converge at certain centres. +They all start, as Schiaparelli first observed, from definite regions +and terminate at definite points. Many of them follow the arcs of great +circles. These lines may be thirty or more miles in width, apparently +preserving the same width throughout, though slightly wider where they +leave the dark bands. They run in every direction, a number often +converging at a common centre, and, when they do so, a round, dark area +appears which Lowell has called an oasis. + +In the clear and steady atmosphere of Flagstaff, Mr. Lowell, by the +aid of his superb telescope, has added about four times as many canals +as are shown on Schiaparelli's chart. These canals form an intricate +network of lines, and no one can contemplate these curious features +without being impressed by their artificial character. Schiaparelli, +who first discovered them in 1877, continued his observations from +year to year despite the fact that no one else could see them. In the +course of a few years he discovered a still more remarkable condition, +and this was that a number of the canals appeared double. This, indeed, +seemed an optical illusion, and by no means strengthened his position, +as the single canals proclaimed by him were supposed to be figments of +the imagination. Undeterred by the general scepticism, Schiaparelli +established, at each fresh opposition, his previous announcements. For +nine years no one was able to confirm his marvellous discoveries. In +the year 1886, however, Perrotin, at Nice, with his assistant, Thollon, +managed to make out a number of the canals, single and double, which +were carefully drawn. Reference to Perrotin's work will be made further +on. The reason why so few have seen them is the lack of observers +with acute eyesight and patient devotion to the work, coupled with +unsteady air. Size of aperture seems to be of little importance. That +Schiaparelli, with an 8-1/3 inch glass, discovered the canals, while +with the twenty-six inch glass of the Naval Observatory at Washington +they have never been seen, is emphatic evidence of what a clear and +steady atmosphere means in the study of delicate planetary markings. + +The artificiality of the canals is shown by the "supernaturally regular +appearance of the system, upon three distinct counts: first, the +straightness of the lines; second, their individually uniform width; +and, third, their systematic radiation from special points." It was +the mathematical shape of the Ohio mounds that first suggested their +artificial character. That these lines are artificial and not natural +is seen in the fact that at times they are not visible. The lines while +temporary in appearance are permanently in place. "Not only do they not +change in position during one opposition; they seem not to do so from +one opposition to another." "Unchangeable, apparently, in position, the +canals are otherwise among the most changeable features of the Martian +disk." The order of their appearance synchronizes with the changes of +the season, as the snow caps begin to melt the canals begin to appear; +in appearance strengthened first at the borders of the polar seas +and gradually stretching down towards the equator. In minute detail +Lowell presents the successive visibility of the different canals. To +account for all these phenomena we have to look at our own Earth for a +parallel, and we see it in the great irrigation tracks of the West, and +in the vast irrigated regions in India depending upon the melting of +the Himalaya snow cap. + +The accumulative evidence is overwhelming that here is a dry planet, +and an intelligence of some kind that can only survive by utilizing the +few remaining sources of water supply. It is to the merit of Professor +W. H. Pickering, to whom Professor Lowell gives the credit of having +first suggested the idea of irrigation to account for the great width +of the canals. What we see, then, is not the canal, which may be a +slender stream of water, but a broad band of vegetation irrigated from +these narrow channels. These lines penetrate and cross the dark regions +in various directions, which again offer additional proof that the +so-called seas are not seas but areas of vegetation sparsely scattered, +against which the irrigated portions are of sufficient strength and +color to show.[4] + +Among the most interesting features of the planet's surface are the +round, or oval spots which Lowell calls oases; these invariably occur +at the junction of the canals. "In spite of the great number of the +spots, not one of them stands isolate. There is not a single instance +of a spot that is not connected by a canal to the rest of the dark +areas." There appears to be no spot that has not two or more canals +running to it, and apparently no canal junction is without its spot. +The majority of the spots are 120 to 150 miles in diameter. There are +many smaller ones. These spots, like the canals, appear and disappear +coincidently with seasonal changes. The canals and the oases follow +the same method and order in their growth. "Both are affected by one +progressive change that sweeps over the face of the planet from the +pole to the equator." The reader cannot dwell too strongly on the fact +that the visibility of these various markings appears first in northern +latitudes, and gradually darkens toward the equator, precisely the +reverse of the unfolding of plant life on the Earth. From Mars our +Earth would show its tropical vegetation the year round, while in Mars +no tropical vegetable coloration would appear until water from the +melting polar snow caps animates its growth. + +Lowell shows conclusively that the seas are not seas, nor the canals +waterways, nor the spots lakes. Apparently, the spots appear not so +much by an increase in size as by a deepening in tint. They start, it +would seem, as big as they are to be, but faint in tone; they then +proceed to darken throughout. If these spots are areas of vegetation, +the explanation of their appearance is at once evident. Even more +markedly unnatural is another phenomenon of this phenomenal system, +of which almost every one has heard and almost nobody has seen,--the +double canals. Upon a part of the disk where, up to that time, a +single canal has been visible, of a sudden, some night, in place of +the single canal, twin canals are perceived, similar in character and +inclination, absolutely parallel, reminding one of the twin rails of a +railroad track. The regularity of the thing is startling. In details +the doubles vary, chiefly, it would seem, in the distance the twin +lines lie apart. Lowell says the widest he has seen is the Ganges, +in which six degrees separate the two lines,--in the narrowest, the +Phison, four degrees and a quarter. From 120 to 175 miles of clear +country is found between the paralleling lines. "One element of mystery +may be eliminated at the outset.... It is perceived of a sudden, by the +observer, because of some specially favorable night. But it has been +for some time developing. So much is apparent from my observations. +Suggestions of duality occurred weeks before the thing stood definitely +revealed. Furthermore, the gemination may lie concealed from the +observer some time after it is quite complete, owing to lack of +favorable atmospheric conditions. For it takes emphatically steady air +to see it unmistakably." Each canal has its individual behavior of +doubling, and the varying widths, and their evident seasonal relations +utterly forbid the conception that their appearance is due to optical +illusion. Mr. Lowell feels tolerably sure that the doubling, or +gemination of the canals, show that the phenomenon is not only seasonal +but vegetal. Why it should take this form is one of the most pregnant +problems about the planet. For it is the most artificial-looking +phenomenon of an artificial-looking disk. + +We quote a paragraph from the concluding chapter in his book: "To +review, now, the chain of reasoning by which we have been led to +regard it probable that upon the surface of Mars we see the effects +of local intelligence. We find, in the first place, that the broad +physical conditions of the planet are not antagonistic to some form +of life; secondly, that there is an apparent dearth of water upon the +planet's surface, and, therefore, if beings of sufficient intelligence +inhabited it, they would have to resort to irrigation to support life; +thirdly, that there turns out to be a network of markings covering the +disk, precisely counterparting what a system of irrigation would look +like; and, lastly, that there is a set of spots placed where we should +expect to find the lands thus artificially fertilized, and behaving as +such constructed oases should. All this, of course, may be a set of +coincidences, signifying nothing; but the probability points the other +way. As to details of explanation, any we may adopt will undoubtedly be +found, on closer acquaintance, to vary from the actual Martian state of +things; for any Martian life must differ markedly from our own." + + * * * * * + +In this brief résumé of Lowell's work on Mars but scant justice has +been done to the many novel and convincing suggestions in explanation +of the varied features marking the surface of Mars. There are many +enigmas, however, awaiting solution, if we endeavor to explain them +by comparison with the methods pursued by man on this Earth, and Mr. +Lowell frankly admits the many difficulties in the way of a clear +solution. I have already mentioned how puzzling the checker-board +appearance of our Western townships would seem to a Martian, but this +comparison does not help us to understand the so-called gemination of +the canals, though we might have parallel sets of canals, as we have +parallel lines of railways. The enormous distance which the water +travels in the Martian canals must presuppose an artificial method of +urging it on. Precisely how this operation might be accomplished is a +question to be solved by the mechanical and hydraulic engineer. + +Beside the doubling, or so-called gemination, of the canals, there are +other enigmas in the markings. At certain times there has been observed +in the equatorial region of Mars a number of white spots, which have +greatly puzzled the student of Mars and for which no explanation has +yet been offered. That they are not clouds is seen in the fact that +they do not move or drift. Furthermore these white spots are fixed +features of the region, as they appear in the same places. It might +be suggested that they represent snow-capped elevations or mountain +peaks, but this is difficult to believe, as an examination of the +terminator of Mars reveals no evidences of high elevations. These white +spots appear only in mid-summer, which would argue against the idea +of their being snow caps, as in mid-summer they would certainly melt +and disappear. The time of their appearance coincides with the time +of greatest equatorial heat. For a reasonable suggestion it might be +offered that these white spots are due to vegetation of some kind. +The cotton belt of the South, if one could imagine the cotton bolls a +little larger and more crowded together, would make white areas. Masses +of white flowers, such as the whiteweed or daisy, may be seen covering +hundreds of acres of meadow land in New England. I have noticed from +the tops of mountains in New Hampshire, in July, extensive meadow +lands resembling fields of snow from the profusion of white daisies. +The blossoming of fruit trees in the Santa Clara valley, California, +whitens the surface for miles. Since the appearance of these white +spots in Mars corresponds with the period of greatest evaporation, it +is conceivable that an intelligence in Mars might utilize the same +method which has been recently adopted in Connecticut and Porto Rico +in the raising of tobacco; namely, to protect the fields with white +cotton cloth; or, as in Florida, where extensive orange groves are +covered with white cloth to guard against sudden frost. That this +supposition has something to commend it may be seen in the accompanying +reproduction of a photograph (Plate I), made in Porto Rico, of tobacco +plantations when the fields are covered with white cloth supported on +suitable frames. This picture appeared in an article by Eugene P. Lyle, +Jr., on Porto Rico, in the January number of "World's Work," to the +publishers of which we are indebted for the privilege of using it. + +These various guesses may all be wrong, as, after all, we are judging +Mars from conditions belonging to our own planet. This, however, we are +compelled to do, as we have no other standards of comparison. + +[Illustration: PLATE I + +TOBACCO CULTIVATION UNDER CLOTH, PORTO RICO] + + + + +V + +TESTIMONY OF ASTRONOMERS + + _That there may be types of life of some kind on Mars is, I + should think, quite likely._ + + SIR ROBERT BALL. + + +In the following chapter are presented abstracts from memoirs, +communications, etc., of a few among the many astronomers and observers +who have recognized the markings on the planet, and, in many cases, +have made drawings of them. Before presenting these few brief records, +I have compiled, from Camille Flammarion's great work on Mars, the +names of those astronomers whose drawings he reproduces in this +monograph, for such it is. A brief examination of Flammarion's volume +will give one an idea of the extent and variety of work which has +already been accomplished in interpreting the surface features of +Mars, and the number of astronomers who have made contributions to the +subject. + +Flammarion divides these observations into three periods; the first, +beginning with the rude drawing of Fontana, in 1636, followed by +Huyghens, in 1659, Cassini, in 1666, and many others up to Harding, +in 1824. In this period the drawings were rude, though a number of +the more conspicuous features were established, and above all, the +existence of what was interpreted as snow in the white polar caps. +Astronomically many points were determined, such as an approximation +of the period of revolution, the distance of Mars from the Sun, the +diameter of the planet, its mass, the inclination of its axis, the +eccentricity of its orbit, its period of rotation, etc. + +The second period begins with the remarkable work of Beer and Mäedler, +in 1830 and subsequent years. To them belongs the honor of being the +first astronomers to make a chart of the planet. An advance standard +was set for future studies, and the work which followed revealed +details in the surface markings never before suspected. The second +period, from 1830 to 1877, includes the observations and drawings of +Beer and Mäedler, 1830; Sir John Herschel, 1830; Galle, 1837; Warren +de la Rue, 1856; Webb, 1856; Secchi, 1858; Liais, 1860; Schmidt, +1862; Lockyer, 1862; Phillips, 1862; Lassell, 1862; Knott, 1862; +Kaiser, 1862; Dawes, 1864; Franzenne, 1864; Williams, 1867; Proctor, +1867; Lahardeley, 1871; Burton, 1871; Wilson, 1871; Gledhill, 1871; +Flammarion, 1873; Terby, 1873; Green, 1873; Trouvelot, 1873; Lohse, +1873; Holden, 1875. + +The third period extends from 1877 to 1892, when Flammarion published +his book. The following drawings are given: Flammarion, 1877-88; Paul +and Prosper Henry, 1877; Neisten, 1877-79-81-88; Terby, 1877-79-88; +Van Ertborn, 1877; Cruls, 1877; Dreyer, 1877-79; Lohse, 1877-79-83-84; +Green, 1877; Schiaparelli, 1877-79; Maunder, 1879; Konkoly, 1879; +Boeddicker, 1881-84; Burton, 1882; Trouvelot, 1884; Knoble, 1884; +Denning, 1886; Perrotin and Thollon, 1886; Proctor, 1888; Perrotin, +1888; Holden and Keeler, 1888; Wislicenus, 1888-90; W. H. Pickering, +1890; Williams, 1890; Giovannozzi, 1890; Guillaume, 1890. + +It is impossible to follow these various drawings of Mars from the +earliest ones of the first period, many of little value, to the slow +yet certain advance as seen in the more detailed drawings of the second +period, without realizing the gradual improvement of the telescope, +coupled with a greater number of observers endowed with better eyesight +and impelled by deeper interest in the work. In the third period, +culminating with the great work of Schiaparelli, and confirmed by the +remarkable observations of Perrotin and Thollon, we see the results of +still more arduous devotion to the work; a great advance in telescopes, +with better definition, and, in the case of the observations at Nice +and Milan, a steadier atmosphere through which to observe. Flammarion +brought his work up to 1892. + +Lowell's work on Mars, though of a kind with Schiaparelli, is, in every +circumstance accompanying it, so remarkable that we may well consider +the standard now set by him as the beginning of another period; +and this period will fix a standard which will consist in securing +observers who, in the language of Sir David Gill, have a special +faculty, an inborn capacity, a delight in the exercise of exceptional +acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity, coupled with the gift of +imagination as to the true meaning of what they observe. With this +standard established, there must also go a perfect telescope for +definition, mounted on an elevation a mile and a half or more above the +level of the sea, in a region of the clearest and steadiest atmosphere +in the world. + +One cannot help reflecting on these various drawings presented in +Flammarion's work, and wondering what the results would have been if +all these astronomers could have had telescopes as incomparable as +that at Flagstaff, perched on some high mountain peak with a clear and +steady atmosphere continuous for weeks, and, superadded to all these +advantages, independent fortunes to enable them to transport their +telescopes thousands of miles south when a favorable opposition of Mars +occurred at a low altitude. + +The astronomers who have advanced certain theories to explain the +markings may be counted as admitting their existence, whatever they may +be. Among the other astronomers to be referred to are, first, those +who admit the markings, and have in all likelihood seen them; second, +those who have observed and made drawings of the markings; and, third, +those who have drawn them and admit, or at least do not deny, their +artificiality. + +Miss Agnes M. Clerke, an astronomical writer of great merit, who has +written a most lucid and comprehensive "History of Astronomy in the +Nineteenth Century," says: "The canals of Mars are an existent and +permanent phenomenon." Mr. Thomas Lindsay, of Toronto, read some +notes before the Astronomical Society of that city in regard to the +phenomenon of the so-called doubling of the canals and the explanation +advanced that it was due to errors in focusing. "It had been stated +by several English observers that, by racking the eyepiece within or +without the focus, all the phenomena might be produced." In the case +of Mars, however, he asks: "How is it possible that all the observers +had their telescopes unadjusted, and, if any one had, would he not +be immediately aware of it?" Mr. Lindsay thought that the theory was +too obviously opposed to the simplest kind of common sense to merit a +moment's consideration. + +Mr. John A. Patterson, in his Presidential address before the +Astronomical Society of Toronto, in speaking of Mars, said the +discoveries rest on the bed rock of scientific evidence; and, after +speaking of the supposed spectroscopic evidence that there was no +atmosphere in Mars, refers to the polar snow caps, their melting, and +the lines of vegetation that are supposed to mark the margin of the +canals, and he asks: "Is it possible that all these may be consistent +with no vapor floating above the surface? Is it sound philosophy to +conclude that the condition of things on our own little world gauges +the possibilities and relations that exist in our sister world? Dame +Nature does not turn out all her products in one pattern." + +Mr. Denning, in the "Astronomische Nachrichten," No. 3926, gives +the result of his observations on Mars in 1903. He says the canals, +without doubt, are objective features; changes in the appearance of +these markings he attributes to vaporous condensations. One rotation +period of the planet satisfies the observation of all the markings, +thus proving them to be definite features of the planet's surface +rather than drifting vapors such as are seen when observing Jupiter +and Saturn. In spite of these admissions Mr. Denning, in 1905, while +repeating his convictions as to the objectivity of the canals, denied +their sharp outline. Of the ten canals he drew, eight were discovered +by Schiaparelli, and two were discovered by Lowell. Denning observed +these lines with a ten inch reflector. Schiaparelli compared them in +sharpness to lines of a steel engraving. It rests with the reader +to judge who is most likely to be correct in his description of the +character of the lines--Mr. Denning with a ten inch reflector, in a +poor atmosphere, or Schiaparelli and Lowell, with a twenty-six and a +twenty-four inch refractor, respectively, in a far superior atmosphere. + +Among the many who have seen and drawn the canals comes first, of +course, Professor Schiaparelli, the discoverer of them. It is only +necessary to state here that he first detected these enigmatical +markings, which he named _canali_, in 1877. In the opposition of 1879, +he not only confirmed the discoveries of 1877, but added new _canali_, +and for the first time saw the curious process of doubling, or +gemination. + +Astronomers in various parts of the world searched in vain for these +markings, and despite the exalted character and remarkable work of the +distinguished Italian in other lines of astronomic research, it was +feared that, in this instance, Schiaparelli had been the victim of an +hallucination. It is true that from the time of Huyghens, in 1659, a +few astronomers, such as Secchi, Schroeter, Kaiser, and Dawes, have +detected and drawn a few faint lines which seemed to be identical with +the _canali_ of Schiaparelli. It was not until 1886, however, that +Perrotin and Thollon with a twenty-nine inch refractor of the Nice +Observatory, first began to confirm the discoveries of Schiaparelli, +and since that time observers in various parts of the world have +detected and drawn these remarkable lines. The cumulative testimony of +these men as to the veritable existence of these markings cannot be set +aside. + +It seems strange that nine years should elapse before an astronomer +with an interest in the subject, coupled with an acute vision and the +patience to observe assiduously, should arise to confirm the existence +of these markings, but in another chapter I have called attention to +the little interest astronomers have manifested in planetary markings +of any kind. It has been shown elsewhere that acute vision, with a +clear and, above all, a steady atmosphere, are the chief essentials +in making out the markings. It is curious to note the attitude of +some astronomers, who, having seen the canals and even drawn them, +denied their veritability. Their explanations cover "illusions due to +the property of light itself, the inability of the eye to maintain +its mechanism of accommodation, the behavior of air waves, temporary +alteration of the focus of the eye, undetected astigmatism," etc., +etc. But, to return to the astronomers who have drawn them. On the +unfavorable opposition of 1888, Schiaparelli declares that "the +_canali_ had all the distinctness of an engraving on steel, with the +magical beauty of a colored engraving." He furthermore says: "As far as +we have been able to observe them hitherto, they are certainly fixed +configurations upon the planet, the Nilosyrtis has been seen in that +place for nearly one hundred years and some of the others for at least +thirty years." + +In this connection it is interesting to quote from Schiaparelli who, +until many years after he discovered the canals of Mars, had no doubt +of their natural origin. As late as 1893, he still considered them +natural. In speaking of the canals, he says: "It is not necessary +to suppose here the work of intelligent beings; and in spite of the +almost geometric appearance of their whole system, for the present +we incline to believe that they are product of the evolution of a +planet, much as on the Earth is the English Channel, or the Channel +of Mozambique." This extract may be found in a memoir in "Natura ed +Arte," 1893, page 22. On page 24 of the same memoir Schiaparelli +illustrates the elasticity of his mind and a thoroughly unprejudiced +attitude by saying: "Their singular aspect, and the fact that they +are drawn with absolute geometric precision, as if they were the +product of rule and compass, have induced some people to see in them +the work of intelligent beings, inhabitants of the planet. _I should +be very careful not to combat this supposition, which involves no +impossibility._" (The italics are ours.) His comparison of the Martian +lines with the English Channel and the Channel of Mozambique, if he +means any resemblance in form and not in the manner of formation, is +most unfortunate, for on the whole face of the Earth he could not +have mentioned surface features more totally unlike any feature of the +Martian surface, as drawn by him, than these two channels: the English +Channel, 100 miles wide at its mouth and 200 miles long, tapering to +the Straits of Dover; the Mozambique Channel, hour-glass shaped, 1,100 +miles long, and, at its narrowest part, 260 miles wide, and at either +end nearly 700 miles wide. Had he suggested the Red Sea, 1,200 miles +long, or the Straits of Malacca, 350 miles long, a nearer resemblance +to the canals of Mars might have been seen, though even here it would +be impossible to find their counterparts in Mars. These channels are +merging with the ocean, are nearly half the width of their length, and +enlarge at both ends, while the _canali_ of Mars run for hundreds of +miles as straight as ruled lines. How slight the resemblance is may be +appreciated by comparing the following figure of the Earth (Fig. 1), +upon which the Red Sea, the English and the Mozambique Channels and the +Straits of Malacca are indicated. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1.] + +In 1897 Schiaparelli becomes still more convinced of their +artificiality. In his Memoir XXV, in the Reale Academia del Lincei, +in speaking of the canals, he says: "This whole arrangement presents +an indescribable simplicity and symmetry which cannot possibly be the +work of chance." In a letter to Mr. Lowell, dated December 4, 1904, he +writes: "Your theory of vegetation becomes more and more probable." Mr. +A. Stanley Williams, in the "Observatory" for June, 1899, in a paper +entitled "Notes on Mars," described the appearance of certain canals, +regions, etc., in great detail. He notices that at the crossing of the +canals a little dark spot occurs, a feature, he says, which was first +elucidated by Professor Lowell in 1894. Mr. Williams also noticed the +black streak bordering the northern snow cap, which Mr. Lowell in his +book on Mars has interpreted as a body of water resulting from the +melting snow. + +In the Quarterly Journal of the Astronomical Society of Wales, the Rev. +Theo. E. R. Phillips publishes an excellent drawing of Mars in color. +In this drawing he shows a large number of regions, a number of canals, +and other features which, he says, "came out with the clearness and +sharpness of an engraving, and bore no resemblance to the 'diffused +streaks' or amorphous smudges one sees for the canals in imperfect +seeing." In this drawing the polar snow caps show with remarkable +vividness. + +Professor W. H. Pickering, in a continuous record of observations on +Mars, published in the "Annals of the Lowell Observatory," records +under August 20: "The dark north canals are also noticeable, and, had +they looked as they now do, could not possibly have been missed on the +16th." + +Dr. Phil. Fauth has, with a seven inch objective, drawn and published +sixty-three drawings of Mars in which a great many canals are shown, a +list of which he presents in his memoir on the subject. + +The lamented Perrotin, for some time Director of the Nice Observatory, +in company with M. Janssen, at Meudon, observed Mars through the great +equatorial (32-2/3 inch), and published the results in the "Comptes +Rendues" (Vol. CXXIV, No. 7). He describes the several zones, the +northern equatorial zone "being more particularly the zone of the +extraordinary canals, the discovery of which we owe to Schiaparelli, +and to which we ourselves, by our publication, in 1886, called the +attention of the astronomical world." + +The London "Nature," March 17, 1904, in noting the death of M. Henry +Perrotin, speaks of him as one of the ablest advocates of astronomical +science. He devoted much time to Mars. "Aware that he was working +at the extreme limit of visibility, and knowing the tendency for +self-deception to creep in and impair the value of such delicate +observations, he sought opportunities of making similar measures and +records with different instruments, and under varied conditions, in +order to remove, so far as possible, the evils of bias and partiality +from the results of his researches." + +Dr. Terby of Louvain, in a memoir entitled "Physical Observations +of Mars," a translation of which appeared in the "Astronomical and +Astrophysical Journal," No. 106, identifies many of Schiaparelli's +_canali_ and other details depicted in Schiaparelli's map of Mars. In +conclusion Dr. Terby says: "After what we have seen we dare affirm +that henceforth the progress of areography will be in the hands of +those alone who, freeing themselves from the shackles of doubt, will +resolutely engage in the way traced by the celebrated astronomer of +Milan. A new era has begun in the study of Mars by the discovery of +canals and their doubling, and by the micrometric determination of one +hundred and fourteen fundamental points on the map, an era succeeding +to that which was inaugurated a half century ago by the construction +of the first two hemispheres and by the approximate fixing of fourteen +points by Mäedler." Dr. Terby further says: "But these results have +an incontestable value in the presence of the incredulity with which +certain astronomers still consider the beautiful discoveries of Milan. +Who would believe it? In spite of the beautiful drawings of M. Perrotin +one reads still that the discoveries of M. Schiaparelli have not been +confirmed by the largest instruments." + +In "Astronomy and Astrophysics," No. 108, is published a series +of contributions on Mars by Professors Edward C. Holden, William +H. Pickering, C. A. Young, Lewis Swift, George C. Comstock, E. E. +Barnard, and H. C. Wilson. All of these men are astronomers and all are +connected as directors or observers with various observatories in the +United States. Many sent sketches, most of them saw the canals, all saw +the polar snow caps and darker regions. To say that these astronomers +were sketching details which existed only in their imagination is +simply preposterous. + +Professor Herbert A. Howe, Director of the Chamberlin Observatory, +at Denver, in his "Elements of Descriptive Astronomy" says: "If we +have simply to answer the question, 'Would a man, as constituted at +present, if transported to Mars find it possible to exist there?' The +most probable answer is, 'No.' While one must not be dogmatic, it may +be said, with some assurance, that the man would gasp a few times and +die. However, it is conceivable that manlike beings might find a home +there." Mr. Howe could have said without being dogmatic that a man thus +transported would die of what is known as Caisson disease. + +Among those who assert that the canals are artificial we have Professor +Percival Lowell as pre-eminent. He has erected an observatory in the +region of one of the clearest atmospheres in the world, has furnished +it with the finest telescope that Clark ever made, and for the chief +purpose of studying the surface features of Mars. In his interesting +book on Mars he has presented the results of his observations in so +lucid and convincing a manner that a reviewer of the English edition +of the work, in an English astronomical journal, is led to write: +"We may say at once that we feel bound to accept these observations +as sufficient evidence of the real existence of the markings without +expressing an opinion as to what they may be." The reviewer ends by +saying: "Indeed, there is a subtle deftness in the way Mr. Lowell +deals with his observations which gives the impression that he has +been there and seen it all, and it is really hard to say why we cannot +accept his conclusions. It is probable, because we are shy to receive +new facts at a first statement. In time, no doubt, we shall be willing +to accept his deductions (or facts) as to the markings. We were about +to advance objections, but they seem poor, and really it is a case +where each person must read and form his own ideas--but by all means +read." + +We have already presented a summary of his observations. We may add +here, however, an extract from his book on the solar system. In this +Mr. Lowell says of Mars: "What we see hints of the existence of beings +who are in advance of, not behind us in the journey of life," and +again: "Life on Mars must take on a very different guise from what +it wears on the Earth. It is certain there can be no man there--that +is as certain as anything can be. But this does not preclude a local +intelligence equal to, and perhaps easily superior to, our own. We +seem to have evidence that something of the sort does exist there at +the present moment and has made imprint of its existence far exceeding +anything we have left on Mother Earth." + +George W. Morehouse, in his "Wilderness of Worlds," says: "Taken all +together we must regard Mars as probably an inhabited world and very +similar to the Earth." + +Mr. Hector Macpherson, Jr., member of the Astronomical Society of +France, in his interesting book "Astronomers of To-day," says, in +regard to Mr. Lowell's book on Mars: "He does not ask us to believe +anything fantastical or extravagant. His hypothesis has been framed to +account for all the various Martian features. At present we can only +say that it is the most comprehensive and probable theory yet advanced +to explain the phenomena of the red planet." + +Professor Todd, Director of the Astronomical Observatory at Amherst +College, in his book on Stars and Telescopes, in referring to drawings +of a region in the southern portion of Mars, known as the Solis Lacus, +and a complicated drawing of another region, says: "Whether one views +this marvellous and intricate system as a whole, or in some portion of +high detail, it is difficult to escape the conviction that the _canali_ +have, at least in part, been designed and executed with a definite end +in view." + +There are many who do not deny the existence of some forms of life on +the planet, but are not prepared to admit the existence of intelligent +creatures. Sir Robert Ball expresses himself as follows: "That there +may be types of life of some kind on Mars is, I should think, quite +likely." + +The number of astronomers above quoted, who have seen and drawn the +canals, might be augmented, but a sufficient number have been cited to +show that the evidence of the presence of these markings does not rest +with a few, furthermore, some of these observers can only interpret +the markings as the result of intelligent action. It may be urged that +among those quoted are some whose opinion may not have great weight +since they are not professional astronomers. One must insist that the +study of planetary markings as well as the interpretation of their +meanings comes not only within the province of planetary astronomers, +but that any broad-minded man, with an acute eye and familiar with the +sciences connected with the surface features of the Earth, is quite +competent to make observations of his own and to judge of the merits of +the question. + + + + +VI + +THE STUDY OF PLANETARY MARKINGS + + _Their singular aspect, and the fact that they are drawn + with absolute geometric precision as if they were the + product of rule and compass, have induced some people to + see in them the work of intelligent beings, inhabitants + of the planet. I should be careful not to combat this + supposition which involves no impossibility._ + + SCHIAPARELLI. + + +It is a question whether, after all, the study of planetary markings +comes within the province of astronomers. Not more, perhaps, than the +study of physical geography and subjects connected with the surface +features of the Earth, comes under the cognizance of those whose +profession it is to determine the oscillation of the pole, the Earth's +movements due to the Moon, etc. Indeed, these lines of research are +strictly astronomical. With the study of the surface markings of +the Moon, or Mars, features of an entirely different kind are to be +interpreted, and quite a different equipment is necessary. It is no +wonder, then, that astronomers, the most conservative of all classes +of investigators, should view with suspicion the results of the work of +Schiaparelli, Lowell and others. Immersed in mathematics, trusting in +nothing that cannot be measured and reckoned, as a class holding their +imagination in abeyance, is it any surprise that they should present an +attitude of indifference and even hostility to the work of those who, +differently equipped mentally, have attempted a definition and solution +of the riddle of the Martian markings? To appreciate how foreign to the +studies of an astronomer is the interpretation of the canals of Mars, +one has simply to scan the index of any astronomical publication, or +the titles of papers in the transactions of astronomical societies. +For example, take volumes XX and XXI of the "Astronomical Journal" and +tabulate the papers, memoirs, etc., therein published, numbering two +hundred and thirty-eight, and we find of these, seventy-four on the +stars; sixty-two on the comets; nineteen on planets and satellites, +mostly mathematical; eighteen on the Sun; eighteen on the asteroids; +fifteen on Eros; ten on polar motion and latitude; four on Nova Persei; +and seventeen miscellaneous, consisting of logarithms, instruments, +Gegenschein, etc.; and only one on Mars, and this on the polar snow +caps! + +As to the question whether it is more important to add another to the +thousands of variable stars and binaries, and hundreds of asteroids, +already determined, or to consider whether we are alone in the universe +and, if so, the significance of it, I think with the intelligent public +there can be no doubt. + +A fair sample of the subjects which occupy the astronomers' mind, and +which are so remote from the study of planetary markings, and have so +little interest for the public, may be gathered from the following list +selected at random from an astronomical publication. Notes on variable +stars; Maxima and minima of long period variables; Micrometrical +measurements of the companion of Procyon; The problem of three bodies; +Ephemeris of Comet a, 1901; On the eruptive energy of the stars; +Eclipse cycles; Determinations of the aberration-constant from right +ascension; Theory of a resisting medium upon bodies moving in parabolic +orbits; Weights and systematic corrections of meridian observation in +right ascension and declination; and other titles equally profound. +Many of these memoirs consist of hundreds of pages of figures, and, as +a friend of mine observed, not a column footed up! Take for example +a title like the following: "Method of developing the perturbative +functions, also precepts for executing their development." This memoir +is accompanied by pages of algebraic formulæ which the layman turns +over in despair, the only illumination consisting of a few words in +English which render the gloom still more apparent,--such words as +"hence," "or," "we therefore have," "if we put." Of what we "have," +and why we "put," we are left in profound ignorance. Now I venture to +believe that the great world of humanity takes but little interest +in such pages, or in the kinds of titles above given, though fully +realizing that they mean something and represent important steps +in astronomic research. It would add greatly to the value of these +contributions if a brief summary in plain English could be given at the +end of these papers, but it is the rarest event that these collectors +of data ever make any generalizations, or form any deductions. + +My faith in the appalling character of algebraic formulæ[5] received +a rude shock when I learned of an experience of Louise Michel, the +anarchist, who was transported for life to New Caledonia (afterwards +pardoned). On arriving at the savage island, true to her humanitarian +instincts, "she immediately established a school for native children, +who by a curious freak of their minds, she noted with rejoicing, took +naturally to algebra before they learned arithmetic!" + +Hovenden quotes Huxley as saying that mathematics "is that study +that knows nothing of observation, nothing of induction, nothing of +experiment, nothing of causation." He also quotes the words of Clerk +Maxwell, who said, in regard to mathematicians, that it was "doubtful +whether the ideas as expressed in symbols had ever quite found their +way out of the equations into their minds." They never seem to appeal +to the doctrine of probabilities nor do they in any way permit +imagination to act as a stimulus to suggestive thought. + +Least of all would a layman ridicule or question the painstaking labor +involved in astronomic work, though he cannot see a glimmer of light or +intelligence in the enigmatical pages. A certain class of astronomers +might take a lesson from an intelligent public in ceasing to scoff +and ridicule what they are unable to see themselves in the Martian +markings. The chief work of these men indicates the cold precise +measuring of points of light in the heavens, the determination of +orbits, elements and ephemeris of heavenly bodies, the determination +of solar parallax, etc., most of the subjects strictly mathematical, +a question of careful measurements for which the necessary instruments +are at hand, or simply sweeping the heavens for a new variable, binary +or asteroid. Parallaxes and orbits are matters of measurement to be +reckoned by the figures of anybody else. It is obvious from all this +that little or no interest is manifested by astronomers in planetary +markings, least of all in those of Mars. The exasperating feature of +the matter is that they persistently repudiate the observation of +others equally well equipped, and endowed with the same enthusiasm and +devotion to their work. + +The way in which the gatherers of the raw material arrogate to +themselves the science of astronomy, relegating the thinkers and +generalizers to the limbo of speculation, is as if the book-keepers of +a corporation should assume themselves to be the master-minds of the +concern and the banker, or financier, at the head of it, a dreamer not +worth regarding. + +An illustration of the conservativeness of astronomers in regard to +planetary markings is shown in their cautious attitude concerning the +polar snow caps of Mars. Here are white polar caps on Mars, precisely +where they ought to be if they _are_ snow, they wax and wane at +the time they should and at no other time, a dark band appears at +their borders as the caps in turn diminish in size, which has been +interpreted as water due to the melting snow, and no other substance +known could possibly reproduce these varying conditions. Professor C. +A. Young, in describing these white areas, says: "The one which happens +to be turned toward the Sun continually diminishes in size, while +the other increases, the process being reversed with the seasons of +the planet." After these admissions Professor Young cautiously says: +"These are believed to be ice caps." Sir John Herschel says: "The +variety in the spots may arise from the planet not being destitute of +atmosphere and clouds, and what adds greatly to the probability of +this is the appearance of brilliant white spots at the poles--one of +which appears in our figure--which have been conjectured with some +probability to be snow, as they disappear when they have been long +exposed to the Sun, and are greatest when just emerging from the long +night of the polar winter." Had Michael Faraday been an astronomer, +how long would it have taken him to pronounce these white polar caps +snow and ice? De la Rive, in his memoir of Faraday, in speaking of his +marvellous accomplishments, says: "One may easily understand what must +be produced under such circumstances by a life thus wholly consecrated +to science, when to a strong and vigorous intellect is joined a most +brilliant imagination." Tyndall, in his discourse "On the Scientific +use of the Imagination," says: "Bounded and conditioned by co-operant +reason, imagination becomes the mightiest instrument of the physical +discoverer. Newton's passage from a falling apple to a falling Moon was +a leap of the imagination." + +That Herbert Hall Turner, Professor of Astronomy in the University +of Oxford, does not regard the various contributions on the surface +features of Mars as belonging to astronomical science may be inferred +from his interesting book lately published, entitled "Astronomical +Discovery." This book presents to us the history of the discovery of +Uranus and Eros, of Neptune, Bradley's aberration of light, Schwabe and +sun-spot period, the variation of latitude, etc., but not a word about +the marvellous discoveries of the _canali_ of Mars by Schiaparelli, so +fully confirmed by the observation and drawings of many others, and the +great advances made by Lowell in the discovery of new features with his +lucid and rational interpretation of the seeming enigmas. + +Astronomy, the oldest and most conservative of all the sciences, has +been the last to subdivide. Already one group of men has justified +by its work a division of the science known as astrophysics. The +lamented Keeler, in explaining the difference between astronomy and +astrophysics, said: "Astrophysics seeks to ascertain the nature of the +heavenly bodies, rather than their positions and motions in space, +_what_ they are, rather than _where_ they are." This natural division +suggests the propriety of making another division equally distinct, +which should comprise the study and interpretation of the surface +markings of the planets and satellites, under the name of planetology. +The study would be the application to these bodies of the science +of geology, in its broadest sense, meteorology, physical geography, +geodesy, and related sciences. + +With the science of planetology established, the student of this +science will no longer call to his aid the astronomer, and, least of +all, the astrophysicist, nor will he be mindful of their criticism or +neglect. He will appeal to the sciences which are involved in the study +of the surface features of his own globe, in the interpretation of +planetary detail. + + + + +VII + +DIFFICULTIES OF SEEING + + _It is contrary to all the analogies of nature to suppose + that life began only on a single world._ + + SIMON NEWCOMB. + + +For years I had been familiar with different representations of Mars +in which the surface features had been strongly depicted in black and +white; in other words, photo-reliefs, or engravings incorporated with +the printed page. I had unwittingly come to believe that these features +were equally distinct when one observed Mars through the telescope. I +had not then seen Schiaparelli's original memoir in which his wonderful +map presents the canals in light and tenuous lines, which are, however, +as clear cut as the lines of a steel engraving, to use his words. For +a long time I had hoped for a chance to observe Mars through a large +telescope in a clear and steady atmosphere. It seemed reasonable to +me--knowing nothing about it--that one who had traced out under the +microscope delicate lines and structural features in diaphanous +membranes, who had, in fact, used a microscope with high powers for +forty years, would find it child's play to make out the canals, oases, +regions, etc., of Mars, as represented in the various publications on +the subject. Professor Percival Lowell, of Flagstaff, Arizona, finally +gave me the opportunity I so much desired, and, through his courtesy +and kindness, I was enabled to observe Mars every night for nearly six +weeks through his twenty-four inch refractor, the last and probably +the best telescope ever made by Clark, mounted in one of the steadiest +atmospheres in the world and at an altitude above sea-level of over +7,000 feet. Imagine my surprise and chagrin when I first saw the +beautiful disk of Mars through this superb telescope. Not a line! not a +marking! The object I saw could only be compared in appearance to the +open mouth of a crucible filled with molten gold. Slight discolorations +here and there and evanescent areas outlined for the tenth of a second, +but not a determinate line or spot to be seen. Had I stopped that +night, or even a week later, I might have joined the ranks of certain +observers and said "illusion" or something worse. And right here it +was that my experience in microscopic work helped me, for, remembering +the hours--nay, days--I had worked, in making out structural features +in delicate organisms which my unprofessional friends could not see at +all, I realized that patient observation would be required if I was to +be successful in my efforts. My despair, however, was overwhelming when +Professor Lowell and his assistants, looking for a few moments at the +same object, would draw on paper the features which had been plainly +revealed to them, consisting of definite shaded regions, a number of +canals and other markings, of which, with the utmost scrutiny, I could +hardly detect a trace. For the first time I realized that observing +fixed diaphanous membranes under a microscope with rigid stand, and +within four inches of one's nose, was quite a different matter from +observing a brilliant disk 4,200 miles in diameter, 52,000,000 miles +away, with an oscillating atmosphere of unknown depth between. Night +after night I examined this golden, opalescent disk, drawing each +time such features as I could convey by memory from the ocular to the +drawing table, and, little by little, new features were detected, and +to my delight the drawings agreed with those made by the others. Since +the drawings made by the four observers coincided, it was evident that +we had not been victims of subjective phenomena. Furthermore, as I +discovered afterwards, by comparison, the drawings I made not only +agreed with theirs but with those made by other observers, at different +times, in other parts of the world. So slow were my acquisitions, +however, that it soon became evident that at least months of continuous +observation would be necessary before the more delicate markings would +be revealed to me. It is interesting to learn that others have had a +similar experience. Mr. A. Stanley Williams, of England, in an article +entitled "Notes on Mars" ("Observatory," June, 1899), in stating the +difficulties of observation, says: "My eye invariably requires at least +two months of continuous observation of a planet before it acquires its +full sensitiveness to the most minute details." + +In this connection it is well to state that Mr. Lowell began the +observation of Mars when he was a mere boy. His first telescope, which +he still has, was a two and a quarter inch refractor. His observations +were made from the roof of his house in Boston, and with this small +glass he defined the general shaded regions that Huyghens had detected +and drawn in 1659. Since then Mr. Lowell has observed in turn through +a six inch, an eighteen inch of Brashear, and, for the last few years, +through a twenty-four inch refractor made by Clark especially for this +work. + +To refute the accumulated observations of Mr. Lowell one must have the +same acute eye, and a record of the same continuous and devoted study. +Nothing short of that experience will avail. The jealous derision that +has gone up from some observers endowed with less acuteness of vision +is neither dignified nor just. Were these Martian details based upon +the observations of Lowell alone, one might be inclined to say that +some vagary of the mind had led him to imagine these markings which +were first detected by the great Italian astronomer Schiaparelli. Up +to the present time--to mention only a few--observations and drawings +have been made by Perrotin, Thollon, and Flammarion, of France; Dr. +Phil. Fauth, of Germany; Williams, of England; Lowell, W. H. Pickering, +Douglass, Lampland, and Schaeberle, of America, while many others have +made drawings of the more conspicuous details. With this record it is +impossible to deny the existence of these markings essentially as they +are drawn. + +The difficulty of seeing the more delicate markings of the planet +is unquestionable, and an examination of astronomical literature, +from which we shall make numerous quotations, indicates only too +plainly the acuteness of vision, and the time and care necessary to +make competent observations. Sir Robert Ball says, in one of his +recent works: "The detection of the Martian features indicates one +of the utmost refinements of astronomical observations." Macpherson, +in his "Astronomers of To-day," thus writes of Schiaparelli, +"Professor Schiaparelli's observations have been distinguished by his +keen-sightedness and care. He has taken every precaution to avoid all +disturbances resulting from personal equation, and has found it well +to adopt the rule (which he here quotes) 'to abstain from everything +which could affect the nervous system, from narcotics and alcohol, and +especially from the abuse of coffee, which I found to be exceedingly +prejudicial to the accuracy of observation.'" What I might have +accomplished in the way of seeing had I followed the wise example of +Schiaparelli I do not know. A not too strict abstemiousness in any of +these matters, coupled with long daily walks on the Mesa, with its +fascinating flora and fauna, found me in the observer's chair every +night, somewhat fatigued mentally and physically. + +Sir Robert Ball, in his "Popular Guide to the Heavens," in describing +the difficulty in making out the more delicate markings of Mars, +says: "It should be understood that in the unsteady air of England it +is almost hopeless to expect many of the finer details; not even in +the most favorable climates are they to be seen always, or all at +once, and much training of the eye is required before it is fit to +decide for or against the existence of these details on the verge of +invisibility." As another illustration, perhaps, of the difficulties +of seeing, Sir Robert, in the same book, says: "Observers of Mars are +divided into two camps, those who see the canals, and those who do not. +The former are in the strong position that they are perfectly sure that +they see what they represent in their drawings." + +From the foregoing it must be evident that not only are the finer +markings on Mars most difficult to see even under the best conditions +but that exceptional acuteness of vision, which few possess, united +with long practice, is necessary to make out the tenuous lines which +enclose the field of Mars like a net. That Mr. Lowell has had a long +and continuous practice, covering years, in observing Mars through +the steadiest of atmospheres and with a superb glass, is simply a +statement of fact. It may be said without fear of contradiction that +he has devoted more time to the observation of Mars than all the other +observers combined. Has he then an exceptional acuteness of sight, +coupled with indefatigable industry, in the pursuit of this quest to +which he is devoting his life and fortune? The following instance +will illustrate his marvellous eyesight. We were walking along the +shores of a lake some miles from Flagstaff, the expanse of shore left +by the rapidly evaporating waters abounding with thousands of very +small black spiders running hither and thither at our approach. I +told him of one I had just seen in which the abdomen was covered with +minute young spiders which the mother was carrying about with her--a +well-known habit of certain species. This curious fact I had detected +only while stooping close to the ground in search of minute shells. Mr. +Lowell, while walking along, immediately began scanning the ground for +the trace of a spider with minutely granulated abdomen, and finally +exclaimed: "There is one of them!" On stooping down to examine the +object it proved to my astonishment to be a female carrying its young +in the way already described. This incident revealed a remarkable +acuteness of vision to detect, while standing erect and walking, +this tiny spider among hundreds of others of its species that were +scampering away at our approach. + +Not only is acuteness of vision necessary to one who is to study +planetary markings, but of importance also is a clear, and above all +a steady atmosphere; and, strange as it may appear, telescopes of +moderate size seem to be the instruments with which the best work has +been done. It is also true in astronomy, as in warfare, that it is not +the biggest gun but the man behind the gun that does the most efficient +work. As an evidence of the importance of steady atmosphere Professor +W. H. Pickering, in his observations on the satellites of Jupiter, +says his work had two important bearings: "First, as showing the +relative importance of atmosphere _versus_ aperture for delicate visual +observations of this sort. In the same category would be included +studies of planetary detail as distinguished from the examination of +very faint objects. In other words, if an observer wishes to study +very faint stars he must have a large telescope. If he wishes to study +the neighboring planets and brighter satellites he may use a small +telescope, but he must have a very good atmosphere." + +The importance of a clear and steady atmosphere, for delicate +observation, is known to all astronomers. The rarity of such days, +even in our clear atmosphere so superior to that of England, is not +generally known. Forty years ago Dr. Henry Draper, in an address +entitled "Are Other Worlds Inhabited?" in speaking of Mars and the +difficulties of seeing, said: "One of the greatest obstacles to +distinct vision is our own atmosphere. Its currents and motions tend +to confuse the outlines of objects, and, according to my experience, a +whole year may pass without the occurrence of more than one good night. +The only remedy is to carry the telescope as high up on a mountain +as possible, so as to leave below the more injurious portions of the +atmosphere. It might be possible to work 15,000 feet above the sea in +the neighborhood of the Equator." I quote these words that the general +reader may appreciate the advantages Lowell has with his fine telescope +south of all European observatories, in the latitude, say of Algiers, +at a high altitude, and in the dry and steady atmosphere of Arizona, +with uninterrupted seeing for weeks together, and each night far +superior to any night which Greenwich could ever be blessed with. + +Professor W. H. Pickering attests to the importance of a steady +atmosphere in studying the Moon from a station in Jamaica, when he +says that, with a five inch refractor, he was able to detect minute +details which were not revealed by the far larger telescopes at Harvard +University. + +Mr. W. D. Barbour, President of the Leeds Astronomical Society, using +his four inch achromatic, says: "In one of those brief intervals +of atmospheric steadiness I saw distinctly a number of well-known +markings," the names of which he gives. Dr. Phil. Fauth, using a seven +inch refractor, made sixty-three drawings of Mars, showing in wonderful +detail the canals, oases, etc. Mr. W. J. Lockyer, in London "Nature," +testifies that "a keen and patient observer, sitting at the eyepiece of +a comparatively small equatorially mounted telescope, if he makes his +observations carefully, and with due regard to atmospheric conditions +for good seeing, can do more useful and valuable work than one who has +a large aperture at his command and employs it indifferently." Mr. E. +Ledger, in speaking of Dawes, who made a remarkable map of Mars, says +he was justly famed for the remarkable distinctness of his vision; he +had detected and drawn a few lines which seemed to be identical to +those of Schiaparelli. + +In the authorities above quoted we have endeavored to show that a +steady atmosphere, a persistent devotion to the work, accompanied by +acute vision, and also a talent for observation, are all the factors +needed, not only to confirm the remarkable discoveries of Schiaparelli +and Lowell, but possibly to detect, at favorable moments, new features +which have escaped the eyes of these keen observers. + +At this point we cannot resist giving the words of Sir David Gill, +Director of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. Professor +S. W. Burnham, of the Lick Observatory, in reviewing a memoir entitled +"Double Star Observations at the Cape of Good Hope," quotes as +follows from the preface: "Sir David Gill, in speaking of the routine +character of the work involved in the investigation, says: 'There is +no instance, as far as I know, of a long and valuable series of double +star discovery and observation made by a mere assistant acting under +orders. _It is a special faculty, an inborn capacity, a delight in the +exercise of exceptional acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity, +coupled with the gift of imagination as to the true meaning of what he +observes, that imparts to the observer the requisite enthusiasm for +double star observing._ No amount of training or direction could have +created the Struves, a Dawes, or a Dembowski. _The great double star +observer is born, not made_, and I believe that no extensive series of +double star measurement will ever emanate from a regular observatory, +through successive directorates, unless men are specially selected +who have previously distinguished themselves in that field of work, +and who were originally driven to it from sheer compulsion of inborn +taste.'" If the reader will substitute the words _planetary markings_ +for _double star_ in the above quotation from Sir David Gill's report, +he will understand why we have ventured to italicise certain lines, and +will appreciate their significance. In no stronger or truer words could +one have emphasized the conditions involved in a critical study of the +surface features of Mars. + +In the experience of an astronomer, it is not an unusual occurrence +that an object in the heavens, fairly conspicuous, remains unseen +until by some lucky chance an observer sweeping the sky picks it +up, and, having determined its position, it is promptly found by +others. Professor H. H. Turner, in his "Astronomical Discovery of the +Nineteenth Century," says: "It is a common experience in astronomy that +an observer may fail to notice in a general scrutiny, some phenomenon +which he can see perfectly well when his attention is called to it; +when a man has made a discovery, and others are told what to look for, +they often see it so easily that they are filled with amazement and +chagrin that they never saw it before." + +In the Rev. T. W. Webb's interesting book on "Celestial Objects for +Common Telescopes," a reminiscence of the author is given by a friend +in which the following is related as illustrating the varying ability +of observers in seeing. "A curious instance of difference of vision was +well illustrated one superb evening when Mr. Webb and the writer were +observing Saturn with the nine and a half inch refractor at Hardwick. +Mr. Webb saw distinctly the division in the outer ring which the writer +could not see a trace of, while the writer picked up a faint point of +light which afterwards turned out to be Enceladus (a satellite) which +Mr. Webb could not see." + +In my brief observation of Mars I probably might have made out many +more details if I had permitted Mr. Lowell to tell me what to see, and +where to look for them on the disk. This I would not allow him to do, +nor did I study any of the numerous drawings in his own work, or the +original memoirs of Schiaparelli, or other works containing drawings of +Mars in his library. I would not learn the names of any of the regions, +or canals, nor with a single exception do I know them now. Only when +I had finished my last night's observations, did Mr. Lowell take my +drawings and write out a list of the various canals, oases, etc., which +I had made out. Thus, unaided, I drew simply what was plainly evident, +though many other details flashed out for a second, which were not +recorded, simply because I did not see them often enough to be sure of +their precise position on the disk. + +Mr. Lowell points out one of the reasons why so many observers and +astronomers have not seen the canals. In the third volume of the +"Annals of the Lowell Observatory" he refers to a certain series of +observations of Mars, made in 1894, and says: "Not only was there +no sign of a canal, but even the main markings showed disheartingly +indefinite." "This vacancy of expression was due to the Martian date." +"It was the very nick of time to see nothing, for the part of the +planet most presented to the Earth was then at the height of the dead +season, and in this fact lies the key to much past undetection and +present unbelief in the phenomenon of the canals." + + + + +VIII + +VARIATION IN DRAWING + + _Let us not cheat ourselves with words. Conservatism sounds + finely and covers any amount of ignorance and fear._ + + PERCIVAL LOWELL. + + +Much doubt has been expressed as to the existence of the so-called +canals in Mars and other surface markings of that planet in consequence +of the discrepancy seen in the drawings of the more delicate features +by various observers. While in the main a certain general resemblance +is seen in the topographical character of the network of lines, +and a more close resemblance in the darker markings, notably the +Syrtis Major, the disagreement in the minor details has led certain +astronomers to deny their existence altogether, or to insist that most +of the markings were subjective, or due to poor focusing, or the result +of aberration of the eye or lens. Professor Simon Newcomb, in his "New +Astronomy for Everybody," in speaking of the work of the observers at +the Lick Observatory and the great telescope at their command coupled +with favorable situation, says: "It is therefore noteworthy that the +markings on the face of Mars as presented by Barnard do not quite +correspond to the channels of Schiaparelli and Lowell." Newcomb also +reproduces in his book the drawings of a region in Mars known as Solis +Lacus, made by Campbell and Hussey, and finds they do not show an exact +agreement between them. Now such objections might have some weight if +drawings made by different observers of the Solar Corona, for example, +or the Nebula of Orion, or the Milky Way had any close resemblance. +As a matter of fact, these various drawings depart far more widely +from the originals, as shown by photographic reproduction, than do +the various drawings of Mars. Mr. Fison, in his "Recent Advances in +Astronomy," in speaking of the divergence in the drawings made by +different observers, says: "In inspecting sketches of the delicate +details of the Corona of the Sun made at the same place by different +observers, it is difficult to believe that the same object has been +represented." To appreciate how widely divergent such drawings are one +has only to refer to the United States Naval Observatory publication on +the Total Eclipse of the Sun, July 29, 1878. + +[Illustration: PLATE II + +DRAWINGS OF THE SOLAR CORONA BY VARIOUS OBSERVERS] + +As an indication of the dissimilarity of the drawings of the Corona +made at the same instant by different observers, many of whom are +well-known astronomers, I may say that the various plates resemble in +turn the following objects: a skate's egg-case; a circular battery +discharging fire from one side while the smoke drifts away in the +opposite direction; an ascidian, known as Molgula, with an extra +aperture, however; a snowshoe; a radiolarian; a fighting shield of +an Igorrote savage; an egg of a hair worm; a crushed spider, and +other equally dissimilar objects. I have reproduced a few of these +drawings (Plate II), that the reader may realize that my similes are +not exaggerated. The many drawings which have been made of the Nebula +of Orion, by astronomers of distinction, depart quite as widely from +each other as do those of the Solar Corona. In Volume XXV of the "Naval +Observatory Observations" is published a monograph of the central parts +of the Nebula of Orion, by Professor E. S. Holden. He starts with +a drawing made by Huyghens in 1659 and ends with a drawing made by +Professor Langley in 1879. In a summary of the work the author says: +"I am acquainted with but one drawing of the Nebula which is entirely +above criticism, that of the late G. P. Bond. He was a skilled artist," +etc. An examination of the drawings in this Memoir are equally +distracting. In looking at them casually they suggest respectively a +Japanese stocking pattern; an amoeba; an embryo cuttlefish; a plan of +Boston, and other forms equally divergent. Mr. Fison, in his book above +quoted, writes as follows of other astronomical subjects: "Drawings of +the Milky Way as seen by the naked eye have been recently executed by +two independent observers, Mr. Boeddicker and Mr. Eaton, each drawing +the result of long and arduous observation, but in comparing them it +is the exception rather than the rule to find any approximation in +agreement in respect of the more delicate details." The drawings of +the surface features of Mars by different observers do vary in respect +of the more delicate details, but in every case they represent a map +of some kind and do not remind one of a wheelbarrow, baptismal font, +or other incongruous objects. These divergent drawings of the same +object are not confined to celestial bodies. One has only to examine +works on ancient Mexican and Egyptian monuments, or those of classical +archæology, to see the astounding caricatures and perversions. The +various drawings of the famous Dighton Rock inscription, covering a +period of two hundred years, are striking examples of the vagaries of +an artist. Moreover, the text accompanying the drawings often states +that they were drawn with scrupulous care. The hieroglyphics are +pecked out on the face of a rock in rough lines, half an inch wide and +a third of an inch in depth. These marks are in enduring rock; it is +the observer and his imperfect drawing which is at fault. The Nebula +of Orion, the Milky Way, and, for the time being, the Solar Corona +are permanent objective realities and have all been photographed, yet +behold the drawings! It is unnecessary to state that the ability to +draw varies quite as much with man as the ability to sing. A man may +be an excellent observer and yet utterly unable to use a pencil, and +any attempt on the part of one to draw who has no ability in that +direction results in a fiasco. It is noteworthy that an artist with no +knowledge of astronomy, or the art of telescopic observation, will make +a more accurate drawing than one made by the best astronomer who has no +ability as a draughtsman. Concerning the drawings of Mars, if one will +turn to the "Annals of the Lowell Observatory," Volume I, Plate XIV, he +will there see drawings made on successive nights by Mr. Lowell and his +assistants, Mr. Douglass and Mr. Drew, showing a remarkable agreement. +After finishing my observations of Mars, which covered nearly a +complete presentation of the planet, I made a comparison between my +drawings and those made by Professor Lowell and his secretary, Miss +Leonard, and a few made by the assistant astronomers, Mr. Lampland and +Mr. Slipher, and the agreement was almost absolute, the only difference +being that their drawings portrayed additional features which in +some cases I had caught a glimpse of but could not fix. I found it +exceedingly difficult to draw in the correct positions details within a +circle, and particularly when the axis of that circle was inclined some +degrees from the vertical, indicated by a spider's thread in the ocular. + +I think any reasonable man will admit that the divergence seen in the +various drawings of Mars by different observers cannot be held as an +argument against their existence. + + + + +IX + +THEORIES REGARDING THE CANALS + + _In knowledge, that man only is to be condemned and + despised who is not in a state of transition._ + + FARADAY. + + +Having shown to the satisfaction of any reasonable mind that the +delicate lines, known as canals, do exist, it will be interesting +to examine some of the theories which have been advanced to explain +these markings, as well as some of the absurd deductions drawn from +their existence. The late Dr. J. Joly, Professor of Geology in the +University of Dublin, in a paper on the Origin of the Canals of Mars +("Trans." Royal Soc., Dublin) came to the conclusion that meteoric +bodies, revolving on or near the surface of Mars, produced these lines. +In brief, he supposed that Mars at various times in the early stages +of his history, when his rotation period was much shorter, attracted +small bodies, which, after whirling about the planet, finally came +down on the crust and caused these lines. He conceived of satellites +twice the diameter of Phobos, or say, seventy-two miles in diameter, +flying about Mars at a distance of sixty-three miles, which would at +this distance, by its attractive force, exert a stress on the supposed +thin crust of Mars of from fifteen to thirty tons per square foot, and +thus rend the surface of the planet in a zone two hundred and twenty +miles wide, thus forming two parallel ridges which might be visible to +us as double canals. This preposterous idea takes no account of the +greater attractive force of the Earth, and that it too should have +had precisely the same experience, more often repeated. No trace of +such behaviors, however, has ever been detected. The Moon, too, should +have caught some of these heavy bodies, but while conspicuous cracks +are seen on her surface, and delicate ridges are seen radiating from +the larger volcanoes, not a trace of these great meteoric furrows +has ever been observed. It takes no account of the chances--one in a +million--that these cavorting meteors should meet at common centres, +and if they did, the impossibility that they should stop abruptly and +then start off in opposite directions. It takes no account of many +of the lines following the arc of a great circle, or what finally +became of three or four hundred of these meteors to tally with the +number of the canals, unless it is supposed that some of them went +whirling around the planet three or four times, changing their courses +instantly and repeatedly. Indeed, the advancement of such absurd ideas +shows the desperate despair of a man who tries to escape the admission +that the lines in question may be artificial--and hence the result of +intelligence working to a definite end--by a conception as crazy as one +might possibly get in a disordered dream. To heighten the absurdity +of this theory, if that were possible, Mr. J. L. E. Dryer, who signs +a notice of this paper, while calling attention to the fact that this +hypothesis takes no account of the correlation of changes in the canals +with seasonal changes on the planet, otherwise soberly says: "It must +be conceded that there is nothing in the new hypothesis contrary to +observed facts." + +Mr. J. Orr, in the pages of the "British Astronomical Journal," +assuming that Schiaparelli believed that the canals were excavated +(despite the fact that Schiaparelli called them _canali_, or +channels), and compared them to the English Channel and the Channel of +Mozambique--for at the outset he had no doubt of their being natural +configurations--proceeds to show the impossibility of an idea that +was never entertained. His attempt is as childish and ridiculous as +the theory he conjures up. Mr. Orr, taking it for granted that the +only explanation offered for these lines is that they are excavated, +concludes that a Martian canal, like Tartarus, "should be seventy +feet in depth (one might ask, why not five hundred or five thousand?) +and that the canals of Mars would contain 1,634,000 of our Suez +Canals, and would require an army of two hundred million men, working +for one thousand of our years, for their construction," and similar +idiocies regarding the population of Mars, which he concludes "must be +409,000,000, thus showing that all the adult males, and a large number +of women, must have been engaged in the great work." In connection +with this absurd travesty, let us pause for a moment to consider the +extraordinary character of the president of this society before which +this paper was read. A man who is the senior assistant of the Royal +Observatory at Greenwich, instead of rebuking this balderdash as +entirely beside the question, stated as the result of an experiment +with a lot of charity-school children, that the canals are merely +illusions of the brain, and this in the face of the testimony of a +number of astronomers, many of whom are highly distinguished, that +the markings do exist. This man seriously commented on the paper by +saying: "He hoped that Mr. Orr's statistical, but nevertheless amusing +and instructive, paper might prove one more nail in the coffin of a +very absurd idea which had certainly got most undue currency, namely, +that the canals of Mars could possibly be the work of human agents." +Equally astounding, too, is it that this nonsense the "Astronomical +Journal of the Pacific" republishes without a word of comment. But what +could we expect of the mentality of the senior assistant of the Royal +Observatory at Greenwich, who, with the great vault of heaven crowded +with enigmas awaiting an answer, should waste a particle of gray matter +in trying to ascertain precisely where Joshua stood when he commanded +the Sun to stand still so that he could have a little more time for +his bloody work. Even the day of the month is ascertained; he finds +that the date of this murderous affair was about July 22, and that the +Sun must have risen exactly at 5 A. M. and set at 7 P. M. The Moon, +he concludes, must have been about its third quarter and was within +half an hour of setting. He could not fix the year, however! Fancy +all this detail without a word of exegetical criticism, or comment +on the precise words of Joshua. "And he said in the sight of Israel, +Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of +Ajalon. And the Sun stood still, and the Moon stayed, until the people +had avenged themselves upon their enemies." Not even a pious query +as to why the Lord did not shower down a few more meteorites, rather +than disarrange the whole solar system. Such an attitude of the mind +renders one incapable of appreciating anything in astronomic research +beyond that which can be measured and photographed. The above is a fair +illustration of the intolerable attitude of many of those who deny the +existence of the canals, or, if admitting them as existent, resort to +every expedient to disprove their artificial character. + +Among the interesting suggestions as to the cause of the lines on Mars +is that proposed by Professor W. H. Pickering, who, while admitting +that they represent bands of vegetation, believes that they have their +counterpart on the Moon, and that both are produced by volcanic forces, +the cracking of the surface being the result of internal strain and +stress. The fissures thus produced permit the escape of water vapor +and carbon dioxide, and thus the natural irrigation of these cracks is +effected and growth of vegetation follows. This opinion should have +great weight, as Professor Pickering has made a profound study of lunar +details, and is one of the foremost authorities on the subject. He +has also drawn many of the surface features of Mars, and was at one +time connected with the Lowell Observatory. He it was who suggested +irrigation to account for the great apparent width of the Martian +lines. In the "Annals of the Harvard College Observatory," Vol. LIII, +No. 14, Professor Pickering presents a study of a crater on the Moon's +surface, known as Eratosthenes, accompanied by drawings and photographs +of an area within the crater revealing a few irregular cracks which he +thinks correspond to the well-known canals of Mars; indeed, he calls +these lines canals though he believes them to be cracks. A few spots, +probably craterlets, he compares to the oases of Lowell. That there is +no atmosphere on the Moon is admitted by all. Professor Pickering's +keen eye has, however, detected a change in the appearance of these +cracks which he attributes to vegetation, animated in its growth +by water vapor and carbonic acid gas, as before remarked. In this +supposition he may be right, though it seems difficult to believe that +so deliquescent an organism as a plant could withstand a variation of +temperature from two to three hundred degrees below zero, to one above +that of boiling water. One might naturally ask why the greater cracks +so conspicuous on the Moon's surface, typical examples of which +are found in the Mare Serenitis, Mare Triangulatis, and surroundings, +do not emit aqueous vapor and carbon dioxide, and thus show similar +features of widening and change of shade. Admitting the correctness of +Pickering's views, it seems impossible to see any resemblance between +this diminutive agglomeration of lines within a lunar crater, and the +great geodetic lines sweeping for hundreds of miles across the face of +Mars. + +[Illustration: PLATE III + +CHINESE BOWL, SHOWING CRACKLE] + +In the lunar crater, known as Flammarion's Circle, a most typical +branching crack is seen. An examination of these lunar cracks, of which +I made drawings through the great telescope at the Lowell Observatory, +showed them to be cracks of the most unmistakable character, paralleled +on the Earth's surface, by sunbaked fissures. If volcanic forces have +caused these cracks in the Moon the same kind of energy should have +produced the same general results in Mars, and circular craters should +equally be in evidence, for many of the lunar craters are sufficiently +large to be detected were they on Mars. They would certainly be +indicated on the terminator, and yet not a trace of such markings has +been found. It is rather extraordinary, too, that such earthquake +fissures on any great scale should not have been filled with trap, +silicate, or other injected material. Indeed it is strange that such a +triangulating arrangement of cracks has not been found on the Earth's +surface. + +[Illustration: PLATE IV + +MUD CRACKS ON SHORE OF ROGER'S LAKE, ARIZONA] + +In order to pronounce the lines on Mars as simply cracks one should +study the various kinds of cracks in similar surfaces on the Earth. +In such a study he would be amazed at the similarity of cracks. When +there is a grain in the substance, as in wood, the cracks follow +the grain, though even in this material they are discontinuous. In +amorphous material they have essentially the same character; whether in +the almost microscopic crackle of old Satsuma pottery, or huge cracks +in sun-dried mud, the areas enclosed are generally polygonal. If the +material be of impalpable fineness the edges of the cracks are smooth +and clean-cut, as in Plate III, from a Chinese bowl; whereas if the +material is coarse and pebbly the edges of the cracks are rough and +irregular, as in Plate IV, from the muddy shores of a lake. Cracks +arising from contraction never converge to a common centre, and when +not connected with another crack they taper to a point. They begin at +indefinite places and end in an equally indefinite manner. That there +should be a common resemblance in cracks due to contraction is +evident as they arise from a shrinking of the surface. The most ancient +deposits, millions of ages ago, reveal mud cracks differing in no +respect from those found to-day. We subjoin a few forms of cracks from +various surfaces, to show their essential resemblance. It will be seen +that the cracks in the Moon are identical in character to those found +on the Mesa at Flagstaff. They start from some indefinite point, are +irregular in outline and end as indefinitely. A poor asphalt pavement +offers one of the best opportunities for the study of the formation of +various kinds of cracks and fissures. On the edge of a sloping sidewalk +one may see the cracks due to a sliding, or lateral displacement of the +surface; the effects of subsidence show a number of cracks around the +area of depression; the growth of a tree crowding the asphalt shows +the effect of lateral thrust, and an enlargement of a root below, or +the effects of frost show cracks due to elevation. All these various +cracks reveal the same features: they are discontinuous, they begin and +end without definition. Schiaparelli says in regard to the _canali_ of +Mars: "None of them have yet been seen cut off in the middle of the +continent, remaining without beginning or without end." These lines on +the surface of Mars, as a writer in "Nature" says, are almost without +exception geodetically straight, supernaturally so, and this in spite +of their leading in every possible direction. It is inconceivable that +cracks should be laid out with such geodetic precision. We have seen +that cracks have no definite beginning or termination; we have seen +that the lines of Mars begin and end at definite places. Cracks are +irregular, vary in width and differ entirely from the straight lines +depicted by Schiaparelli, Lowell, and others. But if we admit them +to be natural cracks in the crust we are compelled to admit that the +forces implicated in such cracks must have been active many millions +of years ago, as Mars, being a much older planet than the Earth, must +have long since ceased to show those activities which the Earth, +even to-day, exhibits in such phenomena as earthquakes, subsidences, +elevations, and the like. Now cracks made at that early time in the +history of the planet must have long since become filled with detritus +and obliterated in other ways, and no evidence would show, even on +close inspection, of their former existence, much less at a distance of +50,000,000 of miles, more or less. + +[Illustration: PLATE V + + 1. POTTERY CRACKLE + 2 INCHES + + 2. MUD CRACKS + 2 FEET + + 3. ASPHALT CRACKS + 16 INCHES + + 4. EARTH CRACKS + 10 FEET + + 5. CRATER CRACKS, MOON + 55 MILES + + 6. _a._ MOON _b._ AFRICA + 100 MILES 1500 MILES + +NATURAL LINES + +CRACKS, FISSURES, ETC.] + +In Plate V, page 112, are given six figures representing various cracks +and fissures. No. 1 represents the cracks in the glaze of Japanese +pottery, magnified. No. 2 shows the mud cracks on the edge of a lake, +to the extent of two feet. No. 3 is a series of cracks in an asphalt +pavement, covering about two feet. No. 4 shows the form of cracks +in the surface of a mesa in Arizona, the result of the summer heat, +the length being about ten feet. No. 5 is a tracing from a drawing +by Professor W. H. Pickering showing cracks in the lunar crater +Eratosthenes, with an extent of fifty-five miles. The original drawing +represented a much greater widening of the lines which Professor +Pickering believes to be due to vegetation. I endeavored to trace +the centre of each line and Professor Pickering said in regard to my +tracing: "In one or two instances you have assumed that a crack went +through the middle of a broad space, whereas, for aught we know, it +may have gone along either edge, but otherwise the tracing obviously +follows the outlines of my drawing." It evidently gives a _cachet_ +of what appears to be veritable cracks on the surface, and it is +interesting to compare this drawing with the cracks in the asphalt. In +No. 6 are two drawings; one marked A represents cracks in a region of +the Moon known as Flammarion's Circle, the other B represents the great +rift in southern Africa, probably the most stupendous phenomenon in +geological history. This rift has been traced from the Valley of the +Jordan through the Dead Sea, into the Gulf of Akaba, thence into the +Red Sea, which it follows the entire length, then turning southwesterly +into Africa and branching, one branch takes in Lake Tanganyika, and +the other branch Lake Nyassa. A portion north of Nyassa is still +problematical. Here is a crack 1,500 miles long, most of it filled with +detritus, water, or forest. It would be an interesting question whether +such a fracture would be visible even from the Moon. A glance at these +various figures will give one a conception of the similarity of cracks, +their irregular contour, their indeterminate origin, and ending. Cracks +arising from shrinkage vary only in the material in which the crack +takes place; the conditions resulting from shrinkage or pulling apart +are precisely the same. + +[Illustration: PLATE VI + + 1. RAILROADS, ILLINOIS + 37 MILES + + 2. STREETS, MONTREAL + 1/2 MILE + + 3. IRRIGATION CANALS, ARIZONA + 1-1/3 MILES + + 4. CANALS, GRONINGEN, HOLLAND + 10 MILES + + 5. MARS, SCHIAPARELLI'S MAP + + 6. MARS, LOWELL'S GLOBE + +ARTIFICIAL LINES + +RAILWAYS, STREETS, CANALS, ETC.] + +Let us now glance at a series of figures on Plate VI, page 113; +their artificial character may be recognized at once. They are all +designed for channels or thoroughfares for the transportation of men, +merchandise, or water. No. 1 represents a tracing from a railroad map +of a county in Illinois. The convergence of lines to common centres, +and, in one case, parallel lines may be seen. The length of the region +represented is thirty-seven miles. No. 2 is a tracing of streets +in a district of Montreal, covering an extent of half a mile. No. 3 is +a tracing of a small region near Phoenix, Arizona, showing irrigating +canals. The larger ones follow contour lines of the surface; the +smaller ones are usually laid out in rectangular form to correspond +with the original land sections and sub-sections, the boundary lines +of which run north and south, east and west. No. 4 represents the +canals converging on Groningen, Holland. No. 5 is a tracing from a +hemispherical map of Mars made by Schiaparelli, and No 6 is traced +from a photograph of a globe on which Lowell has carefully drawn the +canals, oases, etc., of Mars covering a land extent of 7,400 miles. The +remarkable artificiality of all these figures must be admitted. The +lines on the first four figures are laid out by an intelligence for +similar purposes. No. 1 for the conveyance of passengers and freight; +No. 2 for the traffic of a city; No. 3 for the conveyance of water; No. +4 for purposes of navigation, and Nos. 5 and 6, according to Lowell's +view, for the conveyance of water from melting polar snow caps for +irrigation purposes. A simple, rational explanation, as their great +width and geodetic precision forbid any other. + +Let one contemplate these lines of Mars and compare them with the +natural cracks on Plate V and he will appreciate the emphatic words of +Lowell when he says: "The mere aspect is enough to cause all theories +about glaciation, fissures, or surface cracks to die an instant and +natural death." Consider any other possible tracing of lines on the +face of the Earth as the result of Nature's forces, such as river beds, +cañons, chasms, fissures, faults, rifts, precipitous valleys, fiords, +the results of sharp folds in the strata, parallel chains of mountains, +and none of these lines would be straight, none of them would be of +uniform width, and few of them would have the enormous breadth of the +Martian lines, they would begin nowhere and, with the exception of +the rivers, end nowhere. This definition holds good as the result of +natural forces from the microscopic crackle on a dinner plate, to a +crack in the Earth's crust fifteen hundred miles long. + +Having briefly alluded to some of the theories advanced to explain the +geodetic network of lines encircling Mars--theories in one case so +puerile, and in another case an interpretation so monstrous, though +endorsed by astronomers of standing--we turn to the suggestion that +these various lines are artificial, that they were designed for a +definite purpose, namely, to conduct water from those regions alone +where water is found for the purposes of irrigation. We shall call +attention to a parallel case where the great ice caps and glaciers of +the Himalaya Mountains supply water, by their melting, for thousands of +miles of irrigating canals. Let us ask ourselves whether if the snows +of the Himalayas gradually failed, the crowded millions of India would +not if necessary reach out to the farthest North for this precious +fluid? Our great centres of population at the present time are reaching +out in every direction for water supply. How long would it take New +York City to decide in case of water famine to tap the Great Lakes to +the north, or to establish pipe lines to the north pole, if it were +necessary to go that distance for water? + +From the foregoing it is seen that the question of water supply has +engaged the energies of man from pre-historic times. These great +irrigating works are found, however, in regions of sterility, or light +rainfall, from the rude irrigating canals of ancient Peru and Arizona +to the marvellous accomplishments of the hydraulic engineer in India +and Egypt. This demand for more water is not, however, confined to +regions of sterility, the reaching out of cities for supplies of water +for potable purposes and for the wasteful disposal of sewage was +inevitable. What shall we say, however, of the notes of warning in +regions of rain? + +England is considered a land of humidity and copious rains, and yet the +alarm is already sounded that in the no distant future an appalling +catastrophe may threaten her in the failure of her water supply. In a +special despatch to the "New York Herald," Mr. Bently, president of +the Royal Meteorological Society, is quoted as saying at its Annual +Meeting, "So enormous now is the drain upon the country's available +supplies, so much have the growth of cities, the disappearance of +forested areas, the extent of street surface impervious to moisture, +and the diversion of the rivers, lakes, and other natural fresh water +reservoirs from their natural function of irrigators and distributors +of the all essential moisture to the land interfered in England with +nature's arrangements, that English engineers and meteorologists at no +distant date may find a task of almost insuperable difficulty awaiting +their endeavors." + +Dr. Mill, a rainfall expert, on being consulted by a "Daily Mail" +correspondent regarding this alarming statement, was of the opinion +that the question would require early consideration. We quote his words +as follows: "Legislation is needed in the immediate future for the +regulation of the rivers. The great question is how to store the water +which at present runs to waste on the coasts." + +"The planting of trees on the high water-sheds is one of the first +solutions of the problem. The chief difficulty lies in the scarcity +of suitable land available for building large reservoirs, and at some +future date the services of engineers will be required to reform the +present arrangement of reservoirs." + +"In Austria the government issues an annual report on the condition +of the Danube and detailed statistics of the rainfall, with a view +to storing all the available water supplies. The work done by the +Austrian government I am doing in regard to the British Isles on my own +responsibility, but the rainfall and the river conditions are only a +portion of a much larger problem." + +The above quotations indicate that even now an alarm is felt in +countries of fair rainfall regarding the possible failure of the water +supply in the near future and is perhaps a premonition as to what may +be absorbing our energies in centuries to come. Such possibilities as +here suggested may offer an additional clew to an interpretation of the +Martian markings. + +The unnatural straightness of these interlacing lines on Mars, +many of them following the arcs of great circles, their uniform +width throughout, their always starting from definite areas, +their convergence to common centres, and their varying visibility +synchronizing with the Martian seasons finds no parallel in natural +phenomena. + +If in the mind's eye we were to survey the Earth from Mars the only +feature we should find at all paralleling the lines in Mars would be +found in the level regions of the West, where, for thousands of miles, +the land extends in vast level stretches. In these regions would be +found lines of railroads running in straight courses, starting from +definite places, converging to common centres, their sides, in certain +seasons, conspicuous with ripening grain fields, or again the work of +the United States Reclamation Bureau running its irrigating canals in +various directions through that great region. Both these kinds of lines +would be artificial and both designed for purposes of conveyance--in +the one case, merchandise and passengers, in the other case, water. + +If the Martian lines are not artificial some other theories must be +offered than those thus far advanced to explain their origin and +purpose. + +The phenomenon of the extraordinary doubling of the canals when first +announced was immediately disbelieved; when, however, other observers +confirmed Schiaparelli's discoveries, and it became evident that these +double lines had a veritable existence, the phenomenon was regarded as +an evidence that profound physical changes were going on in the planet. +Thus in 1887 Mr. Stanislaus Maunier, in "La Nature,"[6] in alluding to +the remarkable discovery of the doubling of the canals, says: "Mars at +this moment is the theatre of phenomena of stupendous grandeur which +will be adequate in a few years to impress profound changes in its +aspect." This was written in 1887, and continuous observations of the +planet since that time have shown no profound changes, or changes of +any kind beyond those which periodically occur with the seasons. Since +Mars is a much older planet than the Earth, it seems reasonable to +believe that it is more stable, that volcanoes and earthquakes have +long ceased to manifest their activities, that erosive action by water +is no longer in evidence, subsidence and elevation of continental areas +no longer occur. From this condition of the planet it is impossible to +believe that the curious phenomenon of the doubling or gemination of +the canals can be due to any physical changes now taking place. + +Schiaparelli said that many of the ingenious suppositions advanced to +account for this doubling of the canals would not have been proposed +had their authors been able to examine the gemination with their own +eyes; he further says: "It is far easier to explain the gemination if +we are willing to introduce the forces pertaining to organic nature; +here the field of plausible supposition is immense," and in this field +of suppositions he suggests "changes of vegetation over vast areas." +Let any intelligent mind soberly consider this rational suggestion +of Schiaparelli's and compare it with other theories that have been +advanced, and he will be compelled to admit that vegetation alone gives +us at least a clew to the extraordinary behavior of these parallel +lines. To understand the symmetry, the suddenness, and the vast extent +of this phenomenon, the further explanation of vegetation superinduced +by artificial methods will alone complete the answer. + +Sir Robert Ball cannot conceive how Mars, a much older planet, should +develop synchronously with the Earth creatures of intelligence, an +event which he insists should have occurred ages earlier in its +history. In this supposition he is quite right, for if there are +creatures of intelligence in Mars these should have appeared much +earlier, and that is probably what has happened. The problem is one +parallel to that urged by Sir Boyd Dawkins in regard to the evidences +of man in the Tertiary rocks. Dawkins argued that since the mammals in +the Tertiary had changed so profoundly, many types becoming extinct, +if man had lived at that time he also should have been affected by +the same influences, and should have changed accordingly. It has been +clearly pointed out by Cope and others that the moment intelligence +became a factor in natural selection it was seized upon to the relative +exclusion of physical characteristics, hence but little change, +otherwise than an intellectual one, has taken place in man since his +progenitors took to the trees and made up by agility, cunning, and +alertness what they lacked in physical strength. In the same way, +if, in the past history of Mars, an intelligent creature appeared he +must have survived under precisely similar conditions, and long after +favorable environments had passed that were implicated in making him +what he was. + +Admitting that there is an intelligent creature of some kind in Mars, +is it reasonably conceivable that he should have caused such changes +in the surface features of that planet as to be visible from the +Earth? Professor Newcomb concludes, in a recent article in "Harper's +Magazine," that "we cannot expect to see any signs of the works of +inhabitants in Mars, if such exist." Let us, however, reverse the +proposition and ask ourselves if man has been implicated in any changes +in the surface appearance of the Earth that would be visible from +Mars? And I think the question can be answered in only one way. The +vast cities such as Pekin, Tokio, London, and New York, with their +great expanse of tiled and slated roofs, and sterile streets, would +certainly have a different albedo from the grass and trees in the +immediate outskirts of such places. The tracts of land reclaimed from +the sea, and still more the enormous areas which have been rendered +green by irrigation, must, of all contrasts, be markedly conspicuous. +To realize the extent of this work, it is only necessary to state that +in Egypt 6,000,000 acres depend upon irrigation, and this area to be +vastly increased in a short time; the Western states of America with +10,000,000 acres, and this area being rapidly augmented by the work +of the United States Reclamation Bureau; in India 25,000,000 acres +under irrigation, and this being continually added to; above all, +however, the vast extent of territory from which the dark forests have +been removed in this country, and more particularly in China, must +make a visible landmark. If one can recall the appearance of forests +in the southern and middle part of Maine, say from Bethel or Bangor, +fifty years ago, he will remember that from the top of any hill a +stretch of dark blue forest was to be seen as far as the eye could +reach, and now from the same elevations one can see only an occasional +clump of blue forest, while the remaining surface is, according to +the season, either bright green, yellow with ripening vegetation, or +white with snow, out of which the dark clumps of forest growth are most +conspicuous. Considering the contrasting colors in one year covering +hundreds of thousands of square miles in various portions of the +country, the question naturally arises which of these contrasts would +be most conspicuous,--the colors just mentioned of solid land surfaces +of vegetation, snow, and desert, or diaphanous clouds with their gray +shadows. We are told that Jupiter, with the mean distance at opposition +of nearly 400,000,000 miles, shows its clouds, its red spot, and the +shadow transits of its satellites. Surely if these conditions are seen +from the Earth, the changes in the Earth's appearance above described +might be seen from Mars, which at its nearest opposition is only +35,000,000 miles away, and, conversely, any change of similar character +in Mars would certainly be visible from the Earth. + + + + +X + +COMMENTS AND CRITICISM + + _Nothing is more difficult and requires more caution than + philosophical deduction, nor is there anything more adverse + to its accuracy than fixity of opinion._ + + FARADAY. + + +It will be of interest to examine the writings of certain astronomers, +and writers on astronomy, to appreciate the unreasonable conservatism, +not to say narrow-mindedness, which color their opinions. It ill +becomes students of science to ridicule the honest and persistent +labors of such men as Schiaparelli, Lowell, Perrotin, and others, +unless they can show an equal devotion to the work. They do not recall +the deluge of essays, reviews, and sober treatises which followed +Darwin's great work, viewing the evidences of Darwin not thoughtfully, +nor based upon any knowledge of the subject, but with contempt, and, +in many instances, with vituperation. So rapid, however, was the +recognition of Darwin's interpretation of Nature's facts that most +of these writers lived long enough to see their protests entirely +discredited, or to become enthusiastic advocates of the theory. + +In their own domain of astronomy these writers are equally forgetful of +the earnest and even bitter controversies regarding the demonstration +by Chandler of the oscillation of the poles, and consequent variation +of latitude, and the final establishment of Chandler's views, in the +teeth of opposition, by the greatest astronomers. + +The character of this irrelevant and adverse criticism may be +appreciated by subjoining a few examples. The most amazing of all these +expressions is to be found in the report of the British Astronomical +Association, for 1892. It seems that a committee had been appointed by +the Association to report on the surface features of Mars. E. Walter +Maunder was made Director of the Committee. Twenty-six observers, +of whom twenty-one were inhabitants of Great Britain, sent in the +result of their work accompanied by drawings. A summary of this work +was published in the form of memoranda accompanied by a Mercator +projection map of Mars, individual planisphere drawings, as well as +colored plates; these together represented twenty-eight single canals, +five double canals, nine oases, as well as the dark regions so long +familiar to astronomers. This was a somewhat remarkable contribution +considering the complaints from the different observers in regard to +the weather, and the prejudiced, and negligent part played by the man +at the helm. That I am not unjust in these statements may be understood +by quoting from the report showing the conditions under which the +English observers labored, the delinquent part which Mr. Maunder, +the Director, played in the matter, and the conclusions which Mr. +Maunder arrived at after this unsatisfactory performance. He says: +"The opposition of 1892 proved on the whole a very disappointing one. +Although Mars at opposition was almost at its nearest approach to the +Earth, it was far from being well placed for observation by European +astronomers owing to its great southerly declination, and consequent +low altitude.[7] The weather during the autumn of 1892 was for the most +part very unfavorable for observation of so difficult an object, and +several members who joined the section at the beginning were unable to +contribute either drawings or report." + +Now I beg the reader to carefully note the part the Director played +in this important work. Here are his words; there is no need of +italicizing them. "None of the few evenings which the Director was able +to give to the examination of the planet was really suitable for the +purpose, and as the pressure of other duties rendered it impossible +for him to supply any detailed help to the members, the section was +at a very serious disadvantage." He certainly is frank enough to +state the disadvantages the section was under with such a man at the +head. Realizing the conditions of seeing in the fog and soot-begrimed +atmosphere of England, the low altitude of Mars, and the loss to +the committee of the assistance which a Director might have given +to the work had he been able to approach the subject in a broad and +unprejudiced manner, one is naturally led to ask what this committee +would have accomplished if each member in turn had had an opportunity +of observing Mars at a high altitude with a twenty-four inch refractor +of remarkable definition, at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the +sea-level, in an atmosphere so clear and steady that stars of the third +and fourth magnitude may be seen to set at the horizon line. + +Mr. Maunder in speaking of the nomenclature used in his report says, +"The term 'canal' has also been retained, though 'canals' in the sense +of being artificial productions, the markings of Mars which bear that +name, are certainly not. It is difficult, indeed, to understand how +so preposterous an idea obtained currency for a moment even by the +most ignorant." It is impossible to repress one's amazement at these +expressions after the confessions he makes as to his official functions +on the committee, and I appeal to any honest and unprejudiced mind if +a more incompetent person of the class to which he belongs could have +been found in England for the Directorship of such a body. In this +connection we cannot refrain from giving a few paragraphs from a paper +entitled "Can Organic Life Exist in the Planetary System?" by C. A. +Stetefeldt. The author says: "We must, however, acknowledge that if +other suns in the universe have planets--and there is no reason why +they should not--many of them may present physical conditions identical +with, or similar to, those existing on the Earth, and that therefore +their organic life may be similar to our own. Further, I am far from +denying that, under favorable circumstances, creatures may be evolved +upon planets which revolve around other suns, whose mental capacity is +as much superior to man's as that of the latter is to the lowest form +of vertebrates." Having made these liberal admissions in regard to the +universe at large he attempts to show that none of the planets outside +the Earth could sustain life, and finally closes in this extraordinary +manner: "In concluding this investigation we cannot help admiring the +inductive acumen of the theologians who considered the Earth the most +important of the planets, and the centre of creation. Although their +opinions were not based upon scientific facts, they _arrived at the +truth nevertheless_." (Italics ours.) Familiar as every one is with +the attitude of theologians for the last several centuries concerning +astronomical discovery I think it may be safely said that this is +the first instance on record where they have been credited with an +induction not based on observed facts worth quoting in an astronomical +paper. And this contribution also appeared in the publications of the +"Astronomical Society of the Pacific," Volume VI, No. 25, without a +word of comment! How different was the behavior of the "Journal" when +a report of Percival Lowell's lecture on Mars, written by Dr. Edward +Everett Hale, was reproduced in its pages. The following comments were +made by Edward S. Holden, then Director of the Lick Observatory: +"Something is seen, no doubt, but I may add that nothing has been +observed at the Lick Observatory during the years 1888-1895, so far +as I know, which goes to confirm the very striking conclusions here +described." It may be added that during the years 1888-1892 nothing was +seen of the fifth moon of Jupiter. The discovery of this satellite with +the Lick telescope was not due to any special efforts on the part of +the Director. + +The Rev. E. Ledger, "Nineteenth Century Magazine," Volume LIII, 1903, +p. 773, in an article entitled "The Canals of Mars--Are they Real?" +presents an excellent account of the successive observers of Mars, +and the results of their work, and the objections of those who could +not see the canals, or saw them imperfectly. He recalls Maunder's +childish experiments, and is greatly impressed by them. He then +says: "Astronomers are no doubt very well acquainted with the laws +of optics as applied to the eye. They have made, and may yet make, +many experiments connected with their action. They are accustomed to +allow for individual peculiarities in observation, as, for instance, +when what is termed personal equation affects the rapidity with which +different observers touch a key to record what they see. They may +therefore skilfully judge of the effect produced in observations of +Mars by such processes of the eye, or of the brain, or nervous system +as I have referred to." He strongly thinks it would be well "if some +skilful nerve specialist and oculist could work in conjunction with +some of these practised observers who have seen the canals. They might +both assist in observing, and at the same time carry out careful +researches into the optical delusions which brain or eye may experience +in connection with telescopic observation." This is certainly a happy +thought of the reverend author, only it would seem in this case that a +larger and more diversified corps of specialists, including alienists, +is needed to attend to that class of astronomers who are suffering with +mental strabismus. It might be advisable to call in the services of +a bacteriologist to make cultures of new forms of microbes which may +be involved in rendering a man incapable of estimating the value of +evidence. + +It is the exception rather than the rule in astronomical science that +one finds such unfounded and prejudiced utterances as those above +commented upon. The glamour of astrology still lingers, in the public +eye in its respect and awe for the astronomer's work. Every eclipse +seems in the nature of a prophecy. The public contributes liberally +for the support of eclipse expeditions, observatories, and the like, +and these contributions would be still more liberal if the public +could realize the profound significance of the researches now being +carried on by Director Pickering at Harvard, Director Campbell at Lick, +Director Hale at the Solar Observatory, Mount Wilson, and many others. +Their observations are received without question. The thoughtful +man would only ask that like credence should be given to the work +of every earnest student unless disproved, even though the field of +investigation covers regions hitherto but little explored, and yet of +the very greatest interest to the human race. + + + + +XI + +ATMOSPHERE AND MOISTURE + + _If in any planet we could detect the traces of vegetable + life it would at once be a strong argument for the + existence of animals there and vice versa._ + + HENRY DRAPER. + + +Schiaparelli points out that "the polar snows of Mars prove in an +incontrovertible manner that the planet, like the Earth, is surrounded +by an atmosphere capable of transporting vapor from one place to +another." Mr. E. E. Barnard, in the "Astrophysical Journal," Volume +XVII, No. 4, in speaking of the polar caps, says: "There seems no +definite proof that they are not as much ice and snow as that which we +have to deal with in our own terrestrial winters. So much is at least +suggested by the great seasonal changes they undergo from winter to +summer. There seems to be a general belief now that Mars certainly has +an atmosphere. This atmosphere seems to be very much less than our own, +and yet it is of sufficient density to produce the phenomena of the +polar caps by condensation and evaporation and also to produce, though +rarely, some form of clouds." + +Among those who have claimed to have established the existence of water +vapor in Mars by the spectroscope are Rutherford, Secchi, Huggins, +Janssen, and Vogel; and these declare the existence of a Martian +atmosphere similar to our own in composition. Mr. Campbell can find no +spectroscopic indication of an atmosphere charged with water vapor. +Lewis E. Jewell says: "The spectroscopic proof of the presence of a +fair amount of water in the atmosphere of Mars must be regarded as +unattainable." Professor Lowell, despite the aid the admission of +water vapor in Mars would give to his position, also doubts whether +the spectroscope is able to detect the evidence through our own +moisture-laden atmosphere. + +After a minute and exhaustive study of the polar snow caps by the +combined observations of Lowell, Douglass and W. H. Pickering, Mr. +Lowell says: "It is interesting that the cap should so simply tell us +of these three important things: the presence of air, the presence of +water, and the presence of a temperature, not incomparable with that of +the Earth." + +Seasonal changes on Mars have long been recognized and admitted +by astronomers, and these changes are on so vast a scale as to be +distinctly visible from the earth. Without an atmosphere the surface +of Mars would be inert. Schiaparelli was the first to notice that at +successive oppositions the same regions showed different degrees of +darkness and accounted for these variations by seasonal change. Mr. +Denning believes that certain changes in the appearance of the markings +to be due to vaporous condensations. Sir Norman Lockyer believed he +saw the obscuration of a large region by clouds, this obscuration +continuing for some hours. A bright spot on the terminator of Mars, +discovered by Douglass at the Lowell Observatory, and which led to the +newspaper excitement that signals were being made, was seen to move +and finally disappear and its appearance, drift and disappearance is +interpreted by Lowell as a cloud illuminated by the Sun and carried +along by the wind. The presence of clouds, judging from my own brief +experience, was certainly suggested at times by the peculiar way in +which a large region known as Syrtis Major disappeared and flashed +out again. This behavior might be expected of the tenuous lines as a +result of refraction and other disturbances in our own atmosphere; +when, however, a large, dark region at one time stands out firm, +clear and sharp-cut as the stroke of a Japanese brush, then gradually +fades out and remains obscure for some time we are inclined to believe +that Sir Norman Lockyer's interpretation is true and that in such a +case drifting clouds or sudden vaporous condensation produced the +obscuration. + +From an article on Mars by Sir Robert Ball, republished in the +"Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution" for 1900, we quote +the following: "The discussion we have just given will prepare us to +believe that a planet with the size and mass of Mars may be expected +to be encompassed with an atmosphere. Our telescopic observations +completely bear this out. It is perfectly certain that there is a +certain shell of gaseous material investing Mars. This is shown in +various ways. We note the gradual obscuration of objects on the planet +as they approach the edge of the disk, where they are necessarily +viewed through a greatly increased thickness of Martian atmosphere. +We also observe the clearness with which objects are exhibited at the +centre of the disk of Mars, and though this may be in some measure +due to the absence of distortion from the effects of foreshortening, +it undoubtedly arises to some extent from the fact that objects in +this position are viewed through a comparatively small thickness of +the atmosphere enveloping the planet. Clouds are also sometimes seen +apparently floating in the upper region of Mars. This, of course, is +possible only on the supposition that there must be an atmosphere which +formed the vehicle by which clouds were borne along. It is, however, +quite obvious that the extent of the Martian atmosphere must be quite +insignificant when compared with that by which our Earth is enveloped. +It is a rare circumstance for any of the main topographical features, +such as the outlines of its so-called continents, or the coasts of +its so-called seas, to be obscured by clouds to an extent which is +appreciable except by very refined observations." + +Professor W. H. Pickering made seven photographs of Mars on April 9, +and within twenty-four hours made seven additional photographs of +the same region. The second series of photographs showed an area of +white extending from the polar snow cap far down toward the equator, +covering a surface which he estimated to be as large as the United +States. It afterwards slowly disappeared. How shall we account for +this sudden apparition of a vast area of white which the photographs +of twenty-four hours before did not reveal. A boy of ten, as well as +the philosopher would simply say a snow-storm had taken place in Mars. +Is it, then, unreasonable to picture whirling snowflakes, snow-drifts, +and dazzling whiteness from the Sun's rays, and in the rapid melting +of the snow, broad rivers and turbulent brooks with water areas frozen +at night? But why should we be compelled to imagine as naked the +surface through which these waters find their way? Soil there must be +from the continual erosion of running water. The character of the rock +exposures we cannot guess at, but a picture of bare rock and lifeless +ground is unthinkable. Such wide-spread storms without an atmosphere +could not occur. The seasonal appearance of these snows and their slow +disappearance not only indicates an atmosphere, but an atmosphere +disturbed by established currents which convey the moisture-laden air +to regions of congelation. + +A number of observers who have detected clouds in Mars described +them as being yellowish in color. What more probable than that these +yellowish masses are simply dust-storms such as one may often see +whirling along over our American deserts? When the gusts of wind +are fitful like squalls at sea, the obscuration would be fitful, to +clear up again. The vast areas of desert land in Mars renders this +supposition very probable. + +Since the above was written, my attention has been called to an +early "Bulletin of the Lowell Observatory," in which Mr. Lowell, +in discussing the appearance of a certain large projection on the +terminator of Mars, says: "Finally, its color leads me to believe it +not a cloud of water-vapor, but a cloud of dust. Other phenomena of the +planet bear out this supposition." + + + + +XII + +NOTES ON IRRIGATION + + _Your theory of vegetation becomes more and more probable._ + + SCHIAPARELLI in a letter to Lowell. + + +Let one stand on some peak of the Verd Mountains, northeast from +Phoenix, Arizona, overlooking the Gila River as it follows its course +across the desert, and after the river is lost to view he will notice +that the foliage along its banks marks its course. If one takes this +view in winter time, the uniform gray of the plains, unbroken by a +single shade of color blends with the light blue of the distant Plomas +and Castle Dome Mountains on the southwest horizon. In the early spring +when the water is first let into the irrigating channels with their +innumerable divergent ditches, a shade of green may be seen emerging +from the monotonous yellow-gray of the hot and sterile plain, first +conspicuous near the source of the water supply, and then following +along to Phoenix, Tempe, and other regions till in full efflorescence +these cities stand out like great green carpets spread upon the Earth. +From this mountain top not a trace of an irrigating ditch, large or +small, would be discerned, except here and there a glint of reflected +sunlight, but the effects of the life-giving waters can be traced in +broad bands to the remotest limits of the water channels, when they +would end as abruptly as they had begun. + +If we examine railroad maps, the lines of which represent the road-beds +utilized to convey passengers and freight to various places, we shall +observe that in mountainous regions the lines run very irregularly, +often paralleling mountain chains, or following rivers. On level areas +such as Iowa, Texas, and other states, the railroads run for hundreds +of miles in straight lines, at times converging towards large centres +of population. Their occasional parallelism and radiation from centres, +all present a certain _cachet_ in angles of approach and alignment +that reminds one strongly of similar features in the markings of +Mars. If each railroad were bordered by a wide growth of trees with +sterile desert between, these broad bands as seen from Mars would be +identical with the appearance of similar lines in Mars as seen from +the Earth. In Mars, however, there are no high elevations since the +terminator of Mars stands out clear cut and not jagged as in the Moon. +The planet being devoid of hill ranges, and large oceans, the canals +can run in straight lines for hundreds of miles. If it were possible +to conceive by analogy a creature on Mars furnished with a telescope, +he would undoubtedly correlate the irrigating regions of Arizona as +similar in nature to his own canals. The irregularity of the rivers +running through such regions would puzzle him quite as much as we are +puzzled by the absolute straightness of the Martian canals. He would, +of course, observe that in our winter the irrigating areas became +invisible, to appear again as our summer advanced. His own experience +of vegetation arising from irrigation alone and starting from the north +when the first water from the melting snow cap animated the growth of +plant life, and proceeding slowly towards the equator would prevent him +from understanding the reverse condition on our planet, with the shade +of green being perennial at the equator and spreading slowly north with +the advance of summer. + +The marvels of irrigation are impossible to conceive of without first +seeing a parched land before the water channels are dug and the +exuberant vegetation springing with the water's advent. The illimitable +stretches of arid plain, no green, rarely an evidence of life, and +then usually in hideous shapes like the hissing and purple-mouthed +Gila monster; hot pale dust; blinding sunlight; ragged clumps of gray +sagebrush, rebuking by their hopeless color and dishevelled appearance, +the intolerable condition of their existence; angular cacti, surviving +because of their vicious needles, and then literally a step only from +this sterile waste, and one finds himself wading through rich, soft +alfalfa, under the deep shade of cottonwood trees, glistening threads +of water when the overhanging vegetation does not hide the channels, +brilliant flowers, singing birds, fat cattle and vociferous children. + +In this apparently irreclaimable desert of Arizona, have sprung up +prosperous cities, great farms and fruit orchards. About Phoenix, +more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres are under the +richest and most profitable cultivation, and all due to a little narrow +canal which conveys the water from Salado River, and distributes it +by narrow ditches, so narrow, indeed, as to be invisible except on +the nearest approach. There have already been constructed in the +Gila Valley alone, two hundred and fifty miles of ditches, and four +hundred miles of parallels. Mr. Ray Stannard Baker, in the "Century" +for July, 1902, presents in a graphic way, the marvels of irrigation. +Major J. W. Powell, during the later years of his life devoted his +whole time and energy to urging the reclamation of desert lands in the +West by irrigation. In his reports on the subject he estimated that a +region equal in size to New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and West +Virginia could be recovered from the desert sands of Arizona and other +regions in the West. In India, millions of pounds have been spent for +irrigating canals and ditches. A single canal with its tributaries +drawing water from the Ganges measures 3,910 miles in length, bringing +into cultivation one million acres of land at an expense of fifteen +millions of dollars. The idea of irrigation is not due to the advanced +intellect of man; it has been the result of dire necessity and is of +great antiquity. Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing discovered evidences of the +most extensive irrigating canals among the ancient Pueblo Indians of +Arizona. + +Sir C. Scott Moncrief, in his address as president of the engineering +section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, +describes the various forms of irrigation. The primitive method +consists in raising water by human labor. Early Egyptian sculpture +depicts laborers raising water by means of buckets, and along the +banks of the Nile the same method may be seen to-day. Other methods +of raising water are by pumps driven by windmills. In certain regions +Artesian wells furnish water for irrigation. The importance of +irrigation is best shown in the fact, that, while the rainfall in +Cairo is, on an average, one and four tenths inches a year, yet in the +immediate neighborhood land brings $750 per acre; this value being due +to irrigation alone. In speaking of water storage for supplying the +irrigating canals the author says: "When there is no moderating lake, +a river fed by a glacier has a precious source of supply. The hotter +the weather the more rapidly will the ice melt, and this is just when +irrigation is most wanted." (Judging from this dictum, the condition in +Mars is ideal.) In speaking of the great Assouan Reservoir in Egypt, he +says: "The sale value of land irrigated by its waters will be increased +by about $125,000,000. The increase in irrigation areas in our Western +States may be appreciated by the following figures. In 1889 it amounted +to 3,564,416 acres; in 1900, to 7,539,545 acres. Now it is at least +10,000,000 acres. Without irrigation this land sold for four or five +dollars per acre; with irrigation it brings forty dollars per acre. + + + + +XIII + +VARIETY OF CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH LIFE EXISTS + + _Not only does life but intelligence flourish on this globe + under a great variety of conditions, as regards temperature + and surroundings, and no sound reason can be shown why + under certain conditions which are frequent in the + universe, intelligent beings should not acquire the highest + development._ + + SIMON NEWCOMB. + + +The argument most often urged against the idea that life exists in Mars +is that there is no atmosphere in that planet, or if there is one it is +so rarefied that it could not sustain life as we know it. According to +Proctor, we have heretofore been led to consider the planet's physical +condition as adapted to the wants of creatures which exist upon our +own Earth rather than to ascertain the conditions which might obtain +to enable life to exist on the surface of other planets. It is highly +probable that if an air-breathing animal of our earth were instantly +immersed in an atmosphere as rare as that of Mars, it would perish in +a short time. Precisely what a species through thousands of generations +of selection and survival might adapt itself to, is an open question. +Leaving this contention for a moment, let us consider the almost +infinite variety of conditions under which life exists on our globe, +and we shall find that any and all conditions which the surface of Mars +may offer, if experienced gradually through successive generations, +would not be inimical to terrestrial life from the lowest to the +highest, including even man. + +Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, in discussing the question of life, in his book +"Other Worlds," said: "Would it not be unreasonable to assume that +vital phenomena on other planets must be subject to exactly the same +limitations that we find circumscribing them in our world? That kind of +assumption has more than once led us far astray even in dealing with +terrestrial conditions. It is not so long ago, for instance, since life +in the depths of the sea was deemed to be demonstrably impossible. The +bottom of the ocean, we were assured, was a region of eternal darkness +and of frightful pressure, wherein no living creatures could exist. Yet +the first dip of the deep-sea trawl brought up animals of marvellous +delicacy of organization, which, although curiously and wonderfully +adapted to live in a compressed liquid, collapsed when lifted into a +lighter medium." + +One has only to make himself familiar with the wide range of conditions +under which life in various forms exists on the Earth, to realize +that the introduction of Martian conditions here would not be such an +overwhelming calamity, and if these conditions could be introduced +by minute increments covering thousands of centuries, it is not +unreasonable to believe that myriads of forms would survive the change, +and among those that survive would be precisely the kinds that thrive +under the most diverse conditions here--namely, man and the higher +hymenoptera, the ants. + +To enumerate, in the broadest way, the variety of conditions under +which life exists here, one has only to enumerate creatures living +in the deepest abysses of the ocean; high up on the slopes of the +Himalayas; swarming in arctic seas; withstanding the hot glare of a +tropical sun; living deep in the ground; breeding in the darkest caves; +flourishing in desert regions; thriving in water below freezing, and +again in water nearly at the boiling point. Professor Jeffries Wyman, +in a memoir on "Living Organisms in Heated Water," has collected data +showing that fishes are found living in water ranging from 104° to 135° +Fahrenheit. He also found that low forms of plant life exist in water +of various temperatures as high as: + + 168° F. observed by Dr. Hooker in Sorujkund; + 174° " " " Capt. Strachey in Thibet; + 185° " " " Humboldt in LaTrinchera; + 199° " " " Dr. Brewer in California; + 208° " " " Descloizeaux in Iceland. + +If we consider man alone, we find him at Aden, on the Red Sea, at a +temperature of 130° in the shade, and in Siberia at 70° below zero; +grovelling in mines deep in the Earth, and living in great communities +ten thousand feet above sea-level; fighting battles on the slopes +of the Himalayas, at an altitude of 19,000 feet; nomadic on sterile +tracts; sweltering under the glaring sun of the equator, and existing +in regions of perpetual snow and ice, and without sunlight for six +months of the year. Such are a few of the varied conditions to which +man has become accustomed since he emerged from his tropical and +arboreal relatives. + +The question finally comes down to the effect of the rarefaction of air +on life. An inquiry as to how far man can stand changes of atmospheric +pressure is of interest in this connection, for we know that sudden +changes are accompanied by mountain sickness, at great elevations, +and caisson disease under great pressure. Large birds soar among the +high peaks of the Andes and drop at once to sea-level. I have dredged +delicate mollusks at a depth of one hundred and fifty fathoms of water +and kept them alive for weeks in an aquarium. Man, while showing a +sensitiveness to changes in barometric pressure when experienced +suddenly, can nevertheless get accustomed to great ranges of pressure. +The cities of Bogota and Quito are 10,000 feet above the level of the +sea and yet in Quito when De Saussure, the naturalist, became so ill +from the rarefaction that he could hardly find energy enough to read +his instruments, and his servants, digging holes in the snow, fainted +from the exertion, the natives were pursuing their various activities, +and bull-fights were going on! One has only to read the accounts of the +English expedition to Thibet to learn that troops fought in skirmishes +at the height of 19,000 feet. + +Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield (in "Scot. Geo. Mag.," April, 1905) gives an +account of mountain sickness in the Sikkim Himalaya. He says the effect +of high altitude was different in different individuals; some men were +entirely free from it, and among them a Goorkha, who ran back in a pass +at an altitude of 20,000 feet to hurry up some loiterers. Another +member of the party, an Englishman, actually gained in weight, and had +an increased appetite. Here, then, are a few men among a small number, +without previous experience in rarefied air, feeling no disturbance, +and, in one case, actually benefited by it! + +The question arises as to what natural selection would do among a +hundred million say, who, through many centuries, might be subject +to a gradual attenuation of the air. The result of rarefaction of +the atmosphere and the absence of moisture is associated with marked +hygienic influences. The Hadley Climatological Laboratory of the +University of New Mexico has made special investigations as to the +increased lung capacity of those living at high altitudes, the relation +of dry soil to health, etc. Important work has been done by Drs. John +Weinzirl, C. Edw. Magnusson, F. S. Maltby, and Mrs. W. C. Hadley, +and their investigations go to prove that high altitudes and absence +of moisture are favorable to the health of man on this world, and by +analogy would not be inimical to the survival of certain forms of life +in Mars. + +Dr. S. E. Solby (in "Medical Climatology," p. 43, 1897), in describing +the effects of rarefaction of the air says: "The amount of air taken +in at each breath becomes greater, and the air-cells, many of which +are at lower altitudes often unused, are dilated." + +If we consider the atmospheric pressure under which a man can work and +live, we find equal adaptability. + +Mr. Gardner D. Hiscox, in his work on "Compressed Air, Its Production, +Uses, and Applications," says: "Experience has taught that the ill +effects are in proportion to the rapidity with which the transmission +is made from compressed air to the normal atmosphere. That while the +pressure remains stationary all subjective phenomena disappear." He +speaks of pressure of forty or fifty pounds to the square inch, and +says that, at these pressures, taste, smell, and the sense of touch +lose their acuteness. + +In the "Engineering Record" for January 23, 1904, there is an +interesting article on "Caisson Disease." It says that twenty pounds +pressure per square inch is common on foundation work in New York, and +that bridge piers have been built when pressures of nearly fifty pounds +were required. The deepest pneumatic work in New York was done in the +East River gas tunnel, when the maximum pressure was about forty-seven +to fifty pounds per square inch above atmospheric. In the gas tunnel +four men died from the effects of heavy pressure, while none died +from that reason under bridge work. The article further says that +ordinarily "strong young men in proper condition do not suffer from +working two four-hour shifts daily, under pressure up to twenty-five or +thirty pounds; above that limit injurious effects may be felt," etc. + +Let any reasonable man consider the meaning of these data. Without +any selective action on the race, without even a graded increase of +pressure from boyhood up, these workmen perform hard labor of stone +excavation at these pressures, and in the same way, without previous +experience, men are fighting battles at 19,000 feet altitude, and in +one instance growing fat at 20,000 feet. Eminent German and French +scientists have studied the effects of pneumatic pressure by numerous +experiments on men and animals. One experimenter subjected a great +number of dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and other animals to +repeated pressures up to one hundred pounds, and carefully observed +the effects of the varying conditions, some of which were fatal, while +others were apparently harmless. The experiments showed that sudden +release from heavy pressures was fatal, but that if three or four hours +were occupied in reducing a pressure of one hundred pounds, it was +harmless. + +With these facts one cannot help wondering whether even man himself +could not exist on Mars if allowed time to get accustomed to the rare +atmosphere through thousands of generations of minute increments of +adaptation. + +As a matter of fact we use but a small portion of our lung capacity. +Let any one experiment with himself and observe that after he has +inspired the accustomed quantity of air he can continue for some time +to inspire more air, and also when he has expired the accustomed +quantity of air in normal breathing, he can continue to expire a +great deal more air. Professor Jeffries Wyman, the famous lecturer on +comparative anatomy at Harvard, used to tell us that we ordinarily +inspired about twenty cubic inches of air but we could inspire one +hundred cubic inches more by an effort; also that having expired the +ordinary quantity we could expire a hundred cubic inches more and when +the lungs were removed from the body, an extra hundred cubic inches +could be forced from them. A surgeon friend tells me that many men live +and work with the greater portion of both lungs diseased, and unable to +perform their functions. + +It would be an interesting inquiry to ascertain what other species +of the animal kingdom has so wide a range as man. The dog evidently +follows him in all altitudes and at all temperatures. + +The group of insects to which the bees, wasps, and ants belong, have +always been recognized as standing highest in intelligence among the +invertebrates. In the great work of Dr. and Mrs. Peckham on wasps are +shown manifestations of intelligence among the wasps that are simply +startling, and the remarkable work of Miss Adele M. Fielde on the ants +adds greatly to the evidences of their unique intelligence. The ant +stands among the invertebrates much as man does among the vertebrates. +One has only to state concretely that ants practise a division of +labor; distinguish certain colors; estimate numbers; recognize friends +and enemies; harvest seeds, and, it is said, raise them, hence are +called agricultural ants; have insect cows and milk them; collect +leaves which they chop up for the purpose of raising a kind of fungus +upon which they live; organize raids and fight battles in masses; +enslave other species; build covered ways and tunnels; and perform +other acts of a similar nature. + +Bearing these statements in mind it is an interesting fact that at +altitudes in Arizona, where man finds it impossible to live except +by fetching water from regions below, the ant, equally dependent on +water, has survived on these high tablelands, and manages to raise huge +colonies. In wandering over the mesa at Flagstaff, at an elevation of +over 7,000 feet, the extreme dryness of the ground is indicated by long +cracks which appear on the surface. Here, where hardly any insect is +found except an occasional roaming butterfly, the ant has survived and +is met with in great numbers. Even a rare solitary insect known as the +velvet ant, and consequently without communal aid, is found chirping +merrily amidst these arid surroundings. + +In this connection, it is interesting to observe that creatures endowed +with the highest intelligence, both vertebrate and invertebrate, manage +to survive in considerable numbers in regions devoid of water. One +conveys it to his habitations from lower levels, the other digs wells +or manages to utilize the moisture from the roots of trees. + + + + +XIV + +MY OWN WORK + + _Snow caps of solid carbonic acid gas, a planet cracked in + a positively monomaniacal manner meteors ploughing tracks + across its surface with such mathematical precision that + they must have been educated to the performance, and so + forth and so on, in hypotheses each more astounding than + its predecessor, commend themselves to man, if only by such + means he may escape the admission of anything approaching + his kind._ + + PERCIVAL LOWELL. + + +I am led to present these few brief memoranda of my own work in order +to meet questions which would naturally be asked as to whether I had +ever seen Mars through a telescope, and if so did I make out any +markings or canals. + +[Illustration: PLATE VII + +DOME OF THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY, FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA] + +It was my good fortune to have the privilege of observing Mars every +night at the Lowell Observatory (see Plate VII) for thirty-four days, +covering an almost complete presentation of the planet. A few nights +were cloudy and no observations were made. With these exceptions I +was in the observer's chair several times each evening. The twenty-four +inch refractor of which I had the use was the last telescope Clark +ever made, and he pronounced it his best one. This instrument (Plate +VIII) is mounted on a mesa near the town of Flagstaff, Arizona, at +a height of over 7,000 feet above sea-level, in an atmosphere of +remarkable clarity and steadiness. I have already stated on page 80 +my first experiences in observing and will only present the brief +notes I made at the time of observation. Better results would have +accompanied these efforts had I followed the custom of Michael Faraday +and asked what was I to look at, what was I expected to see? I had been +somewhat prejudiced as to the existence of the canals by the comments +of sporadic observers, many of whom, by the way, had never been able to +see them, and denying that any one else ever had, straightway proceeded +to suggest a theory to explain their presence! Careful to avoid any +bias in the matter I rigidly refused to allow either Professor Lowell +or his assistants to suggest where I might find a canal or a marking on +the disk. The night before I left the Observatory for home I asked Mr. +Lowell for the first time, to indicate the position of some conspicuous +canal which I had not seen. This he did and examining the region +which I supposed he had indicated on the disk I searched in vain for +the line. In doing so another line was detected and drawn, and on +confessing my failure to see the line he had described, showed him my +drawing, when he exclaimed, "Why, you have got it," and sure enough +when he showed me his drawing and repeated the directions he had given +me, I found that I had been looking at the wrong pole of the planet. + +[Illustration: PLATE VIII + +TWENTY-FOUR INCH TELESCOPE OF THE LOWELL OBSERVATORY, FLAGSTAFF, +ARIZONA] + +In one stage of great discouragement I came across a statement made +by Mr. A. Stanley Williams which has already been quoted, namely, +that he had to observe continually for two months before sufficient +sensitiveness enabled him to make out the more delicate markings. That +I might have seen more had I been acclimated, and had been accustomed +to telescopic observation there is no doubt. The record is poor enough +and yet under the conditions mentioned the results may be of interest +to the reader. + + May 14. Midnight. Saw planet for the first time. A beautiful + luminous disk with shades of tone dimly visible. Southern + pole cap white and seen. + + May 15. Certain details sufficiently distinct to make out dark + areas, and at times a line or two. + + May 16. Occasional flashes of a few lines, while broad darkened + area and cuniform area on right visible, and, in one flash, + a line supporting the wedge as well as basal line. With no + better seeing conditions than last night, more details came + out, and for the first time I am encouraged to believe that + each day an improvement will take place. I saw enough to + make my first drawing. + + May 17. Bad seeing. I made out only the broad southern band, + the line at the northern pole and the wedge-shaped area to + the right below, also a slight discoloration in the middle. + + May 18. Not very good seeing. Could make out but little more + than I did last night. + + May 19. Seeing about the same, perhaps slightly less. Saw rift + in southern dark band and north pole appeared luminous. + + May 20. Mr. Lowell informed me this morning that the luminous + appearance around the north pole that I saw last night + was the result of a snowstorm. Seeing fair. Considerable + vibration of planet. Saw new snow field of the northern + pole distinctly outlined and much confused markings. Looked + in vain for spots but could not discern them. + + May 21. Seeing clearer, and for the first time I made out + distinctly two spots, or oases. Mr. Lowell informed me that + Schiaparelli had never seen them. The snow which fell on + May 19 was still conspicuous. + + May 22. With a headache and a seedy condition from not being + acclimated, I yet found an improvement in my seeing + capacities. I made out a promontory in the southern dark + belt, also a canal running down from the Trivium. + + May 23. Bad seeing. Could not define snow cap though dark + southern band showed. Made no drawing. + + May 24. Am in despair of seeing anything when the others see so + much. I must have an old and worn-out retina. In looking, + lines flash out at times but it is impossible to locate + them. I can certainly see more than Huyghens did, but not + much more. + + May 25. Heavens very cloudy and Mars obscured. + + May 26. Poor seeing--saw but a few markings. + + May 27. Snow and hail storm in the afternoon. Temperature 35° + at night. Seeing zero, and consequently no observation. + + May 30. To-night markings and more particularly shades seemed + abundant yet so evanescent that only an intimate knowledge + by long study could define them. I gave up in despair. + + May 31. Saw a little more than I saw last night but did not see + a trace of things that Mr. Lowell and his assistants + apparently saw without effort. I realize that it requires + a special training to observe the flickering evanescent + markings on Mars. + + June 1. Though the best night yet for steady atmosphere I saw + but little more and have come to the conclusion that it + will take months of continuous observation before I can see + anything. + + June 2. I went to the Observatory to-night in despair of ever + seeing anything more. Got into the observing chair and + immediately saw a number of markings I had not seen before, + as my drawings show. I have purposely refrained from + studying the maps, and so do not know the names of the + lines detected. + + June 3. Atmosphere so unsteady that it was impossible to make + anything out of Mars, so after struggling awhile gave it up + in disgust. + + June 4. Seeing about 4, yet manage to see a few planetary + details. + + June 5. I find a slow advance in my ability to see the markings + though it is exasperating that the janitor of the + Observatory talks about plainly seeing certain details + which he indicates to me by a sketch, and looking at the + region I can see no trace of a canal or anything else. + + June 7. Seeing very good and in my observations tonight added + another canal. It is a most difficult matter to catch the + fleeting lines as they appear with startling distinctness + to instantly vanish again. + + June 9. Seeing fairly good. Could make out but little more. + Color of regions very strong and vivid. + + June 10. Seeing a little better than last night. Added three new + canals, and these canals flashed out three or four times + before I was willing to record them, and then I did not + believe them till Mr. Lowell showed me a drawing he had + made just before, and the two drawings corresponded. + + June 11. Looked at eight o'clock and the markings of larger + features came out strong and dark and yet the seeing was + not estimated high. + + June 12. Rather poor seeing though some of the dark regions came + out with remarkable distinctness. Every day I notice a very + slight improvement in detecting lines. Markings formerly + made out with great difficulty are now instantly recognized. + + June 13. In my observations to-night added one new canal and + completed another, and was able to detect one that Mr. + Lowell had not seen during the evening--a well-known one he + says. It simply shows that one must continually observe as + the lines flash out for a single instant. + + June 14. Made out still another canal to-night. The markings + show very clear, in fact some parts were vivid in + distinctness and the lower part of Syrtis Major dark blue. + + June 15. Poor seeing, yet I was able to see a few of the + prominent features and defined the wedge-shaped region + below. + +On Plate IX I give a few of my drawings of Mars in which are indicated +the lines I saw many times and was able to fix. Other lines flashed out +for an instant but these were not recorded, simply because I could not +definitely locate them. + +[Illustration: PLATE IX + + MAY 19 + + MAY 22 Snow fell May 19 + + JUNE 5 + + JUNE 9-10 + + JUNE 13 + + JUNE 11-13 + +DRAWINGS OF CANALS OF MARS BY THE AUTHOR] + +The expression "poor seeing" in the above notes must be taken in +a comparative sense with relation to the usual conditions of the +atmosphere of Flagstaff. Poor seeing, therefore, at Flagstaff would +be equal, if not superior, to the best seeing at much lower levels. +An astronomer who resigned his position in a western observatory for +duties at Mount Wilson, California, told me that for thirty consecutive +nights the seeing was superior to the best nights he had observed in at +his former post. + + + + +XV + +WHAT THE MARTIANS MIGHT SAY OF US + + _O wad some power the giftie gie us, + To see oursels as others see us!_ + + ROBERT BURNS. + + +For every single perplexity of interpretation we encounter in our study +of the surface markings of Mars, the Martian would encounter a dozen +perplexities in interpreting the various features on the surface of the +Earth. + +Admitting the conclusions of Lowell of the existence of intelligence in +Mars, and that that intelligence has been associated for ages with a +planet having only slight elevations of land, a tenuous atmosphere, a +scarcity of water which has been utilized for ages through artificial +channels, as we have done in various parts of the world since +prehistoric times, having vast tracts of sterile plains, and, within +these sterile tracts large oases fed by irrigating canals, regions of +sparse vegetation, and no large bodies of water; with these conditions +going beyond the history of these intelligences, what must be the +Martian interpretation of the surface features of this world? It is +a perfectly fair inquiry, for by such means we may appreciate the +attitude of some of our interpreters of Mars. + +In examining the Earth, then, as we have examined Mars, the Martian +would find large yellow and reddish areas, extensive greenish areas, +and, besides, large regions of varying shades of blue, possibly, +occupying three-fourths of the Earth's surface. The yellow areas he +would interpret as desert land, the greenish areas he might consider +vegetation, but what would he make out of the larger regions of blue? +This would certainly puzzle him, because, unfamiliar with oceans, he +could not believe that such vast tracts could really be water. He would +easily interpret the polar snow caps, and the waters at their edges, +but the oceans would be impossible to solve. The suggestion, by some +audacious interpreter, that this vast blue area was water, would be +answered by showing that these so-called bodies of water bordered vast +tracts of sandy deserts with no canals running into them for irrigation +or navigation purposes. Even the polar snow caps would be doubted, +because they seemed to extend far down into temperate latitudes; and on +their recedence in summer, there would be seen no dark, bordering seas +as the result of their melting. The vegetation, instead of unfolding +at the north and gradually extending southward, would unfold in a +contrary direction, appearing first in south temperate latitudes and +developing northward. The perennial character of the vegetation in the +tropics would puzzle him. Even if he recognized oases in the deserts +of America and Africa, the results of Artesian wells or springs, +he could not believe them to be vegetation; for he would detect no +irrigating canals running into them. He would come to the conclusion +that no creature could possibly exist on the Earth, as the tremendous +force of gravitation with great atmospheric pressure would forbid +the existence of any organic forms. The immense clouds veiling the +surface must at times suffer condensation, and the impact of raindrops +would, from their velocity and weight, smash everything in the way of +life. Life, if it existed in forms supported by appendages, must have +legs of iron to sustain its weight, and a crust like a turtle to be +impervious to raindrops, and this would be contrary to all Martian +analogy. The courses of rivers, if detected, would puzzle him from +their irregularity, unless he dared to suggest that these long sinuous +channels extending for thousands of miles were identical to the little +rivulets he had studied near his own poles. + +In fact, about the only feature outside the polar snow caps that +he would instantly recognize, would be the great ice cap of the +Himalayas. India, that vast region extending from latitude 35° nearly +to the equator, with its great plains and sterile regions, with its +overpowering heat, and a dense population, depends for the sustenance +of many of its millions upon the thousands of miles of irrigating +canals, fed from the melting snow caps of the Himalayas. India has no +great lakes, but in the northern plains great rivers course their way +to the sea. The Ganges and the Indus and their tributaries derive their +waters from the melting glaciers, and from these, a most extensive +irrigating system of canals and reservoirs draw their waters. As +the heat increases the ice melts more rapidly, and so more water is +supplied at just the time when it is most needed. The whole scheme is +on so vast a scale that a Martian would recognize its meaning, though +he would wonder at the tortuous outlines of the larger canals. + +Flammarion has, in a similar manner, presented the arguments of Martian +astronomers as to whether life exists anywhere but upon the planet +Mars. He says, among other fancies, that the sapient Martian argues +that houses could not be built on the Earth, on account of the violence +with which building materials, such as bricks, blocks, etc., would +drop, and thus endanger life. Believing that Mars is rightly balanced +as to temperature, the Earth being so much nearer the Sun, would be too +hot for life to exist. The Martian conceives himself to be supremely +complete "even to the point that artists wishing to represent God in +our sanctuaries have figured Him in the image of a Martian man." The +Martian considers our year too short. In his reflections he says: +"During the period in which one of us attains the middle age of fifty +years those on Earth have become decrepit old men of ninety-four, if, +indeed, they are not already dead." + +Seriously, if there is an intelligence in Mars, it must have evolved +along the same general lines as intelligence has developed on the +Earth. Being an older planet, it must have outgrown many of the +vagaries and illusions which still hamper man in his progress here. +In the dim past, however, we can imagine some Martian astronomer with +the enigma of our Earth before him, and the great vault of heaven with +its thousands of riddles unanswered, consulting records and covering +pages with mathematical formulæ to ascertain the precise spot upon +which grew the bean stalk by which a Martian Jack ascended to encounter +the giant. Indeed, the imagination can conjure up an infinite number of +parallels. If Mars is an older sphere, we trust it has long outgrown +the superstitions which still hamper man in his interpretation of the +inexorable phenomena of Nature on this little planet. We may hope +that they have finally reached that stage when a dictum similar to +that of Huxley forms an engraved tablet in their temples of worship. +These are his words: "Science is teaching the world that the ultimate +court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not authority. She +is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence; she is creating a +firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical +laws, perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an +intelligent being." + + + + +XVI + +SCHIAPARELLI, LOWELL, PERROTIN, THOLLON + + _Every age has its problem, by solving which humanity is + helped forward._ + + HEINRICH HEINE. + + +In previous pages allusion has been made to the distinguished character +of the astronomers who have contributed to a knowledge of the surface +markings of Mars. Testimony from astronomical sources has been quoted +as to their keen-sightedness in this work which, as Sir Robert Ball +has said, "indicates one of the utmost refinements of astronomical +observation." That the reader may better understand the eminence +of some of those whose names will forever be associated with the +investigation of the surface features of Mars the following brief +records are given. + +[Illustration: GIOVANNI VIRGINIO SCHIAPARELLI] + +The two astronomers most widely known in connection with the study of +Mars are Professor Giovanni Schiaparelli and Professor Percival +Lowell. Lowell had just graduated from Harvard, at the age of +twenty-one, when Schiaparelli, at the age of forty-two, made his +first great discovery of the _canali_ of Mars. Macpherson, in his +valuable history of the "Astronomers of To-day," says of Schiaparelli: +"His studies of meteoric astronomy, of Mars, Venus, and Mercury, of +double stars and of stellar distribution, have given him a place +second to none among living students of the heavens." From the same +interesting book we gather the following facts: Schiaparelli was born +in Sabigliano, in Piedmont, in 1835. He attended the usual schools in +his native town and then entered the University of Turin as a student +of mathematics and architecture. Before he was twenty years old he +decided to devote himself to the study of astronomy. At the age of +twenty-four he was an assistant in the celebrated Observatory of +Pulkova. When the kingdom of Italy was organized he became an assistant +in the Brera Observatory, Milan. He became suddenly famous at the age +of twenty-seven by the discovery of a new asteroid. In 1862 he became +Director of the Observatory. Schiaparelli's first great discovery was +the relationship between comets and meteoric showers. In 1872 he was +accorded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his +various astronomical discoveries. Professor Simon Newcomb gives him +high praise when he says: "Among the individual observers Schiaparelli +may be assigned the first place in view of his long continued study of +the planets under a fine Italian sky, the conscientious minuteness of +his examinations, and his eminence as an investigator." Schiaparelli's +researches into the relation of comets and meteors "were developed +in 1873, in his remarkable work 'Le Stelle Cardenti,' which is, +according to Sir Norman Lockyer, one of the greatest contributions to +astronomical literature which the nineteenth century has produced." +Macpherson closes his interesting memoir of Schiaparelli by saying: +"His devotion to astronomy, his singularly accurate observations and +his wonderful discoveries have secured for him an exalted position +among the greatest astronomers of modern times." For a further +appreciation of the work of Schiaparelli the reader is referred to +Macpherson's "Astronomers of To-day." In this brief sketch the reader +may judge of the eminent character of one who insists that the lines +in Mars are a persistent feature of its surface, whatever one's +interpretation of them may be. + +[Illustration: PERCIVAL LOWELL] + +Percival Lowell was born in Boston in 1855. He was graduated from +Harvard in 1876, and prepared for his graduating thesis an essay on +the Nebular Hypothesis. Lowell is a many-sided man. Early interested +in mathematics, he became one of the founders of the Mathematical and +Physical Society of Boston. A visit to Japan, where he lived a number +of years, resulted in the writing of three interesting books: "The Soul +of the Far East," 1886; "Noto," 1891; and "Occult Japan," 1894. During +his residence in Japan he was chosen foreign Secretary and adviser to +the Korean Special Commission, then about to visit the United States, +which he accompanied. On his return to Korea he was the guest of the +Korean Government, and this experience prompted him to write "A Korean +Coup d' État," 1894, and his well-known volume, "Choson, the Land of +the Morning Calm," 1885. On his return to America he undertook an +eclipse expedition to Tripoli with Professor Todd. His early interest +in astronomical subjects was now fully awakened, and the red planet, +which he had observed in boyhood with a small telescope from the roof +of his father's house, aroused his interest on account of the heated +discussions over Schiaparelli's discoveries. With an impetuosity and +enthusiasm which characterizes all his work, he set about to secure a +proper region and a sufficient elevation for an observatory site. This +was found in northern Arizona at an elevation of over 7,000 feet. Here, +then, was established the Lowell Observatory with a twenty-four inch +refractor made by Clark especially for this Observatory, the last, and, +according to the maker's words, the best telescope he had ever made. +Lowell insisted that the location of an observatory was a much more +important factor than the size of the instrument, and says: "When this +is recognized, as it eventually will be, it will become the fashion to +put up observatories where they may see rather than be seen." It may be +said with truth that, for the first time in the history of astronomy, +an observatory has been erected and fitted for the special purpose of +studying the surface features of Mars. During unfavorable oppositions +Lowell has turned his attention to the other planets, notably Mercury +and Venus, with the result of adding many new and interesting details +concerning these bodies. Three volumes of quarto memoirs and many +bulletins from the Lowell Observatory attest to his industry. He has +been fortunate in securing talented assistants, and their contributions +may be found in the various publications of the Observatory. The +character and importance of Lowell's work may be understood by stating +that the "British Nautical Almanac" is to adopt for the future the +value of the position of the axis of Mars, and the tilt of the planet's +equator to its ecliptic, which was furnished by Professor Lowell in +compliance with a request. + +Mr. Lowell is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; +Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain; American +Philosophical Society; Société Astronomique de France; American +Astronomical and Astrophysical Society; Astronomische Gesellschaft; +Société Belge d'Astronomie; Fellow of the American Geographical +Society; Honorary Member Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico; and others. + +In 1904 he was awarded the Janssen medal of the Astronomical Society of +France for his researches on Mars. + +Mr. Macpherson, in his memoir on Lowell, says that "Mr. Lowell, by his +unwearied devotion to astronomy, has already gained for himself an +enduring reputation." + +[Illustration: HENRI PERROTIN] + +M. Henry Perrotin and his assistant, M. Thollon, have been quoted +in previous pages as having markedly confirmed the discoveries of +Schiaparelli. Through the courtesy of Professor Lowell I am enabled +to present the likenesses of these two astronomers. I am indebted to +the exhaustive work of Miss Agnes M. Clerke, entitled the "History of +Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century," for the following memoranda +of some of the work accomplished by these men. Perrotin made a series +of observations on Venus fully confirming Schiaparelli's inference +of synchronous rotation and revolution: "A remarkable collection of +drawings made by Mr. Lowell in 1896 appeared decisive in favor of the +views of Schiaparelli." In other words, Venus, like the Moon, presents +the same face to the Sun in its revolution about that luminary. +Perrotin has made important observations on the rings of Saturn; his +double-star measurements are also considered work of the highest +character. + +[Illustration: M. THOLLON] + +Thollon has made many spectroscopic studies, among which were delicate +experiments showing the lateral displacement of lines in the solar +spectrum arising from the Sun's rotation. In the Annals of the Nice +Observatory he published a great atlas consisting of thirty-three maps, +exhibiting in quadruplicate a subdivision of the solar spectrum under +varied conditions of weather and zenith distance. He also studied the +spectrum of the great comet of 1882, and by the displacement of its +lines estimated that the comet was receding from the Earth at the rate +of from sixty-one to seventy-six kilometers per second. The Leland +prize was awarded to Thollon for a hand drawing he made of the +prismatic spectrum obtained with bisulphide of carbon prisms of high +dispersive power. + +The character and reputation of these men, as well as others who have +been quoted in these pages, must be weighed against the few who, not +content with denying the existence of the _canali_ in Mars, have in +strong language abused those who accept them as veritable markings on +the planet's surface. + + + + +XVII + +LAST WORDS + + _The uniformity of the course of Nature will appear as the + ultimate major premise of all inductions._ + + JOHN STUART MILL. + + +The final question is, do the lines as depicted and described by +various observers exist on the surface of Mars? Those who have made the +greatest addition to our knowledge of the character of these lines, +and have constructed maps based on Martian latitude and longitude are +accredited on other grounds as being endowed with remarkable acuteness +of vision coupled with persistence and painstaking care in observation. +The most successful work has been accomplished with instruments of fine +definition in regions of steady atmosphere and high altitude, or at +intervals of clarity and steadiness in regions otherwise unfavorable. +Finally, and most convincing of all, Mr. Lowell's assistant, Mr. +Lampland, after many attempts has succeeded in photographing the more +conspicuous linear markings. _The lines do exist essentially as +figured by Schiaparelli and Lowell._ It now rests with the objectors +to suggest any better interpretation of the markings of Mars than that +they are the results of intelligent effort. + +The mediæval attitude of some astronomers regarding this question +recalls the story of Scheiner, a Jesuit brother, who, independently +of Galileo and Fabricius, discovered spots on the Sun. Eager with +enthusiasm he informed his Superior of his remarkable discovery and +begged to be allowed to publish it to the world. The Superior replied, +"Go, my son; tranquilize yourself and rest assured that what you take +for spots on the Sun are the faults of your glasses or of your eyes." +This happened three hundred years ago, and yet to-day a few astronomers +of this class still survive. + +If one will calmly reason about the matter, let him consider a parallel +case of interpretation. He digs out from the ground a fragment of +stone; its somewhat symmetrical shape suggests to him the idea that it +may be a rude stone implement. If he wishes to know what kind of rock +it is and its geological age, he refers it to a geologist; if he wishes +to know its composition, he asks a mineralogist, who, if necessary, +will analyze it for him. If, however, he is curious to know whether +its peculiar, fractured surface is due to frost or other natural +agency, or whether it is the work of some rude savage, he inquires of +an archæologist, who alone will be able to tell him whether it is a +worked stone or natural fragment. He will probably tell him whether +it was shaped by paleolithic man, and whether it is a rough stone +implement or a core, _reject_ or chip. So with the study of Mars, as +we have already pointed out, there are certain matters of information +about the planet which the astronomer alone can impart, while the +superficial markings are just as certainly to be interpreted by another +class of students who may or not be familiar with astronomical methods. + + * * * * * + +It was quite natural that astronomers, the most conservative of all +classes of observers, should have doubted the first announcement +of Schiaparelli of the startling discovery of the _canali_ marking +the face of the planet, the more so as year after year went by and +yet with the utmost efforts of astronomers nothing of the nature of +Schiaparelli's lines could be seen. + +What added greatly to the doubt about the lines, and at the same +time strengthened the idea that the lines were illusory, was the +subsequent announcement by Schiaparelli--undeterred by the universal +skepticism--that at times the lines appeared double. What more +convincing evidence could be offered than that the phenomenon was +purely subjective? + +A few astronomers expressed their doubts in a courteous though +hesitating manner. Professor Young, in his valuable text-book, +"Elements of Astronomy" (1890), in correctly reporting Schiaparelli's +discovery says: "He is so careful and experienced an observer that +his results cannot be lightly rejected; and yet it is not easy to +banish a vague suspicion of some error or illusion, partly because his +observations have thus far received so little confirmation from others, +and partly because his 'canals' are so difficult to explain. They can +hardly be _rivers_, because they are quite straight; nor can they be +_artificial_ water-ways since the narrowest of them are forty or fifty +miles wide. To add to the mystery, he finds that at certain times many +of them become _doubled_,--the two which replace the former single one +running parallel to each other for hundreds, and sometimes thousands, +of miles, with a space of 200 or 300 miles between them. He thinks that +this _gemination_ of the canals follows the course of the planet's +seasons." + +The overpowering belief that this world alone sustained creatures of +intelligence formed an obstructive barrier to any and all attempts +made to uphold--at least by analogy--the idea of intelligence in other +worlds. One cannot but regret that some philosopher had not, years +before Schiaparelli's time, expressed the conviction that Mars might +perhaps be more favorable to the existence of intelligent life than our +own world, and with this conviction proceed to formulate the conditions +which must of necessity exist: namely, that the planet being a much +older world than ours, its waters had mostly vanished by chemical +combination with the rocks and otherwise. Following this assumption, +the philosopher might have insisted that in the last extremity the +melting snow caps would be utilized by the supposed intelligences to +furnish water for potable and irrigating purposes. The philosopher +might have superadded to this idea the prediction that, when telescopes +were strong enough and eyes were keen enough, evidence of the truth +of this supposition would be found in canals of some sort and that +such lines should be carefully sought for. Fancy the exultation of +Schiaparelli when at last he found the lines precisely as indicated. +Such an announcement from so distinguished an astronomer would have +been hailed with acclaim. Alas! for the conservatism of astronomers, +such powers of prevision are sadly wanting. Le Verrier's prediction +of an outer planet was a matter of dead certainty. The perturbations +of Uranus could not be accounted for except by the assumption of an +outside body, and had it not been for the characteristic reserve of +English astronomers, Adams might have had the full credit. So rare +are predictions of this nature in the history of astronomy that this +instance will probably be quoted to the end of time. The masses, +still ignorant of the certainty of mathematical astronomy, regard the +prediction of an eclipse as in the nature of a prophecy. The liberal +attitude of naturalists stands in marked contrast, and the history +of their work is filled with examples of prediction and repeated +confirmations. Until the middle of the last century--grounded in the +belief of special creation--how wonderfully rapid was the conversion +of naturalists to the theory of evolution after Darwin had offered his +rational views on the subject. The existence of forms was predicted, +based on the idea of evolution, and these have been found again and +again. Our museums display in their cases remains of fossil animals +which complete many series undreamed of in pre-Darwinian days. This +wonderful work has been accomplished without resort to algebraic +formulæ, and yet when mathematics can be applied, as it is in the law +of variation, quantitative studies in heredity, and statistical methods +generally, it is promptly seized upon by the biologist. + + * * * * * + +To one unconvinced of the existence of some signs of intelligent +activity in Mars the suggestions that have been made to account for +certain appearances in the planet will seem absurd. If, on the other +hand, he finds himself in agreement with those who believe the markings +are the result of intelligent effort, then he is justified in using the +various artificial markings of the surface of the Earth as standards of +comparison in explaining the many curious markings of Mars. Indeed, he +is compelled to do so, just as would be demanded of him if he should +stand on some high mountain peak in some hitherto unexplored region +of Africa and should minutely scan the hazy stretch of plains below. +Large white spots in equatorial regions which could not possibly be +snow-covered hills, might be masses of white flowers or cloth-covered +areas for the better cultivation of certain plants. Lines that dimly +stretched across the surface might be rivers, cañons, rifts, or bands +of irrigation, according to their character. + +As we compare the circular markings on the Moon with our terrestrial +craters and fissures, and cracks on its surface with similar fissures +on the Earth, so we are forced to compare the markings on the surface +of Mars with what seems analogous to them on the surface of our own +Earth. + +Once proved that the markings of Mars are due to erosion, cracks, +encircling meteors big enough to raise ridges by their attractive +force, then all that has been written in demonstration of their +artificial character goes for naught. The intelligent reader +unprejudiced in the matter will, however, judge for himself the +merits of our contention and will determine the reasonableness of the +comparisons that have been made by Lowell in solving the mystery of +Mars. + + + + +INDEX + + + Algebraic formulæ, 73. + + American astronomers, Holden, Pickering, Young, Swift, Comstock, + Barnard, Wilson, drew the more conspicuous canals, 65. + + Ancient irrigation, 115. + + Ants surviving at high altitudes, 157; + unique intelligence, 156. + + Astronomer's chief work, 74; + conservatism, 75. + + Astronomers who have seen the canals, 83. + + Astronomical subjects remote from Martian studies, 72. + + Atmosphere and moisture, Barnard and others, 134, 135; + Sir Robert Ball, 137. + + Austria's care of water, 117. + + + Ball, Sir Robert, difficulties of observation, 84; + life on Mars quite likely, 68, 69; + objection to Mars being inhabited, 121. + + Barbour, W. D., with a four inch achromatic, 88. + + Barnard's, Dr., description of dark regions, 43. + + Bees, wasps, and ants, 156. + + + _Canali_ supposed to mean canals, 39. + + Canals appear double, 41; + artificiality of, 42; + as distinct as engraved lines, 59; + chain of reasoning in regard to, 47; + double, 41; + of Mars, 40; + unchangeable in position, 42. + + Cassini, 33. + + Chandler's oscillation of pole, 126. + + Checkerboard appearance of West, 48. + + Clerke's, Agnes M., expressions, 55. + + Clouds in Mars, 139; + in Mars, Sir Norman Lockyer, 136. + + Comments and criticism, 125. + + Committee of British Astronomical Association, 126. + + Conception of life in other worlds, 17. + + Conservatism of astronomers, 185. + + Cracks all of the same nature, 108; + discontinuous, 109; + in asphalt pavement, 109. + + Cultivation under cloth, Porto Rico, 50. + + + Dark regions not seas, 45. + + Dawes, remarkable distinctness of vision, 89. + + De la Rive, memoir of Faraday, 76. + + Denning's, Mr., testimony, 56, 57. + + Difficulties of seeing, 79. + + Dighton Rock, 97. + + Draper, Dr. Henry, "Are other worlds inhabited?" 87; + difficulties of seeing, 87; + high altitudes for telescopes, 88. + + Drawings of Mars by different observers, 98. + + Dust storms in Mars, 140. + + Earth, a standard, 25, 26, 186; + early ideas regarding the, 7; + improbability of its being unique, 13. + + Earth's distance from the sun, 11; + temperature above normal, 37. + + Emerson's expressions, 21. + + England's unsteady atmosphere, 84. + + Epicyclic theory of Ptolemy, 8. + + "Evolution of the Solar System," T. J. J. See, 23. + + + Failure of water in England, 116. + + Faraday's, Michael, attitude, 76. + + Fauth, Dr. Phil., 63; + drawings of Mars, 63. + + First look at Mars, 80. + + Fison's, Mr., comments, 97. + + Flammarion's picture of the Earth from Mars, 169; + work on Mars, 51. + + Fruit trees, Santa Clara Valley, 49. + + + Gill's, Sir David, testimony, 90. + + + Hebraic conceptions, astronomers imbued with, 21. + + Hebraic conceptions of the universe, 8. + + Herschel, Sir John, on snow caps, 76. + + High altitudes favorable to health, 152. + + Holden, E. S., on nebula of Orion, 96. + + Howe's, Herbert A., remarks, 65, 66. + + Huxley's estimate of mathematicians, 74. + + Huyghens, 32. + + + Ice caps of Himalaya, 115. + + Iles, George, illustration of cooling bodies, 25. + + Illusions, supposes, 59. + + Irrelevant criticism, 126. + + Irrigation, ancient in Arizona, in Egypt, in India, 145; + marvels of, 143; + notes on, 141. + + + Joly's, Dr. J., theory, 100. + + + Keeler's definition of astrophysics, 77. + + + Lampland, photographs of Mars, 32. + + Ledger's, Rev. E., canals of Mars, 131. + + Liberal attitude of naturalists, 185. + + Life at high altitudes, 150; + in other worlds, Garrett P. Serviss, 148; + under atmospheric pressure, 153. + + Lindsay's, Thomas, expressions, 55. + + Lines of artificial character, 112. + + Lockyer, Sir Norman, saw clouds in Mars, 136. + + Lockyer's, W. J., testimony, 89. + + Lowell, Percival, brief sketch of, 174; + different telescopes used by, 82; + gives reason why canals cannot always be seen, 93; + his acute eyesight, 85, 86; + his book on Mars, 31; + his various publications, 31; + long practice in observing, 85; + snow caps prove atmosphere, 135; + on life on Mars, 32, 67; + on twilight atmosphere in Mars, 34. + + Lung capacity, 155; + at high altitudes, 152. + + + Macpherson, Hector, Jr., agrees with Lowell, 68. + + Mars, appearance of Earth from, 118; + beginning of life in, 16; + canals, 40; + canals continuous, 109; + dark regions change with the season, 38; + dark regions not seas, 37; + desert lands, 39; + detached fields of snow, 37; + disappearance of southern snow cap, 37; + distance from sun, 12; + double canals, 45, 46; + drawings of, coincided, 81; + glints of brilliant light, 37; + has it water? 35; + has life appeared in? 15; + life in, from analogy, 15; + much like the world, 16; + nearest approach to earth, 32; + oases, 44; + seasonal changes in, 34; + seasons, 33; + rarefaction of atmosphere in, 35; + rotation of, Cassini, 33; + temperature of, 35; + terminator of, Douglass, 35; + those who see and those who do not see, 85; + tilt of axis, 33; + white polar caps, 33. + + Maunder, director of committee, 126. + + Maunders's, E. W., comments, 103. + + Maunier, Stanislaus, on canal doubling, 119. + + Maxwell, Clerk, on mathematicians, 74. + + Mediæval attitude of some astronomers, 181. + + Michel, Louise, teaching children, 73. + + Morehouse, George W., believes Mars is inhabited, 67, 68. + + My own work, 158. + + + Newcomb's, Professor, opinion, 24; + other worlds inhabited, 28; + "Reminiscences," 27. + + Number of acres under irrigation, 122. + + + Observations of Mars, 1st period, 51; + 2d period, 52; + 3d period, 53; + 4th period, Lowell's work, 54. + + Orr's, J., theory, 102. + + + Parallel case of interpretation, 181. + + Patterson's, John A., expressions, 56. + + Perrotin, brief sketch of, 177. + + Perrotin and Janssen describes the canals, 63; + and Thollon, 58. + + Perrotin's painstaking care, 63, 64. + + Phillips', Rev. Theo. E. R., drawing, 62. + + Pickering, W. H., canals seen by, 63; + shows importance of steady atmosphere, 87; + observations in Jamaica by, 88; + polariscope observations by, 36-38; + theory of, 105. + + Planetology, 77. + + Plurality of worlds, astronomer's belief in, 18; + Edward Hitchcock's views of the, 21; + Flammarion's views of the, 19; + Newcomb's attitude in regard to the, 28; + Newcomb's belief in the, 29; + O. M. Mitchell's views in regard to the, 19; + Sir David Brewster's views of the, 17; + Sir Richard Owen's views in regard to the, 19; + Tyndall's views of the, 22. + + Polar snow cap, proof deduced from Lowell, Douglass, and + Pickering, 135. + + Profound changes by man, 123. + + + Railroads in Iowa and Texas, 142. + + Review of Lowell's book, 66. + + Rift in Southern Africa, 112. + + + Schiaparelli, abstemiousness when observing, 84; + brief sketch of, 172; + canals artificial, 62; + _canali_ natural, 60; + discovery, 57; + discovery of canals, 39; + does not deny intelligence in Mars, 60; + suggestion as to doubling, 120. + + Sea, so-called, land areas, 39. + + Seasonal changes, 136. + + Snow storms in Mars, W. H. Pickering, 138. + + Solar system a standard for universe, 26. + + Stars, bright points of light, 7; + similar to our sun, 9. + + Stetefeldt's, C. A., views, 129. + + Study of planetary markings, 70. + + Sun and planets reduced to minute scale, 11. + + + Temperature under which man exists, 149. + + Terby, Dr., identifies many canals, 64. + + Theories regarding canals, 100. + + Thollon, brief sketch of, 178. + + Titles of papers in astronomical journals, 71. + + Todd, Professor, says canals result of design, 68. + + Turner, H. H., "Astronomical Discovery," 78; + on the difficulties of seeing, 91. + + Tycho Brahe, 8. + + Tyndall on imagination, 77. + + Tyndall's expressions on the Nebular Theory, 15; + reference to Nebular Theory, 24. + + + Unfolding of plant life on the earth, 45. + + + Variation in drawings by different observers, 94, 95; + of Milky Way, 95; + of Nebula of Orion, 95; + of Solar Corona, 95, 96. + + Variety of conditions under which life exists, 147. + + Vastness of the universe, 10. + + + Wallace, Alfred Russel, human paradox, 29; + review of, in London "Nature," 18. + + Water vapor, no spectroscopic proof of, Campbell, 135. + + Webb's, Rev. T. W., difficulties of seeing, 91, 92. + + What the Martians might say of us, 166. + + White spots in equatorial regions of Mars, 48. + + White weed in New England, 49. + + Williams, A. Stanley, difficulty in observation, 82. + + Would the work of man show in Mars? 122. + + + Young, C. A., on snow caps, 76, 126; + on Schiaparelli's discovery, 183. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Some of our readers may not know that light travels, in round +numbers, at the rate of 186,000 miles a second. + +[2] The terminator represents the limit of light on that side of the +planet in the shade, in other words, where the light terminates. In +viewing the Moon, when at quarter or half, the terminator is seen very +ragged on account of the illumination of higher points on the surface. +If the Moon was as smooth as a billiard ball the terminator would be +clear cut. + +[3] The world in its ignorance of Italian assumed that the word meant +exclusively canals, and, if canals, then dug by shovels. What! a canal +thirty miles wide and two thousand miles long dug in the snap of the +finger? Impossible conception, you say. We shall see later the sober +utterances of a member of the British Astronomical Society on this +gratuitous assumption, and an equally serious comment by the chief +assistant of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (E. S. M.). + +[4] The views so long held that the dark shaded regions were bodies +of water, or seas, was disproved by the observations of Pickering +and Douglass, who distinctly traced the course of the canals across +these dark areas. The observations of Dr. E. Barnard certainly sustain +the contention that they are land areas and probably depressions, +representing ancient ocean beds. Dr. Barnard, using the telescope at +the Lick Observatory, says: "Under the best conditions these dark +regions which are always shown, with smaller telescopes, of nearly +uniform shade, broke up into a vast amount of very fine details. I +hardly know how to describe the appearance of these 'Seas' under these +conditions. To those, however, who have looked down upon a mountainous +country from a considerable elevation, perhaps some conception of the +appearance presented by these dark regions may be had. From what I know +of the appearance of the country about Mt. Hamilton, as seen from the +Observatory, I can imagine that, as viewed from a very great elevation, +this region, broken by cañon, and slope and ridge, would look like the +surface of these Martian seas." + +[5] Sterling Heiley, in "Pearson's Magazine," June, 1905. + +[6] A translation of which may be found in the "Popular Science +Monthly," Vol. XXXV, p. 532. + +[7] I may add that in a similar case an American student of Mars moved +his telescope to Mexico and remounted it at a cost of some thousands of +dollars. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + + +Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant +preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. + +Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced +quotation marks retained; inconsistent hyphenation retained. + +Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. + +Page 146: Quotation mark preceding 'The sale value' has no matching +closing mark. + +Page 192: "Stetefelt's" is spelled "Stetefeldt" on page 129. The latter +is correct. + +Page 192: "Tycho Brahe" probably should be indexed as "Brahe, Tycho". + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mars and its Mystery, by Edward Sylvester Morse + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44270 *** |