Mars and Its Mystery

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Phœnix, 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.