IS- MARS INHABITED?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 25

IS- MARS INHABITED?

SCIENCE. FAV<

Since scientists, after years of earnest and competent research, have been unable to detect one clear sign of manlike life on Mars, an amazing theory is now being presented to explain why the ted planet may be inhabited by a race, of beavers. It is a fascinating story of evolution. Man and man's active mind are believed to" life products of the Great lee Age, for that time of stress and competition on earth is what is supposed to have turned mankind.'s anthropoid ancestors into men. The period of .ice and cold over wide areas of the earth was caused, at least in part, by the elevation, of continents and mountain ranges. On Mars, no mountain ranges exist, and it probably never had an Ice Age. It is on. these hypotheses, as Thomas Elway explains in the "Popular Science Monthly," that science bases its assumption that there is no human intelligence on Mars, and that animal life on the planet is still in the age of instinct. The thing to, expect on Mars, then, is a fish life much like that on earth, the emergence of this fish life on to the land, and the evolution of these. Martian land-fishes into reptile-like creatures. Finally, animals resembling tho earth's present rodents like rats, squirrels, and beavers, would make their, appearance. "The chief reason, to expect this final change of Martian reptiles into primitive mammals," says Mr. Elway, "lies in the fact that on earth this evolution seems to have been forced by changeable weather". And Mars now possesses seasonalxhangee like, those on earth. . "Pure, biological" reasoning makes it probable, therefore, that the evolution of warm-blooded animals may have occurred/; oir Mars'much as it did here; There seems no reason to believe that Martian life has gone farther than that; Mars is a relatively changeless planet, j Biologists suppose that the rise and fall of mountains, the increase and decrease in volcanic activity, and the ebb and ■flow of climate forced life on earth along its upward path. Martian life of recent ages seems to have lacked these natural incentives to better things. "Now, there is one creature on earth for the development of whose counterpart the supposed Martian conditions would be ideal. That animal is the ].beaver... It. is. either land-living or water-living. It has a fur coat to prptect it from the lOOdeg below zero of the Martian night. . "Martian beaver's, of course, would not be exactly like those on earth. That they would be furred and water-loving is probable. Their eyes might be larger than those of the earthly beaver because, the sunlight is not so strong, and their bodies might be larger because of lesser Martian gravity. Competent digging tools certainly would be provided on their claws. The chests of these Martian beavers would be larger and their breathing far more active, as

URS BEAVERS

there is less oxygen in the air on Mars.

"Such beaver-Martians are nothing more than pure speculation, but the idea is based upon the known facts that there is plenty of water on Mars; that vegetation almost certainly exists there; that Mars has no mountains and could scarcely have had an Ice Age; and that evidences of; Martian life are not accompanied by signs of intelligence. "Herds of beaver-creatures are at least a' more reasonable idea than the familiar fictional one of manlike Martians digging artificial water channels with vast machines or the still more fantastic notion of octopus-like Martians sufficiently intelligent to plan the conquest of the earth." ■ ' .Any deduction-about the lif e,,forms on Mars or Other planets, in the opinion of leading astronomers,- must starty ..if it is to be at all'reasonable, with the idea of tho distinguished Swedish scientist, Dr. Svanto Arrheniusj of one kind of life-germ pervading the entire solar system. There is no reasonable,-way even to guess the form of this; iifegerm. It may, perhaps, havo••drifted, as tiny living.. spores, from planet,, to planet, whirled through space by' the pressure of light. Whatever its form, the life-germ, biologists assume, probably developed on Mars, much as it did on earth, in oceans which have evaporated in the course of ages. '■■.-. The theory that Martian life evolved along lines similar to those followed by evolution of life on earth is supported by at least ono definite fact. Careful spectroscopic studies at Mount WilSon Observatory, near Pasadena, and elsewhere have disclosed that gaseous oxygen exists in tho Martian atmosphere. The presence of oxygen gas is highly significant, since the only known way- in which any planet can obtain a supply of this gas is through the life activities of plants. One of tho best signs of intelligence on Mars, Dr. Clyde Fisher, of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, said recently, would be somo indication of artificial'light on the planet. Undoubtedly, lighted cities on Mara could be seen through the telescopes now in.use. However, as Mr. Elway points out, there is one condition that prevents satisfactory and conclusive observation. When Mars is closest to the earth, both planets are on the same- side of the sun. Then only the sunlit side of Mars is seen. To see any part of the night side of Mars, observation must be made when it is part way around in its orbit towards tho far side of the sun, so that a slice of both the dark and the lighted sides can be seen. ,; ; Other students of the subject, however, say.it is possible that Martian civilisation may correspond' to that of an earlier, pre-artificial light era on earth. In any case, astronomers agree that there is a practical certainty that Mars possesses kinds of life below human intelligence.