MARS AND ITS CANALS.

Evening Star, Issue 12061, 4 March 1907, Page 7

MARS AND ITS CANALS.

Polar expeditions, says a writer ip the the ‘ New Work Herald,’ at© the fad of the hour. Perhaps this is because they combine the maximum of hardship with too minimum of headway. Now comes Professor tpwell with the suggestion that Polar expeditions in the planet Mars, as undertaken by terrestrial astronomers, are pleasing contrasts to these perilous excur.ions oipour own planet in three important particulars, wh* c h, if less appealing to thp gallery, commend themselves more strongly -6 the philosopher, it is not the' Pole, with its surrounding ice, which remains jidden on Mars. That, indeed, is its most abvibus ppiht, ' The difficulty is to in winter the regions analogous to those whence our expeditions set out. The tilt of its axis when the planet is conveniently placed for human observation has been the cause of this drawback. The drawjack is not all a drawback. Confident as is Professor Lowell of a human origin for the Martian canals, the Polos assume an importance on that planet which they do not possess on ours. According to' his cheery these canals, with their attendant kikes or oases, constitute a system of irrigation carried on by the inhabitants of Tars for the purpose of leading the water obtained from the molting snow of the Polar regions over the entire surface of the planet. Mars has only the thinnest of atmospheres, if,- indeed, it has any. A. clear sky, except in winter, end in many places even then, is the universal rule. The whole surface of the planet outside thp immediate vicinity of the Polar caps seems free from cloud or mist, and to lie perpetually unveiled to space. In the neighborhood of tho caps, however, and espechdly round about their edges, a very disanct pearly appearance is presented during tho Martian wiptcr. This pearly look nay be attributed to the same cloudy ranopy that covers the inclement lands of ■forthorn Europe during the wintry-season. Clouds, then, gather only around tho Poles, ilidu is unknown elsewhere- These facts lone would prompt the guess that water A very scarce on the planet. Other facts corroborate the guess. There is complete b.ence of any considerable body of water -.nywhere upon the surface. Sp far as wp can see, tho only available water is what omes from the semi-annual melting at one ,r the other Polar caps of the snow aeeuuulaled there during the previous winter. Now, water is absolutely essential to all forms of life. No organisms pan exist without it: As a planet ages, however, it oses its oceans, and gradually its whole rater supply. If its inhabitants would urvivo anq preserve the. rest'of tho fauna, they must utilise'all they can get of this essential to existence. To this end it would bo obliged to put forth its chief endeavors. if lie outcome of such work would result in a deformation of the disc Indicative of its presence. “ lines of communication for water purposes between the Polar caps on the one hand and the centres of population on the other, would be the artificial markings wo should expect to perceive.” Now, it is net a little starting that tho semblance of just such signs of intelligent interference with Nature is ionud in the canals and oases on the surface of Mars. “ It is, then, a system whose end and aim is tho tapping of the snowcap for tho water there eemi-anmially let loose; then to distribute it oyer the planet's surface.’’ \ The canals offer some clue tft the character of the Martians who planned mem and profit by them. Each canal joins another, which in turn connects with a third, and so on over the entire surface of the planet. This continuity of. construction points to a community of interest. People who could thus act as a unit throughout their globe must he pur superiors in moral and intellectual progress. I'hey must have realised the Tennysonian dream of the furling of the war flags and the federation of the world. “War is a survival among us from savage time®, and affects now chiefly the boyish and unthinking. The wisest realise that there are ‘ better ways for practising heroism, and other and more certain ends of ensuring the survival of the fittest. It is something a people outgrows. But whether they consciously practise peace or not, Nature in its evolution eventually practises it for them, and after enough of the inhabitants of a globe have killed each other off, the remainder must flud hj more advantageous to work together lor the public good. Whether increasing common sense or increasing necessity was the spur that drove the Martians to this eminently, sagacious state we rannot say, but it is certain that reached ft they have, and equally certain that if they had not they must all have died. When a planet has attained to the age of decrepitude, apd the remnant of its water supply resides simply in its Pol w caps, these con only be effectively tapped for thp beneflt of the inhabitants when arctic and equatorial peoples are at one.” Another point is worth consideration. The inhabitants of an aging world must perforce develop an increasing mentality in order to cope with the increasing difficulty

of . tim conditions cl life. Tofind a high degree of intelligence on Mars is exactly what might, have "been expected. There is. especial "interest. in .t*H» thought that what. Mass fe -now ws shall, he w sp®2 remote . future. . That , planet pftplsd_of earlier, than o«rs only because ;t » Otar awn.world will follow op exactly the some lines. On our world itself wo cap study only the past and the present. In Mars: WO W APIS tP gjunpqe into our liltrae.