DWELLERS IN THE PLANET MARS!

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6090, 29 January 1898, Page 2

DWELLERS IN THE PLANET MARS!

FACTS, GUESSES AND FICTION, M. CamiUe Flammarion supplies the Humanitarian for November with a dis* oussion 6f the-old-qnestton, "Is Mars Inhabited?" THE FACTS. ' First, he proceedrto state the facts revealed by the telescope :— " Thuß, regarded in its entirety, the planet Marß shows ua on its surface, first, da^k spots which have received the name ofcseas ; secondly, white glittering spots at the poles (and sometimes in other parts), which represent snows, and which vary with the seaeone ; thirdly, long straight lines which spread^ as it were, a geometrical -network over the whole surface ; and fourthly, the lakes or oases at the points of intersection in the canals." GOEBBES. Recent observations tend to show 'that the vast plains formerly called seas are "expanses of vegetable life watered by the canal ; '" and the network of straight lines, of such geometrical regularity, are the fertile bottoms or Nile Valleys through which the canal runs. Water iB scarce in Mars (since it never rains) ; vegetation would probably be dependent on the melting of the snows at -the poles ; the tints of the green bands vary with the seasons ; and the hypothesis is that these geometric canals are the - work of intelligent beings. The astronomer pro* ceeds:— "That Mars is inhabited is a purely logical deduction from its actual • condition of habitability. It would be so even though we had not before our eyes this enigmatical network of canals which aeem to be in no respect ' natural.' We have there before us a world fully alive and very agreeable. The temperature there appears to be virtually the. same as here, or rather in proportion somewhat warmer," ~ since there the Polar snows are almost entirely melted. Almost perpetual fine weather prevails there. The atmosphere there iB much less heavy and less dense than ours, somewhat resembling that of our highest mountains. * * * The barometer in Mars would, beyond doubt, stand at 286 millimetres instead of 760; this atmosphere is arranged bo as to conserve, like a hothouse, the heat received from the Bun. Then let it be remarked that weight is well-nigh annihilated there. A mass of 1000 kilogrammes, if transported to Mars and .tested by a dynamometer, would weigh only 376 grammes. * * * This world iis smaller than ours, and its materials | possess far inferior density." WHAT MARTIANS MAT BE LIKI. " The-inhabitants of Mars cannot be like I ourselves. We should picture them as larger, lighter, and of a different shape. They may be much more beautiful than ourselves, better and incomparably more elevated in the intellectual scale. The climatology of this little world shows us, as we have stated above, a condition of habitability which may be accepted even by the most rigorous logic ; and the geometrical aspectof the canals seems to suggest studied, constructions made by intellectual beings more advanced than ourselves in their conquest of the physical world. It is no . departure, therefore, from the rules of induction and deduction to admit as a strong probability the actual habitationof this planet by highly -intelligent beings." On the question of opening-communica* tions with them, thewriter says it is not possible that they have been trying to signal to us. Some have asked if the luminous points sometimes visible are not signals. More probably these are cloud* high in the Martian atmosphere f-ilded by the setting sun. Intermittent lights thrown on Mars by powerful reflectors would be visible there by aid of optical instruments! akin to our-own. MARTIANS IN FICTION. Turning from the astronomer to the novelist, we findthat Mr H. G. Wells, who is recounting "The War of the Worlds" in Pearson's, has no such exalted estimate of the Martians. This is his portrait of their invading troops. — 'The actual Martians * * * had, huge round bodies — or, rather, heads— about four feet in diameter, with a peculiar face in the front of these. The face had no nostrils * * * but it had a pair of very large dark-coloured eyes, and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak. In the baok of the body was the ear * * * In a crescent round the mouth were sixteen slender, almost whip-like, tentaoles. * * • The greater part of the structure is the brain, sending enormous nerves to the eyes, ears and tactile tentacles. Besides this are the complex lungs, into which the mouth opens, and the heart and its vessels. * • • The complex apparatus of digestion * * • does not exist in the Martians. They do not eat, much less digest, Instead they take the freßh living blood of other creatures . and injeot it into their own veins." The way-they sucked the veins of human beings is left to be inferred. Not that they were cruel. They were less cruel to men than men are to rabbits, pigeons, and other birds. But bjrgetting their food ready digested for them they were spared all the troubles of indigestion and consequent fluctuations of mood. The Martians are further described as never sleeping, and as without sex. Birth is simply budding off, as young lily bulbs bud off. On Mara the microbe is absent. Martians wear no clothes. The devastation wrought by these celestial bloodsuckers and heat-ray* wielders is gruesomely described.