,,mars ,,and ,,its ,,mystery ,illustration3 ,,lowell',s ,,globe ,,of ,,mars1 #aijc4 ,frontispiece ,,mars ,,and ,,its ,,mystery ,,by ,,edward ,s4 ,,morse ,,member ,,national ,,academy ,,of ,,sciences ,author of ,japanese ,homes and their ,surroundings1 ,glimpses of ,china and ,chinese ,homes1 etc4 ,,illustrated ,,boston ,,little1 ,,brown1 ,,and ,,company #aijf ,,copyright1 #aijf1 ,,by ,,little1 ,,brown1 ,,and ,,company4 ,all rights reserved ,published ,october1 #aijf ,,the ,,university ,,press1 ,,cambridge1 ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,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 reader4 ,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 matter4 ,the question of intelligence in other worlds is of perennial interest to everyone1 and that question may possibly be settled by an unprejudiced study of our neighboring planet ,mars4 ,knowing the many analogies between ,mars and the ,earth1 we are justified in asking what conditions really exist in ,mars4 ,instead of flouting at every attempt to interpret the various and complicated markings of its surface1 we should soberly consider any rational explanation of these enigmas from the postulate that the two spheres1 so near together in space1 cannot be so far apart physically1 and from the fact that as intelligence is broadly modifying the appearance of the surface of the ,earth1 a similar intelligence may also be marking the face of ,mars4 ,a student familiar with a general knowledge of the heavens1 a fair acquaintance with the surface features of the ,earth1 with an appreciation of the doctrine of probabilities1 and capable of estimating the value of evidence1 is quite as well equipped to examine and discuss the nature of the markings of ,mars as the astronomer4 ,if1 furthermore1 he is gifted with imagination and is free from all prejudice in the matter1 he may have a slight advantage4 ,astronomers are probably the most exact of all students as to their facts1 and in this discussion there is no attempt to introduce evidence they do not supply1 as the frequent quotations from their writings will show4 ,having studied ,mars through nearly one presentation of the planet with the great refractor at the ,lowell ,observatory1 what ,i saw with my own eyes1 uninfluenced by what others saw1 will be presented in a short chapter at the end of this book4 ,i wish to express my obligations to ,professor ,percival ,lowell for the privileges of his observatory1 for many of the illustrations in this book1 and for his unbounded hospitality during my visit to ,flagstaff4 ,i am also deeply indebted to ,mr4 ,russell ,robb for valuable assistance during the preparation of the manuscript4 ,e4 ,s4 ,m4 ,,salem1 ,,massachusetts1 ,october1 #aijf4 ,,contents ,page ,i4 ,,introduction #a ,,ii4 ,,immeasurable ,,distances ,,of ,,space #g ,,iii4 ,,other ,,worlds ,,inhabited #ad ,,iv4 ,,lowell',s ,,book ,,on ,,mars #ca ,v4 ,,testimony ,,of ,,astronomers #ea ,,vi4 ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,planetary ,,markings #gj ,,vii4 ,,difficulties ,,of ,,seeing #gi ,,viii4 ,,variation ,,in ,,drawing #id ,,ix4 ,,theories ,,regarding ,,the ,,canals #ajj ,x4 ,,comments ,,and ,,criticism #abe ,,xi4 ,,atmosphere ,,and ,,moisture #acd ,,xii4 ,,notes ,,on ,,irrigation #ada ,,xiii4 ,,variety ,,of ,,conditions ,,under ,,which ,,life ,,exists #adg ,,xiv4 ,,my ,,own ,,work #aeh ,,xv4 ,,what ,,the ,,martians ,,might ,,say ,,of ,,us #aff ,,xvi4 ,,schiaparelli1 ,,lowell1 ,,perrotin1 ,,thollon #agb ,,xvii4 ,,last ,,words #ahj ,,index #ahi ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,lowell',s ,,globe ,,of ,,mars ,frontispiece ,fig4 #a4 ,,planisphere ,,of ,,earth ,page #fa ,,plates ,i4 ,,tobacco ,,cultivation ,,under ,,cloth1 ,,porto ,,rico ,page #ej ,,ii4 ,,drawings ,,of ,,solar ,,corona #if ,,iii4 ,,chinese ,,bowl1 ,,showing ,,crackle #ajg ,,iv4 ,,mud ,,cracks ,,on ,,shore ,,of ,,roger',s ,,lake1 ,,arizona #ajh ,v4 ,,natural ,,lines1 ,,cracks1 ,,fissures1 ,,etc4 #aab ,,vi4 ,,artificial ,,lines1 ,,railways1 ,,streets1 ,,canals1 ,,etc4 #aac ,,vii4 ,,dome ,,of ,,lowell ,,observatory1 ,,flagstaff1 ,,arizona #aeh ,,viii4 ,,twenty-,,four ,,inch ,,telescope1 ,,lowell ,,observatory #afj ,,ix4 ,,drawings ,,of ,,canals ,,of ,,mars ,,by ,,the ,,author #afb ,,portraits ,,giovanni ,,virginio ,,schiaparelli ,page #agb ,,percival ,,lowell #agd ,,henri ,,perrotin #agf ,m4 ,,thollon #agh ,life not wholly unlike that on the earth may therefore exist upon ,mars for anything we know to the contrary4 ,,simon ,,newcomb4 ,,mars ,,and ,,its ,,mystery ,i ,,introduction ,had some one asked1 fifty years ago1 ,is the ,sun composed of chemical elements with which we are familiar8 ,shall we ever know8 the question would not have been deemed worthy of a second thought4 ,realizing what has been accomplished1 not only regarding the constitution of the ,sun1 but of the most remote stars1 we are encouraged to ask3 ,is ,mars inhabited8 ,shall we ever know8 ,to what groups of students are we to appeal for an answer8 ,if we want to know the diameter of ,mars1 its weight1 the form of its orbit1 the inclination of its axis1 the period of its revolution around the ,sun1 and its rotation period1 its ephemeris and its albedo1 we ask the astronomer1 for he has the instruments with which to observe and measure1 and the mathematical knowledge necessary to reduce the measurements4 ,if ,mars were incandescent1 we should appeal to the astrophysicist for information regarding its chemical composition4 ,if1 however1 we want to know the probability of ,mars being the abode of life1 we should appeal to one who is familiar with the conditions of life upon our own globe4 ,if the question is asked as to the existence of intelligence on the planet1 we endeavor to trace evidences of its surface markings1 and their character1 whether natural or artificial4 ,knowing how profoundly man has changed the appearance of the surface features of our own globe in the removal of vast forests1 in the irrigation of enormous tracts of sterile plain1 the filling up of certain areas1 like ,peking1 ,tokio1 ,london1 with material having a different reflecting surface1 we are to scan the surface of ,mars for similar modifications1 and for an answer ask those who are familiar with physical geography1 with meteorology1 with geology1 including the character of natural cracks or crannies1 deep caon1 or range of mountains1 or any of the great cataclysms which have scarred the face of the ,earth4 ,taking the great mass of facts as they are presented to us by astronomers1 to what class are we to appeal as to the probability of life in other worlds8 ,what class will form the most rational conclusions8 ,will it be the circle-squarers1 perpetual-motion cranks1 spiritualists1 survivals of a past who believe the world is flat1 those who have anthropomorphic conceptions of the ,supreme and ,hebraic conceptions of the origin of things1 or will it be those who value observation and experiment1 who appreciate the importance of large numbers1 and who are endowed with a tithe of imagination8 ,most certainly the latter class4 ,in approaching the interpretation of the markings of ,mars we should first glance at a brief historical summary of what has already been done4 ,we should examine the testimony of those who have seen and drawn the canals2 we are then better prepared to examine the records of the latest observations and the explanation of their nature4 ,in the meantime an inquiry must be made as to whether the mathematical astronomer1 after all1 is best fitted to judge of the surface features of a planet4 ,next we should take up in the following order the evidences1 which are overwhelming1 that a network of lines1 geodetic in their character1 mark the surface of ,mars4 ,it has been claimed that these lines show the result of irrigation1 and1 therefore1 the irrigation features of our own planet should be examined4 ,it has been objected that many astronomers have not been able to see the markings1 and consequently their existence has been doubted4 ,it will then be proper to point out that the difficulties of seeing are very great1 and that the acutest eyesight1 coupled with long practice1 is necessary to recognize the markings4 ,it has been objected that the drawings of the minuter details of ,mars vary with different observers4 ,it will be necessary to show that every kind of research employing graphic representation labors under the same difficulty1 and none more so than astronomy4 ,it has been objected that there is not sufficient moisture and atmosphere in ,mars to sustain life1 and this must be answered by those only who are familiar with conditions affecting life on our own planet4 ,various theories have been advanced1 some of them physical1 to explain the markings of ,mars1 and these must be considered1 and1 if possible1 answered4 ,comments and criticism are difficult to repress1 as the discoveries of ,schiaparelli and the additional discoveries and deductions of ,lowell have evoked discussions1 which1 in some instances1 have been harsh and unreasonable1 and1 in one case1 positively ridiculous4 ,schiaparelli has been called an impostor1 and ,lowell has come in for his full share of vituperation and innuendo4 ,if this portion of the discussion is considered unparliamentary1 the attitude and language of certain astronomers have provoked it4 ,a brief account is presented of what the author was enabled to draw of the ,martian details1 with a transcript of his notes made at the time of observation1 and finally a little imaginary sketch is given as to how the world would look from ,mars2 and if similar kinds of astronomers existed there1 what comments and objections they might offer as to the inhabitability of the ,earth4 ,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 ,mars4 ,it will be objected that some of the names herein quoted are not recognized as astronomers4 ,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 ,observatory1 and other reputable astronomical journals1 and in no instances accompanied by adverse comment or criticism4 ,if astronomers--even the distinguished ,schiaparelli--quote these names in scientific memoirs1 ,i may venture to do the same in a book written for the general reader4 ,the objection1 however1 has always presented itself with every controversy2 it was conspicuously marked in the passionate discussions over ,darwin's ,origin of ,species4 ,the intelligent laity recognized the truth of ,darwin's proposition long before the zologist began to waver4 ,essays by the unprofessional supporting ,darwin's contention were discredited because the writers were not trained naturalists4 ,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 ideas4 ,,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 space4 ,,simon ,,newcomb4 ,until within recent centuries1 man has not only believed that he and his kind were the only intelligent creatures in the universe1 but that the little round ball on which he lived was the dominant part thereof4 ,so rooted for ages was this conviction that it became fixed in man's mental structure1 and hence the survival of the idea that still lingers in the minds of a few to-day4 ,the conclusion was natural1 however1 for the behavior of the starry heavens and the ,sun and the ,moon seemed sufficient evidence that man1 and the surface upon which he lived1 was the centre of the universe4 ,the stars were bright points of light1 the ,moon a silver disk1 and the ,sun a heat and light giving ball of fire1 equally diminutive and not far away4 ,let one realize for a moment the experience of these early people4 ,everything aerial1 with the exception of feathery birds1 fluffy bats and flying insects1 was composed of the lightest particles--cottony seeds1 reluctantly falling snow-flakes1 motes in the air1 smoke and vaporous cloud1 and1 in contrast1 the rock-foundationed and irregular surface upon which the people dwelt1 and flat as far as man had reached4 ,what wonder1 then1 that man viewed these brilliant points and dazzling disks as objects of no great size and not far away1 hauled across the heavens by unseen spirits of some kind4 ,the marvel of it all is1 not that they believed as they did1 but that any other views of cosmography could have been established4 ,and yet the successive increments of astronomical knowledge1 founded apparently on the soundest mathematics1 were adopted in their turn4 ,what more convincing than the epicyclic theory of ,ptolemy1 buttressed by figures so ingenious and convincing1 that the theory might have lasted till now except for the truer understanding of planetary movements in relation to that of the ,earth8 ,all through this history are found traces of the barriers erected by prejudiced conservatives1 of which the attitude of ,tycho ,brahe is a good example1 though in this case it was probably his belief in the ,hebraic conception of the universe which excited his opposition to ,kepler's views1 a conception which1 unfortunately for the progress of astronomical research1 still lingers among certain observers to-day and places them in precisely the same category with ,tycho ,brahe4 ,with the gradual accumulation of knowledge it was found that of all the innumerable illuminated bodies in the heavens1 only one1--just one1--the ,moon1 revolved around the ,earth1 and that the ,earth instead of being all dominant in the affairs of the universe1 played a very minor part1 and1 instead of being master1 was a very humble midget revolving around the ,sun2 that1 indeed1 with the exception of the ,moon1 there were visible to the naked eye only three bright points of light in the whole range of the heavens more insignificant in size1--,mercury1 ,venus1 and ,mars1--while the other planets were vastly larger1 and had many more satellites revolving around them4 ,then it was found that1 with the exception of the few planets1 the myriad stars had no connection with the ,sun whatsoever1 that the ,sun was no longer the centre of a great universe4 ,later it was discovered through spectroscopic analysis that all the myriad of stars were composed of chemical elements similar to our ,sun4 ,here1 then1 was the startling revelation that our ,sun was simply a star1 and that the stars represented a universe of ,suns1 and1 if we could get near any one star of the millions that sparkle in the heavens telescopically1 we should see it as a round ball emitting light and heat4 ,it was perhaps humiliating to find that our ,sun was so insignificant in size that from ,sirius1 for example1 it could not be seen with the naked eye1 so small indeed that in the close companionship of other stars it would be swallowed up by their greater size and brilliancy4 ,to assume1 then1 that our ,sun1 so identical to the stars in heat and light emitting properties1 was the only ,sun that had revolving around it a few minute balls1 would be as absurd as if one should go on a pebbly beach1 extending from ,labrador to ,florida for example1 and picking up a single pebble1 should have the hardihood to assert that this pebble was the only one1 among the millions of pebbles1 upon which would be found the bits of seaweed and little snails which it might support4 ,the overwhelming vastness of the universe is entirely beyond the grasp of the human mind4 ,the mere statement that it requires so many years for the light to reach us from a certain star1 the parallax of which has been rudely established1 affords one only a faint glimmer of the truth4 ,the swing of our ,earth about the ,sun gives us a base line of #ahf1jjj1jjj of miles1 and yet1 with this enormous base from which to subtend an angle1 only a very few of the myriad of stars show the slightest displacement2 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 other6 ,fixed stars they appear to be1 and are so called1 though we are told they are all drifting in various directions1 as our star-,sun is4 ,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 space4 ,in order to consider the attitude of the ,earth in relation to the ,sun and the nearest fixed star1 we will reduce the ,sun's diameter of #hff1jjj miles to the dimensions of a ball one inch in diameter2 the ,earth reduced to the same scale would be a minute speck less than one one-hundredth of an inch in diameter2 a perforation in paper made by the finest cambric needle would represent the size of this minute speck1 the ,earth4 ,following this scale we should place this speck nine feet from the inch ball1 this distance representing #ic1jjj1jjj of miles1 the ,earth's distance from the ,sun2 ,mars would be a still smaller speck a step farther off4 ,let us now proceed to ,boston ,common1 for example1 and on the smooth playground place our inch ball representing the ,sun2 taking three good steps we should place our minute speck1 representing the ,earth1 upon the ground where it would be immediately lost in the fine gravel2 another step and we would place a still smaller particle1 representing ,mars4 ,how big a circle on the ,earth's surface1 using the inch ball as a centre1 should we have to describe in order to include the nearest fixed star8 ,such a circle would reach to ,detroit1 ,michigan1 and ,columbus1 ,ohio1 or ,wilmington1 ,north ,carolina6 ,to find a circle which would include eight other fixed stars next in distance1 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 ,bay1 the waters of southern ,greenland1 ,lake ,winnipeg1 and ,new ,orleans6 ,in this broad way only can we form a dim conception of the overwhelming distances of space1 and1 in this absolutely unthinkable space1 our little ,sun1 with its constant rain of meteoric dust1 an occasional comet1 and its microscopic planets are literally bunched together4 ,to admit1 as we must then1 that one of these motes has had irrigating canals on various parts of its surface since prehistoric times1 and the other mote has nothing of the sort despite the geodetic lines that are seen marking its surface1 is simply preposterous4 ,their disposition1 their visibility coincident with the ,martian summer1 becoming apparent only when the snow caps melt1 their convergence towards centres of distribution1 all go to prove by the simplest analogy an identity of structure4 ,certainly the overwhelming force of ,lowell's observations and arguments baffles any other reasonable explanation of the character and purpose of these markings4 ,here are the lines1 some following the arcs of great circles1 all appearing precisely when they should appear1 and in progressive strength from the north when the vivifying water from the melting snow cap first starts the vegetation4 ,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 ,martian1 where some would be yellow with the ripening grain while others1 uncultivated1 would appear of a different color4 ,,iii ,,other ,,worlds ,,inhabited ,whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or not is to us a matter of pure conjecture1 which may or may not enter into our conception of the universe4 ,but probably every thoughtful person believes with regard to those distant suns that there is in space something besides our system on which they shine4 ,,tyndall4 ,it would be a waste of time to attempt an interpretation of the markings of ,mars as a result of intelligent effort1 if it could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that our globe was not only unique among the bodies which probably accompany the innumerable suns1 but was the only body1 among them all1 sustaining creatures of intelligence4 ,if life exists in other planets of a nature with which we are familiar1 then the physical conditions must be similar to those of our own planet4 ,later we shall point out the infinite variety of conditions under which life--even man--exists on this globe1 and it will be shown that the question of higher or lower temperature1 more or less humidity1 higher or lower atmospheric pressure1 greater or less force of gravity1 can have but little weight in discussing the probability of life in other worlds4 ,in a planet devoid of atmosphere1 or a sphere glowing with its own heat1 we may decide without question that life does not exist4 ,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 manifested4 ,reasoning from analogy1 if life exists in ,mars1 or other spheres in infinite space1 it must have originated under much the same conditions as it originated here2 at the outset the most primitive bits of protoplasm4 ,but has life appeared in ,mars8 ,tyndall1 in graphic words1 pictures the rounding of worlds from nebulous haze1 and then says1 ,for eons1 the immensity of which overwhelms man's conception1 the ,earth was unfit to maintain what we call life4 ,it is now covered with visible living things4 ,they are not formed of matter different from that around them4 ,they are1 on the contrary1 bone of its bone and flesh of its flesh4 ,mars must come in the same category4 ,it is a part of the original nidus from which our world was condensed1 and however life originated in the past1 the conditions for its origin1 at least1 must have been as favorable on the surface of ,mars1 as on the surface of the ,earth1 and1 so far as we know to the contrary1 even more favorable4 ,in the beginning1 ,mars cooled and hardened with all those behaviors of contraction1 condensation of vapor on its surface1 erosion1 etc41 and it is impossible to avoid the conviction that life1 as on our ,earth1 arose under the same physical conditions4 ,recalling the resemblance which ,mars bears to the ,earth1 and the data which have already been established1 we behold a world in many respects like ours1 with its sunsets and sunrises1 winds that sweep over its surface1 the dust storms from the deserts1 its snow-storms and snow-drifts1 its dazzling fields of white in the north1 with an occasional snow-storm that whitens the planet far down in latitude2 the seasonal changes1 and1 most important of all1 the melting ice caps1 with rivulets and torrents1 temporary arctic seas and frozen pools1 its great expanses of vegetation and sterile plains4 ,we have in ,mars the variety of conditions under which life has assumed its infinite variety of aspects on the ,earth1 and which1 by analogy1 should have passed through similar stages in ,mars4 ,life at the outset must have been protoplasmic2 then came contractile tissue1 muscular bundles1 hardened structures within and without for their support1 nerves to animate the muscles1 and protection for nerve-trunk1 either rigid or flexible4 ,hard parts might vary under a different force of gravity1 though there might appear types of structure that could be classified with our own4 ,all such conditions1 however1 are mere surmises1 for about such matters we can reason only from analogy4 ,the first proposition to establish is that the conception of the plurality of worlds is not unreasonable1 and second1 that many of the most eminent astronomers have believed in the inhabitability of other worlds1 and this justifies a reasonable man to follow the inquiry4 ,the belief is based upon legitimate analogies which have thus far guided man in every generalization1 in the establishment of principles1 and are continually appealed to in the details of every day's experience4 ,from remote times it has been taken for granted by the best minds that other worlds besides ours sustain life4 ,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 intended1 to sustain life1 and ,scripture was freely quoted in support of the idea4 ,sir ,david ,brewster1 in his book ,more ,worlds ,than ,one1 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 determined3 ,giordano ,bruno of ,nola1 ,kepler1 and ,tycho believed in it2 and ,cardinal ,cusa and ,bruno1 before the discovery of binary systems among the stars1 believed also that the stars were inhabited4 ,sir ,isaac ,newton likewise adopted it1 and ,dr4 ,bentley1 ,master of ,trinity ,college1 in his eighth sermon on the ,confutation of ,atheism from the origin and frame of the world1 has ably maintained the same doctrine4 ,in our own day we may number among its supporters the distinguished names of ,laplace1 ,sir ,william and ,sir ,john ,herschel1 ,dr4 ,chalmers1 ,isaac ,taylor1 and ,m4 ,arago4 ,the attitude of the intelligent world to-day is well shown in a recent number of ,london ,nature1 where in a review of a book by ,wallace1 endeavoring to show that this world alone sustains life1 the reviewer ends by saying3 ,to consider this ,earth as the only inhabited body in the stellar universe1 a reversion to prehistoric ideas1 may or may not be an advance1 but it will require very strong arguments before we can be brought to consider that its isolation in the ,cosmos is indeed a fact4 ,until the discovery by ,schiaparelli of the network of lines in ,mars1 laid out with seemingly intelligent precision1 the arguments for the inhabitability of other worlds were based entirely upon analogy4 ,sir ,richard ,owen1 the great comparative anatomist1 in supporting the contention that life existed in other planets1 said3 ,the grounds of belief vary with the probability of a proposition2 if nothing better than analogy can be had--on analogy will belief be based4 ,professor ,o4 ,m4 ,mitchell1 the first director of the ,cincinnati ,observatory1 in his work on ,popular ,astronomy1 says1 in regard to the doctrine of the plurality of worlds3 ,it would be most incredible to assert1 as some have done1 that our planet1 so small and insignificant in its proportions when compared with other planets with which it is allied1 is the only world in the whole universe filled with sentient1 rational and intelligent beings capable of comprehending the grand mysteries of the physical universe4 ,the eminent ,french astronomer1 ,m4 ,flammarion1 has1 in an eloquent passage in his ,plurality of ,worlds1 portrayed the vastness of the universe and the utter insignificance of our ,earth in the immensity of space3 ,if advancing with the velocity of light#a 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 beings2 looking behind1 but no longer knowing in what part of the infinite to find this grain of dust called the ,earth1 we should stop fascinated and confounded by such a spectacle1 and uniting our voice to the concert of universal nature we should say from the depths of our soul1 ,almighty ,god6 how senseless we were to believe that there was nothing beyond the ,earth1 and that our abode alone possessed the privilege of reflecting thy greatness and honor4 ,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 amusement1 unmindful of the heedless way in which the millions of his race regard the overpowering majesty of the heavens4 ,to the thousand millions that live to-day1 and the thousand1 thousand millions that have perished in the past1 the starry heavens have never excited an emotion grateful1 reverent1 or curious1 unless a flaming comet1 or an eclipse of the ,sun or ,moon occurred1 and then with superstitious fear have they gone grovelling in the dust4 ,an astronomer imbued with ,hebraic conceptions of the universe is poorly equipped to appreciate the arguments in favor of life in other worlds4 ,he may be keen in perceiving lines in the spectrum1 and the significance of their lateral displacement1 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 still1 a realization of his own insignificance1 or the possibility of intelligence in other worlds1 must forever remain beyond his grasp4 ,emerson said the dogmas shrivel as dry leaves at the door of the observatory4 ,they never shrivel for such minds1 but grow and flourish with a density that obscures by1 its rankness every rational conception of the heavens above4 ,as an illustration of the attitude of such mentalities we have to go back fifty years1 for few survive to-day4 ,edward ,hitchcock1 ,professor of ,geology and ,theology at ,amherst1 wrote a book just fifty years ago entitled ,plurality of ,worlds1 in which he denounces the idea2 but observe the precise way in which he lays down the law3 ,the planets had no vital tendencies1 they could have had such given only by an additional act or series of acts of creative power4 ,as mere inert globes1 they had no settled destiny to be the seats of life2 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 7page #ceb74 ,it may be objected that it is useless to bring up these old theological conceptions1 as the world has happily gone beyond them1 and only in an atavistic manner do we find a few still holding them2 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 century4 ,tyndall expresses the universal belief of thinkers in whatever line of work1 that life is by no means confined to this ,earth4 ,he says3 ,whether the other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or not is to us a matter of pure conjecture1 which may or may not enter into our conception of the universe4 ,but probably every thoughtful man believes1 with regard to these distant ,suns1 that there is1 in space1 something besides our system on which they shine4 ,one class of objectors to the idea that other worlds are inhabited endeavors to show that our position in the universe is unique1 that the solar system itself is quite unlike anything existing elsewhere1 and1 to cap the climax1 that our own little world has just the right amount of water1 air1 and gravitational force to enable it to be the abode of intelligent life1 and nowhere else in the broad expanse of heaven can such physical habitudes be found as will enable life to originate or to exist6 ,in a memoir on the ,evolution of the ,solar ,system1 by ,professor ,t4 ,j4 ,j4 ,see1 the author1 while not denying the possibility of other systems like our own1 still considers our system unique4 ,here are his words3 ,therefore1 while observation gives us no grounds for denying the existence of other systems like our own1 it does not enable us to affirm1 or even to render probable1 that such systems do exist4 ,because a number of binary stars have been discovered in which the two stars are nearly equal in mass1 and their orbits highly eccentric1 he therefore concludes that the millions of stars that stud the heavens are probably without satellites4 ,the unreasonableness of this attitude is emphasized by realizing that these innumerable suns are similar to our own ,sun1 as revealed by the spectroscope1 and have a similar eruptive energy4 ,professor ,newcomb1 however1 says3 ,evidence is continually increasing that dark and opaque worlds like ours exist and revolve around their primaries4 ,had ,mr4 ,see discovered that every star of the many million was accompanied by another star nearly equal in mass1 with its marked eccentric behavior1 then only would he be justified in his inference that our solar system was indeed unique4 ,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 ,sun1 even the largest of them1 are diminutive globes compared to the vastness of the ,sun1 it seems unreasonable if not impossible to entertain the idea that none of these remote stars are accompanied by satellites1 and that1 therefore1 this little ,sun of ours stands without parallel in the universe4 ,tyndall1 in his famous reply to the critics of his ,belfast address1 in speaking of the origin of life1 referred to the ,nebular ,theory as follows3 ,according to it our sun and planets were once diffused through space as an impalpable haze out of which by condensation came the solar system4 ,what caused it to condense8 ,loss of heat4 ,what rounded the sun and planets8 ,that which rounds a tear1 molecular force4 ,in these terse and graphic expressions we are made to understand the universality of law4 ,so far as we have sounded the depths of the stellar universe we see the same obedience to gravitational laws1 the same flashing lines in the spectrum4 ,we encounter no phenomena that cannot be explained1 or at least inferred1 by the knowledge we have obtained from our little mote of the ,cosmos4 ,mr4 ,see thinks it remarkable that previous investigators have almost invariably approached the problem of cosmogony from the point of view of the planets and satellites1 and that no considerable attempt has been made to inquire into the development of the great number of systems observed among the fixed stars4 ,it is true our planetary system has been used as a standard of measurement for the universe1 and a very comprehensive standard it has proved to be4 ,the law of universal gravitation was based on terrestrial and lunar observations1 spectroscopic analysis was determined in a terrestrial laboratory4 ,as ,george ,iles says1 a coal of fire may be raked from a grate and broken up to illustrate the rapid cooling of smaller masses4 ,even a child's spinning top may be used in an astronomical lecture4 ,the study of our ,sun led to the study of the fixed stars1 and so our little system has thus far furnished us with examples and illustrations by which we interpret the universe4 ,in our solar system we have a fair sample of the ,cosmos in miniature1 though our ,sun is so modest in size1 compared with the great orbs that appeal to us by their number and brilliancy4 ,so far as our telescopes have sounded the heavens we find nebulous clouds in their structure showing inchoate masses1 orbital and spiral arrangements1 condensations in their centres4 ,we have the binaries with their extraordinary properties1 we have variables with their dark bodies revolving around their primaries4 ,in our little system we also have dark bodies revolving around a luminous primary1 from one of which we endeavor to interpret the mysteries of the universe2 we have loose masses1 as in comets with enormously elongated orbits2 we have spheres of insignificant size1 with small bodies revolving around them1 and these epitomes revolving around a central sun2 we have one of these bodies with meteoric rings2 and1 in the case of our own globe1 a satellite of such size that except in the form of its orbit it might well represent a binary in embryo2--and1 finally1 a host of bodies big enough to reflect the rays of the sun1 pursuing their various orbital paths4 ,we are told that the stars are as distant from each other as we are from them4 ,we may regard these systems of nebul1 variables1 doubles1 etc41 as different kinds or species of heavenly bodies2 and to assert that our system is the only individual of the species in the universe seems contrary to all celestial analogy1 for do we not have hundreds of binaries1 thousands of variables1 millions of suns1 revealing the same fiery energy and consuming the same elemental fuel8 ,professor ,newcomb in his ,reminiscences describes his first sweeping the heavens1 at random1 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 instrument4 ,he says3 ,i could not help the vain longing which one must sometimes feel under such circumstances1 to know what beings might live on planets belonging to what1 from an earthly point of view1 seemed to be on the border of creation itself4 ,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 ,earth1 and so near in comparison to these unimaginable distances as to be within a hand's grasp1 so to speak4 ,the little interest ,professor ,newcomb has taken in the subject is well expressed in his late book ,astronomy for ,everybody4 ,in his chapter on ,mars1 in which ,everybody is certainly interested1 he says3 ,the reader will excuse me for saying anything in this chapter about the possible inhabitants of ,mars4 ,he knows just as much of the subject as ,i do1 and that is nothing at all4 ,he might at least have given the various pronouncements of ,schiaparelli1 ,lowell1 and others as to the probable character of these remarkable markings on ,mars1 and their supposed significance4 ,while ,professor ,newcomb's attitude on the question of the plurality of worlds has been somewhat conservative in the past he has lately1 however1 expressed himself on the question in no uncertain terms4 ,in a recent article in ,harper's ,magazine1 entitled ,probability of ,life in ,other ,worlds1 he has lent his sanction to the rational idea that other worlds may be the abode of intelligent creatures4 ,his recognition of the principle will do much to offset the influence if it ever had any1 of a recent book published in ,england by ,alfred ,russel ,wallace1 in which the distinguished author attempts to show that this world stands alone as the abode of intelligent life4 ,despite his epoch-making work with ,darwin1 nearly fifty years ago1 which must forever merit our gratitude1 and the charm of his various essays on protective coloring1 mimicry1 theory of birds' nests1 etc41 he has since those lucid days expressed convictions of such a nature that if a future ,de,morgan should write on human paradoxes he would classify ,mr4 ,wallace as chief among them4 ,a profound believer in evolution1 he exempts man from the inexorable logic of the principle with about as much reason as if1 confessing his belief in the nebular hypothesis1 he should insist that the ,earth was an exception4 ,but to return to ,professor ,newcomb's recent utterances4 ,in the above-mentioned article he says3 ,not only does life1 but intelligence1 flourish on this globe under great variety of conditions as regards temperature and surroundings1 and no sound reason can be shown why1 under certain conditions which are frequent in the universe1 intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development4 ,again he says3 ,life1 not wholly unlike that on the ,earth1 may therefore exist upon ,mars1 for anything we know to the contrary4 ,more than this we cannot say4 ,in his final summing up ,professor ,newcomb says3 ,it is therefore perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings not only animated but endowed with reason inhabit countless worlds in space4 ,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 which1 centuries ago1 regarded the stars as bits of luminous material expressly designed to illuminate this little earth1 around which they all pursued their daily paths4 ,,iv ,,lowell',s ,,book ,,on ,,mars ,this whole arrangement presents an indescribable simplicity and symmetry which cannot be the work of chance4 ,,schiaparelli1 in writing of the canals4 ,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 reader4 ,i know of no better way of doing this than by giving a brief abstract of ,percival ,lowell's epoch-making work entitled ,mars4 ,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 years4 ,the preface is dated from ,flagstaff1 ,arizona1 #ahie4 ,since that time he has issued three volumes of ,memoirs1 in quarto1 of the ,lowell ,observatory1 and a number of ,bulletins in which he presents many additional facts confirming previous observations1 besides new observations2 and finally1 in a late ,bulletin1 he has presented photographs of ,mars made by his assistant1 ,mr4 ,lampland1 in which a number of canals plainly show1 thus setting forever at rest the question of the subjective character of the markings4 ,the student must1 however1 follow the advice of an ,english reviewer and by all means read the book4 ,to determine1 says ,mr4 ,lowell1 whether a planet be the abode of life in the least resembling that with which we are acquainted1 two questions about it must be answered in turn3 first1 are its physical conditions such as render it1 in our general sense1 habitable2 and secondly1 are there any signs of its actual habitation8 ,these problems must be attacked in their order1 for unless we can answer the first satisfactorily1 it were largely futile to seek for evidence of the second4 ,the reason why ,mars in certain years becomes so conspicuous is that its orbit is highly eccentric4 ,every two years--the period of its revolution about the ,sun--brings it nearest to the ,sun1 and once in fifteen years we find ourselves between it and the ,sun at its nearest approach4 ,huyghens1 in #afei1 made a drawing of the dark region on ,mars now known as the ,syrtis ,major1 and1 through its disappearance and reappearance1 he discovered that the planet rotated on its axis1 and roughly determined a daily period of twenty-four hours4 ,for the first time it was known that ,mars had a day and a night4 ,as some doubts existed as to the correctness of ,huyghens's figures1 ,cassini in #afff determined anew the rotation period of ,mars and found it to be twenty-four hours and forty minutes4 ,from the white polar caps1 the study of which we first owe to ,maraldi1 it was found that the tilt of its axis to the plane of its orbit was very nearly the same as that of the ,earth4 ,as this inclination determines the seasons1 it was seen that ,mars1 like the ,earth1 had its spring1 summer1 autumn1 and winter4 ,a polar flattening was also observed which was slightly in excess of ours4 ,to all forms of life of which we have any conception1 two things in ,nature are vital1 air and water4 ,has it an atmosphere8 ,without air no change could take place4 ,the ,moon without air remains unchanged1 except what gravitation accomplishes in pulling down crater walls4 ,with ,mars it is otherwise4 ,over the surface of that planet changes do occur1 changes upon a scale vast enough to be visible from the ,earth4 ,the first sign of change occurs in the polar snow cap4 ,it dwindles in size every two years 7the time of a single revolution of ,mars around the sun74 ,for nearly two hundred years these white polar caps have been observed to wax and wane4 ,as the ,martian winter comes on in the northern hemisphere1 for example1 the polar cap extends its borders to the temperate zone4 ,as summer comes on the snow cap is seen to dwindle gradually away1 till by early autumn it presents but a tiny patch a few hundred miles across4 ,schiaparelli observed changes in tint which he noticed were correlated with the seasons4 ,in #ahid observations were made continuously from early ,june till late in ,november4 ,these dates1 in ,mars1 represent the last of ,april till the last of ,august4 ,during this time marked changes took place in the bluish-green areas of the planet4 ,a wave of seasonal change swept down from the pole to the equator4 ,the fact of this occurrence constitutes positive proof of the presence of an atmosphere4 ,in another way the evidence was shown4 ,a series of measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of ,mars were made1 and these indicated that a visible layer of twilight atmosphere had been measured4 ,this1 ,lowell explains by a diagram and other data4 ,it is found1 according to ,lowell's observations1 that the atmosphere is much freer from clouds than had been supposed4 ,he shows conclusively that it is much rarer than that of the ,earth4 ,appearances have been seen1 however1 which are best explained by assuming them to be clouds4 ,during the opposition of #ahib1 ,mr4 ,douglass1 at that time an assistant astronomer at the ,lowell ,observatory1 made a special study of the terminator of ,mars4#b ,a careful study of the terminator for almost every degree of latitude was made1 and #gcc irregularities were detected4 ,of this large number1 #fid were not only recorded1 but measured2 and of these1 #djc were depressions1 and #bia were elevations of the surface4 ,many of these irregularities were supposed to be clouds1 but the arguments to support this attribution are too technical to be presented here4 ,unmistakable clouds have also been seen moving at a definite rate of speed1 as if carried along by the wind4 ,to sum up1 now1 what we know about the atmosphere of ,mars3 we have proof positive that ,mars has an atmosphere2 we have reason to believe this atmosphere to be very thin1--thinner at least by half than the air upon the summit of the ,himalayas1--and in constitution1 not to differ greatly from our own4 ,as to the existence of water on the planet1 one has only to consider the polar snow caps4 ,in the height of the southern winter1 the polar cap of snow measures over two thousand miles across1 covering fifty-five degrees of latitude1 with one unbroken waste of white4 ,as spring advances the snow begins to melt1 disappearing rapidly as summer comes on1 and1 as it melts1 a dark band is seen bordering this edge4 ,as the snow recedes the dark band recedes4 ,this band is1 therefore1 not a permanent marking on the planet1 but obviously water1 the result of the melting snow--an arctic sea1 in fact4 ,this band is irregular1 varying in width in different longitudes1 as if the water filled up large areas of depression4 ,when finally the snow cap disappears1 as it did for the first time on record on the notable occasion of ,october #ac1 #ahid1 the dark band1 which had become thinner1 disappeared also1 leaving only a yellow stretch of surface4 ,an additional proof that this dark band is water1 was established by ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 for he discovered that the light reflected from its surface was polarized4 ,the absurdity of the suggestion that these white polar caps are not snow1 but congealed carbonic acid gas1 is fully shown by ,lowell4 ,the asymmetry of the outline of these snow caps is paralleled by the irregularity of the ,earth's polar caps4 ,glints of brilliant light are seen to flash out from this region1 as if produced by sunlight reflected from a sloping surface4 ,on comparing these flashes of light with observations made by ,green1 in #ahgg1 they were found to be in the same place4 ,detached fields of snow were also observed below the receding line1 an evidence that these regions were at a higher elevation4 ,as before stated1 on ,october #ac1 #ahid1 for the first time in the record of polar observations1 the southern polar cap disappeared entirely4 ,in this connection it may be of interest to observe that in the ,united ,states1 in the summer of #ahid1 the temperature ranged a few degrees above the normal4 7,for this fact ,i am indebted to ,professor ,cleveland ,abbe1 ,e4 ,s4 ,m47 ,the large1 irregular1 dark regions on the planet have been supposed to be bodies of water1 or seas1 and have been described and named as such by astronomers4 ,lowell shows1 however1 that there is every reason to doubt this conclusion4 ,to begin with1 they are of every grade of tint1--a very curious feature for seas to exhibit1 unless they were everywhere but a few feet deep2 which1 again1 is a most singular characteristic for seas that cover hundreds of thousands of square miles in extent1--seas1 that is1 as large as the ,bay of ,bengal4 ,the ,martian surface would have to be amazingly flat for this to be possible4 ,we know it to be relatively flat1 but to be as flat as all this would seem to pass the bounds of credible simplicity4 ,here1 also1 ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering's polariscope investigations come in with effect1 for he found the light from the supposed seas to show no trace of polarization4 ,hence1 these were probably not water4 ,lowell also shows that if these regions were seas1 or water surfaces of the shallowest kind1 sunlight would certainly be reflected from some portion of the surface so as to be visible from the ,earth4 ,a calculation of the region from which such a beam of light might be reflected has been carefully made1 but no light of this nature has ever been seen4 ,these regions change in color1 and ,schiaparelli suggested that in some way these changes were dependent on the ,martian seasons4 ,lowell1 by continuous observations covering many presentations of the planet1 has demonstrated that the changes in color are synchronous with the seasons1 and they further show that these regions change in expanse as well4 ,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 on4 ,his evidence is overwhelming that the regions heretofore regarded as seas are vast tracts of vegetation1 doubtless on lower levels1 or depressions of the surface1 old sea bottoms1 in fact1 where springs and the natural settlings of stray waters might keep the ground sufficiently moist to support a scanty growth4 ,the regions not marked by the dark shading1 from their reddish and yellowish tinge1 have always been regarded as land1 probably desert land1 as they remain fixed from year to year1 dead and unchangeable as deserts are4 ,the question naturally arises1 if the water of ,mars is piled up at the poles as snow1 how does it find its way back on its melting8 ,a discovery made by ,schiaparelli in #ahgg revealed the existence of various lines marking the surface which he called canali1 or channels4#c ,these lines cover the face of the planet like a net1 they are laid out with geodetic precision4 ,the lines start from points on the coast of the blue-green regions1 commonly well-marked bays1 and proceed directly to what seem centres in the middle of the continent1 since1 most surprisingly1 they meet there other lines that have come to the same spot with apparently a like determinate intent4 ,in other words these lines--fine1 straight1 dark1 as if cut by an engraver1 some of them running for hundreds of miles--converge at certain centres4 ,they all start1 as ,schiaparelli first observed1 from definite regions and terminate at definite points4 ,many of them follow the arcs of great circles4 ,these lines may be thirty or more miles in width1 apparently preserving the same width throughout1 though slightly wider where they leave the dark bands4 ,they run in every direction1 a number often converging at a common centre1 and1 when they do so1 a round1 dark area appears which ,lowell has called an oasis4 ,in the clear and steady atmosphere of ,flagstaff1 ,mr4 ,lowell1 by the aid of his superb telescope1 has added about four times as many canals as are shown on ,schiaparelli's chart4 ,these canals form an intricate network of lines1 and no one can contemplate these curious features without being impressed by their artificial character4 ,schiaparelli1 who first discovered them in #ahgg1 continued his observations from year to year despite the fact that no one else could see them4 ,in the course of a few years he discovered a still more remarkable condition1 and this was that a number of the canals appeared double4 ,this1 indeed1 seemed an optical illusion1 and by no means strengthened his position1 as the single canals proclaimed by him were supposed to be figments of the imagination4 ,undeterred by the general scepticism1 ,schiaparelli established1 at each fresh opposition1 his previous announcements4 ,for nine years no one was able to confirm his marvellous discoveries4 ,in the year #ahhf1 however1 ,perrotin1 at ,nice1 with his assistant1 ,thollon1 managed to make out a number of the canals1 single and double1 which were carefully drawn4 ,reference to ,perrotin's work will be made further on4 ,the reason why so few have seen them is the lack of observers with acute eyesight and patient devotion to the work1 coupled with unsteady air4 ,size of aperture seems to be of little importance4 ,that ,schiaparelli1 with an #h-a_/c inch glass1 discovered the canals1 while with the twenty-six inch glass of the ,naval ,observatory at ,washington they have never been seen1 is emphatic evidence of what a clear and steady atmosphere means in the study of delicate planetary markings4 ,the artificiality of the canals is shown by the supernaturally regular appearance of the system1 upon three distinct counts3 first1 the straightness of the lines2 second1 their individually uniform width2 and1 third1 their systematic radiation from special points4 ,it was the mathematical shape of the ,ohio mounds that first suggested their artificial character4 ,that these lines are artificial and not natural is seen in the fact that at times they are not visible4 ,the lines while temporary in appearance are permanently in place4 ,not only do they not change in position during one opposition2 they seem not to do so from one opposition to another4 ,unchangeable1 apparently1 in position1 the canals are otherwise among the most changeable features of the ,martian disk4 ,the order of their appearance synchronizes with the changes of the season1 as the snow caps begin to melt the canals begin to appear2 in appearance strengthened first at the borders of the polar seas and gradually stretching down towards the equator4 ,in minute detail ,lowell presents the successive visibility of the different canals4 ,to account for all these phenomena we have to look at our own ,earth for a parallel1 and we see it in the great irrigation tracks of the ,west1 and in the vast irrigated regions in ,india depending upon the melting of the ,himalaya snow cap4 ,the accumulative evidence is overwhelming that here is a dry planet1 and an intelligence of some kind that can only survive by utilizing the few remaining sources of water supply4 ,it is to the merit of ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 to whom ,professor ,lowell gives the credit of having first suggested the idea of irrigation to account for the great width of the canals4 ,what we see1 then1 is not the canal1 which may be a slender stream of water1 but a broad band of vegetation irrigated from these narrow channels4 ,these lines penetrate and cross the dark regions in various directions1 which again offer additional proof that the so-called seas are not seas but areas of vegetation sparsely scattered1 against which the irrigated portions are of sufficient strength and color to show4#d ,among the most interesting features of the planet's surface are the round1 or oval spots which ,lowell calls oases2 these invariably occur at the junction of the canals4 ,in spite of the great number of the spots1 not one of them stands isolate4 ,there is not a single instance of a spot that is not connected by a canal to the rest of the dark areas4 ,there appears to be no spot that has not two or more canals running to it1 and apparently no canal junction is without its spot4 ,the majority of the spots are #abj to #aej miles in diameter4 ,there are many smaller ones4 ,these spots1 like the canals1 appear and disappear coincidently with seasonal changes4 ,the canals and the oases follow the same method and order in their growth4 ,both are affected by one progressive change that sweeps over the face of the planet from the pole to the equator4 ,the reader cannot dwell too strongly on the fact that the visibility of these various markings appears first in northern latitudes1 and gradually darkens toward the equator1 precisely the reverse of the unfolding of plant life on the ,earth4 ,from ,mars our ,earth would show its tropical vegetation the year round1 while in ,mars no tropical vegetable coloration would appear until water from the melting polar snow caps animates its growth4 ,lowell shows conclusively that the seas are not seas1 nor the canals waterways1 nor the spots lakes4 ,apparently1 the spots appear not so much by an increase in size as by a deepening in tint4 ,they start1 it would seem1 as big as they are to be1 but faint in tone2 they then proceed to darken throughout4 ,if these spots are areas of vegetation1 the explanation of their appearance is at once evident4 ,even more markedly unnatural is another phenomenon of this phenomenal system1 of which almost every one has heard and almost nobody has seen1--the double canals4 ,upon a part of the disk where1 up to that time1 a single canal has been visible1 of a sudden1 some night1 in place of the single canal1 twin canals are perceived1 similar in character and inclination1 absolutely parallel1 reminding one of the twin rails of a railroad track4 ,the regularity of the thing is startling4 ,in details the doubles vary1 chiefly1 it would seem1 in the distance the twin lines lie apart4 ,lowell says the widest he has seen is the ,ganges1 in which six degrees separate the two lines1--in the narrowest1 the ,phison1 four degrees and a quarter4 ,from #abj to #age miles of clear country is found between the paralleling lines4 ,one element of mystery may be eliminated at the outset4444 ,it is perceived of a sudden1 by the observer1 because of some specially favorable night4 ,but it has been for some time developing4 ,so much is apparent from my observations4 ,suggestions of duality occurred weeks before the thing stood definitely revealed4 ,furthermore1 the gemination may lie concealed from the observer some time after it is quite complete1 owing to lack of favorable atmospheric conditions4 ,for it takes emphatically steady air to see it unmistakably4 ,each canal has its individual behavior of doubling1 and the varying widths1 and their evident seasonal relations utterly forbid the conception that their appearance is due to optical illusion4 ,mr4 ,lowell feels tolerably sure that the doubling1 or gemination of the canals1 show that the phenomenon is not only seasonal but vegetal4 ,why it should take this form is one of the most pregnant problems about the planet4 ,for it is the most artificial-looking phenomenon of an artificial-looking disk4 ,we quote a paragraph from the concluding chapter in his book3 ,to review1 now1 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 intelligence4 ,we find1 in the first place1 that the broad physical conditions of the planet are not antagonistic to some form of life2 secondly1 that there is an apparent dearth of water upon the planet's surface1 and1 therefore1 if beings of sufficient intelligence inhabited it1 they would have to resort to irrigation to support life2 thirdly1 that there turns out to be a network of markings covering the disk1 precisely counterparting what a system of irrigation would look like2 and1 lastly1 that there is a set of spots placed where we should expect to find the lands thus artificially fertilized1 and behaving as such constructed oases should4 ,all this1 of course1 may be a set of coincidences1 signifying nothing2 but the probability points the other way4 ,as to details of explanation1 any we may adopt will undoubtedly be found1 on closer acquaintance1 to vary from the actual ,martian state of things2 for any ,martian life must differ markedly from our own4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in this brief rsum 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 ,mars4 ,there are many enigmas1 however1 awaiting solution1 if we endeavor to explain them by comparison with the methods pursued by man on this ,earth1 and ,mr4 ,lowell frankly admits the many difficulties in the way of a clear solution4 ,i have already mentioned how puzzling the checker-board appearance of our ,western townships would seem to a ,martian1 but this comparison does not help us to understand the so-called gemination of the canals1 though we might have parallel sets of canals1 as we have parallel lines of railways4 ,the enormous distance which the water travels in the ,martian canals must presuppose an artificial method of urging it on4 ,precisely how this operation might be accomplished is a question to be solved by the mechanical and hydraulic engineer4 ,beside the doubling1 or so-called gemination1 of the canals1 there are other enigmas in the markings4 ,at certain times there has been observed in the equatorial region of ,mars a number of white spots1 which have greatly puzzled the student of ,mars and for which no explanation has yet been offered4 ,that they are not clouds is seen in the fact that they do not move or drift4 ,furthermore these white spots are fixed features of the region1 as they appear in the same places4 ,it might be suggested that they represent snow-capped elevations or mountain peaks1 but this is difficult to believe1 as an examination of the terminator of ,mars reveals no evidences of high elevations4 ,these white spots appear only in mid-summer1 which would argue against the idea of their being snow caps1 as in mid-summer they would certainly melt and disappear4 ,the time of their appearance coincides with the time of greatest equatorial heat4 ,for a reasonable suggestion it might be offered that these white spots are due to vegetation of some kind4 ,the cotton belt of the ,south1 if one could imagine the cotton bolls a little larger and more crowded together1 would make white areas4 ,masses of white flowers1 such as the whiteweed or daisy1 may be seen covering hundreds of acres of meadow land in ,new ,england4 ,i have noticed from the tops of mountains in ,new ,hampshire1 in ,july1 extensive meadow lands resembling fields of snow from the profusion of white daisies4 ,the blossoming of fruit trees in the ,santa ,clara valley1 ,california1 whitens the surface for miles4 ,since the appearance of these white spots in ,mars corresponds with the period of greatest evaporation1 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 tobacco2 namely1 to protect the fields with white cotton cloth2 or1 as in ,florida1 where extensive orange groves are covered with white cloth to guard against sudden frost4 ,that this supposition has something to commend it may be seen in the accompanying reproduction of a photograph 7,plate ,i71 made in ,porto ,rico1 of tobacco plantations when the fields are covered with white cloth supported on suitable frames4 ,this picture appeared in an article by ,eugene ,p4 ,lyle1 ,jr41 on ,porto ,rico1 in the ,january number of ,world's ,work1 to the publishers of which we are indebted for the privilege of using it4 ,these various guesses may all be wrong1 as1 after all1 we are judging ,mars from conditions belonging to our own planet4 ,this1 however1 we are compelled to do1 as we have no other standards of comparison4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i ,,tobacco ,,cultivation ,,under ,,cloth1 ,,porto ,,rico ,v ,,testimony ,,of ,,astronomers ,that there may be types of life of some kind on ,mars is1 ,i should think1 quite likely4 ,,sir ,,robert ,,ball4 ,in the following chapter are presented abstracts from memoirs1 communications1 etc41 of a few among the many astronomers and observers who have recognized the markings on the planet1 and1 in many cases1 have made drawings of them4 ,before presenting these few brief records1 ,i have compiled1 from ,camille ,flammarion's great work on ,mars1 the names of those astronomers whose drawings he reproduces in this monograph1 for such it is4 ,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 ,mars1 and the number of astronomers who have made contributions to the subject4 ,flammarion divides these observations into three periods2 the first1 beginning with the rude drawing of ,fontana1 in #afcf1 followed by ,huyghens1 in #afei1 ,cassini1 in #afff1 and many others up to ,harding1 in #ahbd4 ,in this period the drawings were rude1 though a number of the more conspicuous features were established1 and above all1 the existence of what was interpreted as snow in the white polar caps4 ,astronomically many points were determined1 such as an approximation of the period of revolution1 the distance of ,mars from the ,sun1 the diameter of the planet1 its mass1 the inclination of its axis1 the eccentricity of its orbit1 its period of rotation1 etc4 ,the second period begins with the remarkable work of ,beer and ,medler1 in #ahcj and subsequent years4 ,to them belongs the honor of being the first astronomers to make a chart of the planet4 ,an advance standard was set for future studies1 and the work which followed revealed details in the surface markings never before suspected4 ,the second period1 from #ahcj to #ahgg1 includes the observations and drawings of ,beer and ,medler1 #ahcj2 ,sir ,john ,herschel1 #ahcj2 ,galle1 #ahcg2 ,warren de la ,rue1 #ahef2 ,webb1 #ahef2 ,secchi1 #aheh2 ,liais1 #ahfj2 ,schmidt1 #ahfb2 ,lockyer1 #ahfb2 ,phillips1 #ahfb2 ,lassell1 #ahfb2 ,knott1 #ahfb2 ,kaiser1 #ahfb2 ,dawes1 #ahfd2 ,franzenne1 #ahfd2 ,williams1 #ahfg2 ,proctor1 #ahfg2 ,lahardeley1 #ahga2 ,burton1 #ahga2 ,wilson1 #ahga2 ,gledhill1 #ahga2 ,flammarion1 #ahgc2 ,terby1 #ahgc2 ,green1 #ahgc2 ,trouvelot1 #ahgc2 ,lohse1 #ahgc2 ,holden1 #ahge4 ,the third period extends from #ahgg to #ahib1 when ,flammarion published his book4 ,the following drawings are given3 ,flammarion1 #ahgg-hh2 ,paul and ,prosper ,henry1 #ahgg2 ,neisten1 #ahgg-gi-ha-hh2 ,terby1 #ahgg-gi-hh2 ,van ,ertborn1 #ahgg2 ,cruls1 #ahgg2 ,dreyer1 #ahgg-gi2 ,lohse1 #ahgg-gi-hc-hd2 ,green1 #ahgg2 ,schiaparelli1 #ahgg-gi2 ,maunder1 #ahgi2 ,konkoly1 #ahgi2 ,boeddicker1 #ahha-hd2 ,burton1 #ahhb2 ,trouvelot1 #ahhd2 ,knoble1 #ahhd2 ,denning1 #ahhf2 ,perrotin and ,thollon1 #ahhf2 ,proctor1 #ahhh2 ,perrotin1 #ahhh2 ,holden and ,keeler1 #ahhh2 ,wislicenus1 #ahhh-ij2 ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 #ahij2 ,williams1 #ahij2 ,giovannozzi1 #ahij2 ,guillaume1 #ahij4 ,it is impossible to follow these various drawings of ,mars from the earliest ones of the first period1 many of little value1 to the slow yet certain advance as seen in the more detailed drawings of the second period1 without realizing the gradual improvement of the telescope1 coupled with a greater number of observers endowed with better eyesight and impelled by deeper interest in the work4 ,in the third period1 culminating with the great work of ,schiaparelli1 and confirmed by the remarkable observations of ,perrotin and ,thollon1 we see the results of still more arduous devotion to the work2 a great advance in telescopes1 with better definition1 and1 in the case of the observations at ,nice and ,milan1 a steadier atmosphere through which to observe4 ,flammarion brought his work up to #ahib4 ,lowell's work on ,mars1 though of a kind with ,schiaparelli1 is1 in every circumstance accompanying it1 so remarkable that we may well consider the standard now set by him as the beginning of another period2 and this period will fix a standard which will consist in securing observers who1 in the language of ,sir ,david ,gill1 have a special faculty1 an inborn capacity1 a delight in the exercise of exceptional acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity1 coupled with the gift of imagination as to the true meaning of what they observe4 ,with this standard established1 there must also go a perfect telescope for definition1 mounted on an elevation a mile and a half or more above the level of the sea1 in a region of the clearest and steadiest atmosphere in the world4 ,one cannot help reflecting on these various drawings presented in ,flammarion's work1 and wondering what the results would have been if all these astronomers could have had telescopes as incomparable as that at ,flagstaff1 perched on some high mountain peak with a clear and steady atmosphere continuous for weeks1 and1 superadded to all these advantages1 independent fortunes to enable them to transport their telescopes thousands of miles south when a favorable opposition of ,mars occurred at a low altitude4 ,the astronomers who have advanced certain theories to explain the markings may be counted as admitting their existence1 whatever they may be4 ,among the other astronomers to be referred to are1 first1 those who admit the markings1 and have in all likelihood seen them2 second1 those who have observed and made drawings of the markings2 and1 third1 those who have drawn them and admit1 or at least do not deny1 their artificiality4 ,miss ,agnes ,m4 ,clerke1 an astronomical writer of great merit1 who has written a most lucid and comprehensive ,history of ,astronomy in the ,nineteenth ,century1 says3 ,the canals of ,mars are an existent and permanent phenomenon4 ,mr4 ,thomas ,lindsay1 of ,toronto1 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 focusing4 ,it had been stated by several ,english observers that1 by racking the eyepiece within or without the focus1 all the phenomena might be produced4 ,in the case of ,mars1 however1 he asks3 ,how is it possible that all the observers had their telescopes unadjusted1 and1 if any one had1 would he not be immediately aware of it8 ,mr4 ,lindsay thought that the theory was too obviously opposed to the simplest kind of common sense to merit a moment's consideration4 ,mr4 ,john ,a4 ,patterson1 in his ,presidential address before the ,astronomical ,society of ,toronto1 in speaking of ,mars1 said the discoveries rest on the bed rock of scientific evidence2 and1 after speaking of the supposed spectroscopic evidence that there was no atmosphere in ,mars1 refers to the polar snow caps1 their melting1 and the lines of vegetation that are supposed to mark the margin of the canals1 and he asks3 ,is it possible that all these may be consistent with no vapor floating above the surface8 ,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 world8 ,dame ,nature does not turn out all her products in one pattern4 ,mr4 ,denning1 in the ,astronomische ,nachrichten1 ,no4 #cibf1 gives the result of his observations on ,mars in #aijc4 ,he says the canals1 without doubt1 are objective features2 changes in the appearance of these markings he attributes to vaporous condensations4 ,one rotation period of the planet satisfies the observation of all the markings1 thus proving them to be definite features of the planet's surface rather than drifting vapors such as are seen when observing ,jupiter and ,saturn4 ,in spite of these admissions ,mr4 ,denning1 in #aije1 while repeating his convictions as to the objectivity of the canals1 denied their sharp outline4 ,of the ten canals he drew1 eight were discovered by ,schiaparelli1 and two were discovered by ,lowell4 ,denning observed these lines with a ten inch reflector4 ,schiaparelli compared them in sharpness to lines of a steel engraving4 ,it rests with the reader to judge who is most likely to be correct in his description of the character of the lines--,mr4 ,denning with a ten inch reflector1 in a poor atmosphere1 or ,schiaparelli and ,lowell1 with a twenty-six and a twenty-four inch refractor1 respectively1 in a far superior atmosphere4 ,among the many who have seen and drawn the canals comes first1 of course1 ,professor ,schiaparelli1 the discoverer of them4 ,it is only necessary to state here that he first detected these enigmatical markings1 which he named canali1 in #ahgg4 ,in the opposition of #ahgi1 he not only confirmed the discoveries of #ahgg1 but added new canali1 and for the first time saw the curious process of doubling1 or gemination4 ,astronomers in various parts of the world searched in vain for these markings1 and despite the exalted character and remarkable work of the distinguished ,italian in other lines of astronomic research1 it was feared that1 in this instance1 ,schiaparelli had been the victim of an hallucination4 ,it is true that from the time of ,huyghens1 in #afei1 a few astronomers1 such as ,secchi1 ,schroeter1 ,kaiser1 and ,dawes1 have detected and drawn a few faint lines which seemed to be identical with the canali of ,schiaparelli4 ,it was not until #ahhf1 however1 that ,perrotin and ,thollon with a twenty-nine inch refractor of the ,nice ,observatory1 first began to confirm the discoveries of ,schiaparelli1 and since that time observers in various parts of the world have detected and drawn these remarkable lines4 ,the cumulative testimony of these men as to the veritable existence of these markings cannot be set aside4 ,it seems strange that nine years should elapse before an astronomer with an interest in the subject1 coupled with an acute vision and the patience to observe assiduously1 should arise to confirm the existence of these markings1 but in another chapter ,i have called attention to the little interest astronomers have manifested in planetary markings of any kind4 ,it has been shown elsewhere that acute vision1 with a clear and1 above all1 a steady atmosphere1 are the chief essentials in making out the markings4 ,it is curious to note the attitude of some astronomers1 who1 having seen the canals and even drawn them1 denied their veritability4 ,their explanations cover illusions due to the property of light itself1 the inability of the eye to maintain its mechanism of accommodation1 the behavior of air waves1 temporary alteration of the focus of the eye1 undetected astigmatism1 etc41 etc4 ,but1 to return to the astronomers who have drawn them4 ,on the unfavorable opposition of #ahhh1 ,schiaparelli declares that the canali had all the distinctness of an engraving on steel1 with the magical beauty of a colored engraving4 ,he furthermore says3 ,as far as we have been able to observe them hitherto1 they are certainly fixed configurations upon the planet1 the ,nilosyrtis has been seen in that place for nearly one hundred years and some of the others for at least thirty years4 ,in this connection it is interesting to quote from ,schiaparelli who1 until many years after he discovered the canals of ,mars1 had no doubt of their natural origin4 ,as late as #ahic1 he still considered them natural4 ,in speaking of the canals1 he says3 ,it is not necessary to suppose here the work of intelligent beings2 and in spite of the almost geometric appearance of their whole system1 for the present we incline to believe that they are product of the evolution of a planet1 much as on the ,earth is the ,english ,channel1 or the ,channel of ,mozambique4 ,this extract may be found in a memoir in ,natura ed ,arte1 #ahic1 page #bb4 ,on page #bd of the same memoir ,schiaparelli illustrates the elasticity of his mind and a thoroughly unprejudiced attitude by saying3 ,their singular aspect1 and the fact that they are drawn with absolute geometric precision1 as if they were the product of rule and compass1 have induced some people to see in them the work of intelligent beings1 inhabitants of the planet4 ,i should be very careful not to combat this supposition1 which involves no impossibility4 7,the italics are ours47 ,his comparison of the ,martian lines with the ,english ,channel and the ,channel of ,mozambique1 if he means any resemblance in form and not in the manner of formation1 is most unfortunate1 for on the whole face of the ,earth he could not have mentioned surface features more totally unlike any feature of the ,martian surface1 as drawn by him1 than these two channels3 the ,english ,channel1 #ajj miles wide at its mouth and #bjj miles long1 tapering to the ,straits of ,dover2 the ,mozambique ,channel1 hour-glass shaped1 #a1ajj miles long1 and1 at its narrowest part1 #bfj miles wide1 and at either end nearly #gjj miles wide4 ,had he suggested the ,red ,sea1 #a1bjj miles long1 or the ,straits of ,malacca1 #cej miles long1 a nearer resemblance to the canals of ,mars might have been seen1 though even here it would be impossible to find their counterparts in ,mars4 ,these channels are merging with the ocean1 are nearly half the width of their length1 and enlarge at both ends1 while the canali of ,mars run for hundreds of miles as straight as ruled lines4 ,how slight the resemblance is may be appreciated by comparing the following figure of the ,earth 7,fig4 #a71 upon which the ,red ,sea1 the ,english and the ,mozambique ,channels and the ,straits of ,malacca are indicated4 ,illustration3 ,,fig4 #a4 ,in #ahig ,schiaparelli becomes still more convinced of their artificiality4 ,in his ,memoir ,,xxv1 in the ,reale ,academia del ,lincei1 in speaking of the canals1 he says3 ,this whole arrangement presents an indescribable simplicity and symmetry which cannot possibly be the work of chance4 ,in a letter to ,mr4 ,lowell1 dated ,december #d1 #aijd1 he writes3 ,your theory of vegetation becomes more and more probable4 ,mr4 ,a4 ,stanley ,williams1 in the ,observatory for ,june1 #ahii1 in a paper entitled ,notes on ,mars1 described the appearance of certain canals1 regions1 etc41 in great detail4 ,he notices that at the crossing of the canals a little dark spot occurs1 a feature1 he says1 which was first elucidated by ,professor ,lowell in #ahid4 ,mr4 ,williams also noticed the black streak bordering the northern snow cap1 which ,mr4 ,lowell in his book on ,mars has interpreted as a body of water resulting from the melting snow4 ,in the ,quarterly ,journal of the ,astronomical ,society of ,wales1 the ,rev4 ,theo4 ,e4 ,r4 ,phillips publishes an excellent drawing of ,mars in color4 ,in this drawing he shows a large number of regions1 a number of canals1 and other features which1 he says1 came out with the clearness and sharpness of an engraving1 and bore no resemblance to the 'diffused streaks' or amorphous smudges one sees for the canals in imperfect seeing4 ,in this drawing the polar snow caps show with remarkable vividness4 ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 in a continuous record of observations on ,mars1 published in the ,annals of the ,lowell ,observatory1 records under ,august #bj3 ,the dark north canals are also noticeable1 and1 had they looked as they now do1 could not possibly have been missed on the #afth4 ,dr4 ,phil4 ,fauth has1 with a seven inch objective1 drawn and published sixty-three drawings of ,mars in which a great many canals are shown1 a list of which he presents in his memoir on the subject4 ,the lamented ,perrotin1 for some time ,director of the ,nice ,observatory1 in company with ,m4 ,janssen1 at ,meudon1 observed ,mars through the great equatorial 7#cb-b_/c inch71 and published the results in the ,comptes ,rendues 7,vol4 ,,cxxiv1 ,no4 #g74 ,he describes the several zones1 the northern equatorial zone being more particularly the zone of the extraordinary canals1 the discovery of which we owe to ,schiaparelli1 and to which we ourselves1 by our publication1 in #ahhf1 called the attention of the astronomical world4 ,the ,london ,nature1 ,march #ag1 #aijd1 in noting the death of ,m4 ,henry ,perrotin1 speaks of him as one of the ablest advocates of astronomical science4 ,he devoted much time to ,mars4 ,aware that he was working at the extreme limit of visibility1 and knowing the tendency for self-deception to creep in and impair the value of such delicate observations1 he sought opportunities of making similar measures and records with different instruments1 and under varied conditions1 in order to remove1 so far as possible1 the evils of bias and partiality from the results of his researches4 ,dr4 ,terby of ,louvain1 in a memoir entitled ,physical ,observations of ,mars1 a translation of which appeared in the ,astronomical and ,astrophysical ,journal1 ,no4 #ajf1 identifies many of ,schiaparelli's canali and other details depicted in ,schiaparelli's map of ,mars4 ,in conclusion ,dr4 ,terby says3 ,after what we have seen we dare affirm that henceforth the progress of areography will be in the hands of those alone who1 freeing themselves from the shackles of doubt1 will resolutely engage in the way traced by the celebrated astronomer of ,milan4 ,a new era has begun in the study of ,mars by the discovery of canals and their doubling1 and by the micrometric determination of one hundred and fourteen fundamental points on the map1 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 ,medler4 ,dr4 ,terby further says3 ,but these results have an incontestable value in the presence of the incredulity with which certain astronomers still consider the beautiful discoveries of ,milan4 ,who would believe it8 ,in spite of the beautiful drawings of ,m4 ,perrotin one reads still that the discoveries of ,m4 ,schiaparelli have not been confirmed by the largest instruments4 ,in ,astronomy and ,astrophysics1 ,no4 #ajh1 is published a series of contributions on ,mars by ,professors ,edward ,c4 ,holden1 ,william ,h4 ,pickering1 ,c4 ,a4 ,young1 ,lewis ,swift1 ,george ,c4 ,comstock1 ,e4 ,e4 ,barnard1 and ,h4 ,c4 ,wilson4 ,all of these men are astronomers and all are connected as directors or observers with various observatories in the ,united ,states4 ,many sent sketches1 most of them saw the canals1 all saw the polar snow caps and darker regions4 ,to say that these astronomers were sketching details which existed only in their imagination is simply preposterous4 ,professor ,herbert ,a4 ,howe1 ,director of the ,chamberlin ,observatory1 at ,denver1 in his ,elements of ,descriptive ,astronomy says3 ,if we have simply to answer the question1 ',would a man1 as constituted at present1 if transported to ,mars find it possible to exist there8' ,the most probable answer is1 ',no4' ,while one must not be dogmatic1 it may be said1 with some assurance1 that the man would gasp a few times and die4 ,however1 it is conceivable that manlike beings might find a home there4 ,mr4 ,howe could have said without being dogmatic that a man thus transported would die of what is known as ,caisson disease4 ,among those who assert that the canals are artificial we have ,professor ,percival ,lowell as pre-eminent4 ,he has erected an observatory in the region of one of the clearest atmospheres in the world1 has furnished it with the finest telescope that ,clark ever made1 and for the chief purpose of studying the surface features of ,mars4 ,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 work1 in an ,english astronomical journal1 is led to write3 ,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 be4 ,the reviewer ends by saying3 ,indeed1 there is a subtle deftness in the way ,mr4 ,lowell deals with his observations which gives the impression that he has been there and seen it all1 and it is really hard to say why we cannot accept his conclusions4 ,it is probable1 because we are shy to receive new facts at a first statement4 ,in time1 no doubt1 we shall be willing to accept his deductions 7or facts7 as to the markings4 ,we were about to advance objections1 but they seem poor1 and really it is a case where each person must read and form his own ideas--but by all means read4 ,we have already presented a summary of his observations4 ,we may add here1 however1 an extract from his book on the solar system4 ,in this ,mr4 ,lowell says of ,mars3 ,what we see hints of the existence of beings who are in advance of1 not behind us in the journey of life1 and again3 ,life on ,mars must take on a very different guise from what it wears on the ,earth4 ,it is certain there can be no man there--that is as certain as anything can be4 ,but this does not preclude a local intelligence equal to1 and perhaps easily superior to1 our own4 ,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 ,earth4 ,george ,w4 ,morehouse1 in his ,wilderness of ,worlds1 says3 ,taken all together we must regard ,mars as probably an inhabited world and very similar to the ,earth4 ,mr4 ,hector ,macpherson1 ,jr41 member of the ,astronomical ,society of ,france1 in his interesting book ,astronomers of ,to-day1 says1 in regard to ,mr4 ,lowell's book on ,mars3 ,he does not ask us to believe anything fantastical or extravagant4 ,his hypothesis has been framed to account for all the various ,martian features4 ,at present we can only say that it is the most comprehensive and probable theory yet advanced to explain the phenomena of the red planet4 ,professor ,todd1 ,director of the ,astronomical ,observatory at ,amherst ,college1 in his book on ,stars and ,telescopes1 in referring to drawings of a region in the southern portion of ,mars1 known as the ,solis ,lacus1 and a complicated drawing of another region1 says3 ,whether one views this marvellous and intricate system as a whole1 or in some portion of high detail1 it is difficult to escape the conviction that the canali have1 at least in part1 been designed and executed with a definite end in view4 ,there are many who do not deny the existence of some forms of life on the planet1 but are not prepared to admit the existence of intelligent creatures4 ,sir ,robert ,ball expresses himself as follows3 ,that there may be types of life of some kind on ,mars is1 ,i should think1 quite likely4 ,the number of astronomers above quoted1 who have seen and drawn the canals1 might be augmented1 but a sufficient number have been cited to show that the evidence of the presence of these markings does not rest with a few1 furthermore1 some of these observers can only interpret the markings as the result of intelligent action4 ,it may be urged that among those quoted are some whose opinion may not have great weight since they are not professional astronomers4 ,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 astronomers1 but that any broad-minded man1 with an acute eye and familiar with the sciences connected with the surface features of the ,earth1 is quite competent to make observations of his own and to judge of the merits of the question4 ,,vi ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,planetary ,,markings ,their singular aspect1 and the fact that they are drawn with absolute geometric precision as if they were the product of rule and compass1 have induced some people to see in them the work of intelligent beings1 inhabitants of the planet4 ,i should be careful not to combat this supposition which involves no impossibility4 ,,schiaparelli4 ,it is a question whether1 after all1 the study of planetary markings comes within the province of astronomers4 ,not more1 perhaps1 than the study of physical geography and subjects connected with the surface features of the ,earth1 comes under the cognizance of those whose profession it is to determine the oscillation of the pole1 the ,earth's movements due to the ,moon1 etc4 ,indeed1 these lines of research are strictly astronomical4 ,with the study of the surface markings of the ,moon1 or ,mars1 features of an entirely different kind are to be interpreted1 and quite a different equipment is necessary4 ,it is no wonder1 then1 that astronomers1 the most conservative of all classes of investigators1 should view with suspicion the results of the work of ,schiaparelli1 ,lowell and others4 ,immersed in mathematics1 trusting in nothing that cannot be measured and reckoned1 as a class holding their imagination in abeyance1 is it any surprise that they should present an attitude of indifference and even hostility to the work of those who1 differently equipped mentally1 have attempted a definition and solution of the riddle of the ,martian markings8 ,to appreciate how foreign to the studies of an astronomer is the interpretation of the canals of ,mars1 one has simply to scan the index of any astronomical publication1 or the titles of papers in the transactions of astronomical societies4 ,for example1 take volumes ,,xx and ,,xxi of the ,astronomical ,journal and tabulate the papers1 memoirs1 etc41 therein published1 numbering two hundred and thirty-eight1 and we find of these1 seventy-four on the stars2 sixty-two on the comets2 nineteen on planets and satellites1 mostly mathematical2 eighteen on the ,sun2 eighteen on the asteroids2 fifteen on ,eros2 ten on polar motion and latitude2 four on ,nova ,persei2 and seventeen miscellaneous1 consisting of logarithms1 instruments1 ,gegenschein1 etc42 and only one on ,mars1 and this on the polar snow caps6 ,as to the question whether it is more important to add another to the thousands of variable stars and binaries1 and hundreds of asteroids1 already determined1 or to consider whether we are alone in the universe and1 if so1 the significance of it1 ,i think with the intelligent public there can be no doubt4 ,a fair sample of the subjects which occupy the astronomers' mind1 and which are so remote from the study of planetary markings1 and have so little interest for the public1 may be gathered from the following list selected at random from an astronomical publication4 ,notes on variable stars2 ,maxima and minima of long period variables2 ,micrometrical measurements of the companion of ,procyon2 ,the problem of three bodies2 ,ephemeris of ,comet a1 #aija2 ,on the eruptive energy of the stars2 ,eclipse cycles2 ,determinations of the aberration-constant from right ascension2 ,theory of a resisting medium upon bodies moving in parabolic orbits2 ,weights and systematic corrections of meridian observation in right ascension and declination2 and other titles equally profound4 ,many of these memoirs consist of hundreds of pages of figures1 and1 as a friend of mine observed1 not a column footed up6 ,take for example a title like the following3 ,method of developing the perturbative functions1 also precepts for executing their development4 ,this memoir is accompanied by pages of algebraic formul which the layman turns over in despair1 the only illumination consisting of a few words in ,english which render the gloom still more apparent1--such words as hence1 or1 we therefore have1 if we put4 ,of what we have1 and why we put1 we are left in profound ignorance4 ,now ,i venture to believe that the great world of humanity takes but little interest in such pages1 or in the kinds of titles above given1 though fully realizing that they mean something and represent important steps in astronomic research4 ,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 papers1 but it is the rarest event that these collectors of data ever make any generalizations1 or form any deductions4 ,my faith in the appalling character of algebraic formul#e received a rude shock when ,i learned of an experience of ,louise ,michel1 the anarchist1 who was transported for life to ,new ,caledonia 7afterwards pardoned74 ,on arriving at the savage island1 true to her humanitarian instincts1 she immediately established a school for native children1 who by a curious freak of their minds1 she noted with rejoicing1 took naturally to algebra before they learned arithmetic6 ,hovenden quotes ,huxley as saying that mathematics is that study that knows nothing of observation1 nothing of induction1 nothing of experiment1 nothing of causation4 ,he also quotes the words of ,clerk ,maxwell1 who said1 in regard to mathematicians1 that it was doubtful whether the ideas as expressed in symbols had ever quite found their way out of the equations into their minds4 ,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 thought4 ,least of all would a layman ridicule or question the painstaking labor involved in astronomic work1 though he cannot see a glimmer of light or intelligence in the enigmatical pages4 ,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 markings4 ,the chief work of these men indicates the cold precise measuring of points of light in the heavens1 the determination of orbits1 elements and ephemeris of heavenly bodies1 the determination of solar parallax1 etc41 most of the subjects strictly mathematical1 a question of careful measurements for which the necessary instruments are at hand1 or simply sweeping the heavens for a new variable1 binary or asteroid4 ,parallaxes and orbits are matters of measurement to be reckoned by the figures of anybody else4 ,it is obvious from all this that little or no interest is manifested by astronomers in planetary markings1 least of all in those of ,mars4 ,the exasperating feature of the matter is that they persistently repudiate the observation of others equally well equipped1 and endowed with the same enthusiasm and devotion to their work4 ,the way in which the gatherers of the raw material arrogate to themselves the science of astronomy1 relegating the thinkers and generalizers to the limbo of speculation1 is as if the book-keepers of a corporation should assume themselves to be the master-minds of the concern and the banker1 or financier1 at the head of it1 a dreamer not worth regarding4 ,an illustration of the conservativeness of astronomers in regard to planetary markings is shown in their cautious attitude concerning the polar snow caps of ,mars4 ,here are white polar caps on ,mars1 precisely where they ought to be if they are snow1 they wax and wane at the time they should and at no other time1 a dark band appears at their borders as the caps in turn diminish in size1 which has been interpreted as water due to the melting snow1 and no other substance known could possibly reproduce these varying conditions4 ,professor ,c4 ,a4 ,young1 in describing these white areas1 says3 ,the one which happens to be turned toward the ,sun continually diminishes in size1 while the other increases1 the process being reversed with the seasons of the planet4 ,after these admissions ,professor ,young cautiously says3 ,these are believed to be ice caps4 ,sir ,john ,herschel says3 ,the variety in the spots may arise from the planet not being destitute of atmosphere and clouds1 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 snow1 as they disappear when they have been long exposed to the ,sun1 and are greatest when just emerging from the long night of the polar winter4 ,had ,michael ,faraday been an astronomer1 how long would it have taken him to pronounce these white polar caps snow and ice8 ,de la ,rive1 in his memoir of ,faraday1 in speaking of his marvellous accomplishments1 says3 ,one may easily understand what must be produced under such circumstances by a life thus wholly consecrated to science1 when to a strong and vigorous intellect is joined a most brilliant imagination4 ,tyndall1 in his discourse ,on the ,scientific use of the ,imagination1 says3 ,bounded and conditioned by co-operant reason1 imagination becomes the mightiest instrument of the physical discoverer4 ,newton's passage from a falling apple to a falling ,moon was a leap of the imagination4 ,that ,herbert ,hall ,turner1 ,professor of ,astronomy in the ,university of ,oxford1 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 published1 entitled ,astronomical ,discovery4 ,this book presents to us the history of the discovery of ,uranus and ,eros1 of ,neptune1 ,bradley's aberration of light1 ,schwabe and sun-spot period1 the variation of latitude1 etc41 but not a word about the marvellous discoveries of the canali of ,mars by ,schiaparelli1 so fully confirmed by the observation and drawings of many others1 and the great advances made by ,lowell in the discovery of new features with his lucid and rational interpretation of the seeming enigmas4 ,astronomy1 the oldest and most conservative of all the sciences1 has been the last to subdivide4 ,already one group of men has justified by its work a division of the science known as astrophysics4 ,the lamented ,keeler1 in explaining the difference between astronomy and astrophysics1 said3 ,astrophysics seeks to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies1 rather than their positions and motions in space1 what they are1 rather than where they are4 ,this natural division suggests the propriety of making another division equally distinct1 which should comprise the study and interpretation of the surface markings of the planets and satellites1 under the name of planetology4 ,the study would be the application to these bodies of the science of geology1 in its broadest sense1 meteorology1 physical geography1 geodesy1 and related sciences4 ,with the science of planetology established1 the student of this science will no longer call to his aid the astronomer1 and1 least of all1 the astrophysicist1 nor will he be mindful of their criticism or neglect4 ,he will appeal to the sciences which are involved in the study of the surface features of his own globe1 in the interpretation of planetary detail4 ,,vii ,,difficulties ,,of ,,seeing ,it is contrary to all the analogies of nature to suppose that life began only on a single world4 ,,simon ,,newcomb4 ,for years ,i had been familiar with different representations of ,mars in which the surface features had been strongly depicted in black and white2 in other words1 photo-reliefs1 or engravings incorporated with the printed page4 ,i had unwittingly come to believe that these features were equally distinct when one observed ,mars through the telescope4 ,i had not then seen ,schiaparelli's original memoir in which his wonderful map presents the canals in light and tenuous lines1 which are1 however1 as clear cut as the lines of a steel engraving1 to use his words4 ,for a long time ,i had hoped for a chance to observe ,mars through a large telescope in a clear and steady atmosphere4 ,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 membranes1 who had1 in fact1 used a microscope with high powers for forty years1 would find it child's play to make out the canals1 oases1 regions1 etc41 of ,mars1 as represented in the various publications on the subject4 ,professor ,percival ,lowell1 of ,flagstaff1 ,arizona1 finally gave me the opportunity ,i so much desired1 and1 through his courtesy and kindness1 ,i was enabled to observe ,mars every night for nearly six weeks through his twenty-four inch refractor1 the last and probably the best telescope ever made by ,clark1 mounted in one of the steadiest atmospheres in the world and at an altitude above sea-level of over #g1jjj feet4 ,imagine my surprise and chagrin when ,i first saw the beautiful disk of ,mars through this superb telescope4 ,not a line6 not a marking6 ,the object ,i saw could only be compared in appearance to the open mouth of a crucible filled with molten gold4 ,slight discolorations here and there and evanescent areas outlined for the tenth of a second1 but not a determinate line or spot to be seen4 ,had ,i stopped that night1 or even a week later1 ,i might have joined the ranks of certain observers and said illusion or something worse4 ,and right here it was that my experience in microscopic work helped me1 for1 remembering the hours--nay1 days--,i had worked1 in making out structural features in delicate organisms which my unprofessional friends could not see at all1 ,i realized that patient observation would be required if ,i was to be successful in my efforts4 ,my despair1 however1 was overwhelming when ,professor ,lowell and his assistants1 looking for a few moments at the same object1 would draw on paper the features which had been plainly revealed to them1 consisting of definite shaded regions1 a number of canals and other markings1 of which1 with the utmost scrutiny1 ,i could hardly detect a trace4 ,for the first time ,i realized that observing fixed diaphanous membranes under a microscope with rigid stand1 and within four inches of one's nose1 was quite a different matter from observing a brilliant disk #d1bjj miles in diameter1 #eb1jjj1jjj miles away1 with an oscillating atmosphere of unknown depth between4 ,night after night ,i examined this golden1 opalescent disk1 drawing each time such features as ,i could convey by memory from the ocular to the drawing table1 and1 little by little1 new features were detected1 and to my delight the drawings agreed with those made by the others4 ,since the drawings made by the four observers coincided1 it was evident that we had not been victims of subjective phenomena4 ,furthermore1 as ,i discovered afterwards1 by comparison1 the drawings ,i made not only agreed with theirs but with those made by other observers1 at different times1 in other parts of the world4 ,so slow were my acquisitions1 however1 that it soon became evident that at least months of continuous observation would be necessary before the more delicate markings would be revealed to me4 ,it is interesting to learn that others have had a similar experience4 ,mr4 ,a4 ,stanley ,williams1 of ,england1 in an article entitled ,notes on ,mars 7,observatory1 ,june1 #ahii71 in stating the difficulties of observation1 says3 ,my eye invariably requires at least two months of continuous observation of a planet before it acquires its full sensitiveness to the most minute details4 ,in this connection it is well to state that ,mr4 ,lowell began the observation of ,mars when he was a mere boy4 ,his first telescope1 which he still has1 was a two and a quarter inch refractor4 ,his observations were made from the roof of his house in ,boston1 and with this small glass he defined the general shaded regions that ,huyghens had detected and drawn in #afei4 ,since then ,mr4 ,lowell has observed in turn through a six inch1 an eighteen inch of ,brashear1 and1 for the last few years1 through a twenty-four inch refractor made by ,clark especially for this work4 ,to refute the accumulated observations of ,mr4 ,lowell one must have the same acute eye1 and a record of the same continuous and devoted study4 ,nothing short of that experience will avail4 ,the jealous derision that has gone up from some observers endowed with less acuteness of vision is neither dignified nor just4 ,were these ,martian details based upon the observations of ,lowell alone1 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 ,schiaparelli4 ,up to the present time--to mention only a few--observations and drawings have been made by ,perrotin1 ,thollon1 and ,flammarion1 of ,france2 ,dr4 ,phil4 ,fauth1 of ,germany2 ,williams1 of ,england2 ,lowell1 ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 ,douglass1 ,lampland1 and ,schaeberle1 of ,america1 while many others have made drawings of the more conspicuous details4 ,with this record it is impossible to deny the existence of these markings essentially as they are drawn4 ,the difficulty of seeing the more delicate markings of the planet is unquestionable1 and an examination of astronomical literature1 from which we shall make numerous quotations1 indicates only too plainly the acuteness of vision1 and the time and care necessary to make competent observations4 ,sir ,robert ,ball says1 in one of his recent works3 ,the detection of the ,martian features indicates one of the utmost refinements of astronomical observations4 ,macpherson1 in his ,astronomers of ,to-day1 thus writes of ,schiaparelli1 ,professor ,schiaparelli's observations have been distinguished by his keen-sightedness and care4 ,he has taken every precaution to avoid all disturbances resulting from personal equation1 and has found it well to adopt the rule 7which he here quotes7 'to abstain from everything which could affect the nervous system1 from narcotics and alcohol1 and especially from the abuse of coffee1 which ,i found to be exceedingly prejudicial to the accuracy of observation4' ,what ,i might have accomplished in the way of seeing had ,i followed the wise example of ,schiaparelli ,i do not know4 ,a not too strict abstemiousness in any of these matters1 coupled with long daily walks on the ,mesa1 with its fascinating flora and fauna1 found me in the observer's chair every night1 somewhat fatigued mentally and physically4 ,sir ,robert ,ball1 in his ,popular ,guide to the ,heavens1 in describing the difficulty in making out the more delicate markings of ,mars1 says3 ,it should be understood that in the unsteady air of ,england it is almost hopeless to expect many of the finer details2 not even in the most favorable climates are they to be seen always1 or all at once1 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 invisibility4 ,as another illustration1 perhaps1 of the difficulties of seeing1 ,sir ,robert1 in the same book1 says3 ,observers of ,mars are divided into two camps1 those who see the canals1 and those who do not4 ,the former are in the strong position that they are perfectly sure that they see what they represent in their drawings4 ,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 vision1 which few possess1 united with long practice1 is necessary to make out the tenuous lines which enclose the field of ,mars like a net4 ,that ,mr4 ,lowell has had a long and continuous practice1 covering years1 in observing ,mars through the steadiest of atmospheres and with a superb glass1 is simply a statement of fact4 ,it may be said without fear of contradiction that he has devoted more time to the observation of ,mars than all the other observers combined4 ,has he then an exceptional acuteness of sight1 coupled with indefatigable industry1 in the pursuit of this quest to which he is devoting his life and fortune8 ,the following instance will illustrate his marvellous eyesight4 ,we were walking along the shores of a lake some miles from ,flagstaff1 the expanse of shore left by the rapidly evaporating waters abounding with thousands of very small black spiders running hither and thither at our approach4 ,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 species4 ,this curious fact ,i had detected only while stooping close to the ground in search of minute shells4 ,mr4 ,lowell1 while walking along1 immediately began scanning the ground for the trace of a spider with minutely granulated abdomen1 and finally exclaimed3 ,there is one of them6 ,on stooping down to examine the object it proved to my astonishment to be a female carrying its young in the way already described4 ,this incident revealed a remarkable acuteness of vision to detect1 while standing erect and walking1 this tiny spider among hundreds of others of its species that were scampering away at our approach4 ,not only is acuteness of vision necessary to one who is to study planetary markings1 but of importance also is a clear1 and above all a steady atmosphere2 and1 strange as it may appear1 telescopes of moderate size seem to be the instruments with which the best work has been done4 ,it is also true in astronomy1 as in warfare1 that it is not the biggest gun but the man behind the gun that does the most efficient work4 ,as an evidence of the importance of steady atmosphere ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 in his observations on the satellites of ,jupiter1 says his work had two important bearings3 ,first1 as showing the relative importance of atmosphere versus aperture for delicate visual observations of this sort4 ,in the same category would be included studies of planetary detail as distinguished from the examination of very faint objects4 ,in other words1 if an observer wishes to study very faint stars he must have a large telescope4 ,if he wishes to study the neighboring planets and brighter satellites he may use a small telescope1 but he must have a very good atmosphere4 ,the importance of a clear and steady atmosphere1 for delicate observation1 is known to all astronomers4 ,the rarity of such days1 even in our clear atmosphere so superior to that of ,england1 is not generally known4 ,forty years ago ,dr4 ,henry ,draper1 in an address entitled ,are ,other ,worlds ,inhabited8 in speaking of ,mars and the difficulties of seeing1 said3 ,one of the greatest obstacles to distinct vision is our own atmosphere4 ,its currents and motions tend to confuse the outlines of objects1 and1 according to my experience1 a whole year may pass without the occurrence of more than one good night4 ,the only remedy is to carry the telescope as high up on a mountain as possible1 so as to leave below the more injurious portions of the atmosphere4 ,it might be possible to work #ae1jjj feet above the sea in the neighborhood of the ,equator4 ,i quote these words that the general reader may appreciate the advantages ,lowell has with his fine telescope south of all ,european observatories1 in the latitude1 say of ,algiers1 at a high altitude1 and in the dry and steady atmosphere of ,arizona1 with uninterrupted seeing for weeks together1 and each night far superior to any night which ,greenwich could ever be blessed with4 ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering attests to the importance of a steady atmosphere in studying the ,moon from a station in ,jamaica1 when he says that1 with a five inch refractor1 he was able to detect minute details which were not revealed by the far larger telescopes at ,harvard ,university4 ,mr4 ,w4 ,d4 ,barbour1 ,president of the ,leeds ,astronomical ,society1 using his four inch achromatic1 says3 ,in one of those brief intervals of atmospheric steadiness ,i saw distinctly a number of well-known markings1 the names of which he gives4 ,dr4 ,phil4 ,fauth1 using a seven inch refractor1 made sixty-three drawings of ,mars1 showing in wonderful detail the canals1 oases1 etc4 ,mr4 ,w4 ,j4 ,lockyer1 in ,london ,nature1 testifies that a keen and patient observer1 sitting at the eyepiece of a comparatively small equatorially mounted telescope1 if he makes his observations carefully1 and with due regard to atmospheric conditions for good seeing1 can do more useful and valuable work than one who has a large aperture at his command and employs it indifferently4 ,mr4 ,e4 ,ledger1 in speaking of ,dawes1 who made a remarkable map of ,mars1 says he was justly famed for the remarkable distinctness of his vision2 he had detected and drawn a few lines which seemed to be identical to those of ,schiaparelli4 ,in the authorities above quoted we have endeavored to show that a steady atmosphere1 a persistent devotion to the work1 accompanied by acute vision1 and also a talent for observation1 are all the factors needed1 not only to confirm the remarkable discoveries of ,schiaparelli and ,lowell1 but possibly to detect1 at favorable moments1 new features which have escaped the eyes of these keen observers4 ,at this point we cannot resist giving the words of ,sir ,david ,gill1 ,director of the ,royal ,observatory at the ,cape of ,good ,hope4 ,professor ,s4 ,w4 ,burnham1 of the ,lick ,observatory1 in reviewing a memoir entitled ,double ,star ,observations at the ,cape of ,good ,hope1 quotes as follows from the preface3 ,sir ,david ,gill1 in speaking of the routine character of the work involved in the investigation1 says3 ',there is no instance1 as far as ,i know1 of a long and valuable series of double star discovery and observation made by a mere assistant acting under orders4 ,it is a special faculty1 an inborn capacity1 a delight in the exercise of exceptional acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity1 coupled with the gift of imagination as to the true meaning of what he observes1 that imparts to the observer the requisite enthusiasm for double star observing4 ,no amount of training or direction could have created the ,struves1 a ,dawes1 or a ,dembowski4 ,the great double star observer is born1 not made1 and ,i believe that no extensive series of double star measurement will ever emanate from a regular observatory1 through successive directorates1 unless men are specially selected who have previously distinguished themselves in that field of work1 and who were originally driven to it from sheer compulsion of inborn taste4' ,if the reader will substitute the words planetary markings for double star in the above quotation from ,sir ,david ,gill's report1 he will understand why we have ventured to italicise certain lines1 and will appreciate their significance4 ,in no stronger or truer words could one have emphasized the conditions involved in a critical study of the surface features of ,mars4 ,in the experience of an astronomer1 it is not an unusual occurrence that an object in the heavens1 fairly conspicuous1 remains unseen until by some lucky chance an observer sweeping the sky picks it up1 and1 having determined its position1 it is promptly found by others4 ,professor ,h4 ,h4 ,turner1 in his ,astronomical ,discovery of the ,nineteenth ,century1 says3 ,it is a common experience in astronomy that an observer may fail to notice in a general scrutiny1 some phenomenon which he can see perfectly well when his attention is called to it2 when a man has made a discovery1 and others are told what to look for1 they often see it so easily that they are filled with amazement and chagrin that they never saw it before4 ,in the ,rev4 ,t4 ,w4 ,webb's interesting book on ,celestial ,objects for ,common ,telescopes1 a reminiscence of the author is given by a friend in which the following is related as illustrating the varying ability of observers in seeing4 ,a curious instance of difference of vision was well illustrated one superb evening when ,mr4 ,webb and the writer were observing ,saturn with the nine and a half inch refractor at ,hardwick4 ,mr4 ,webb saw distinctly the division in the outer ring which the writer could not see a trace of1 while the writer picked up a faint point of light which afterwards turned out to be ,enceladus 7a satellite7 which ,mr4 ,webb could not see4 ,in my brief observation of ,mars ,i probably might have made out many more details if ,i had permitted ,mr4 ,lowell to tell me what to see1 and where to look for them on the disk4 ,this ,i would not allow him to do1 nor did ,i study any of the numerous drawings in his own work1 or the original memoirs of ,schiaparelli1 or other works containing drawings of ,mars in his library4 ,i would not learn the names of any of the regions1 or canals1 nor with a single exception do ,i know them now4 ,only when ,i had finished my last night's observations1 did ,mr4 ,lowell take my drawings and write out a list of the various canals1 oases1 etc41 which ,i had made out4 ,thus1 unaided1 ,i drew simply what was plainly evident1 though many other details flashed out for a second1 which were not recorded1 simply because ,i did not see them often enough to be sure of their precise position on the disk4 ,mr4 ,lowell points out one of the reasons why so many observers and astronomers have not seen the canals4 ,in the third volume of the ,annals of the ,lowell ,observatory he refers to a certain series of observations of ,mars1 made in #ahid1 and says3 ,not only was there no sign of a canal1 but even the main markings showed disheartingly indefinite4 ,this vacancy of expression was due to the ,martian date4 ,it was the very nick of time to see nothing1 for the part of the planet most presented to the ,earth was then at the height of the dead season1 and in this fact lies the key to much past undetection and present unbelief in the phenomenon of the canals4 ,,viii ,,variation ,,in ,,drawing ,let us not cheat ourselves with words4 ,conservatism sounds finely and covers any amount of ignorance and fear4 ,,percival ,,lowell4 ,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 observers4 ,while in the main a certain general resemblance is seen in the topographical character of the network of lines1 and a more close resemblance in the darker markings1 notably the ,syrtis ,major1 the disagreement in the minor details has led certain astronomers to deny their existence altogether1 or to insist that most of the markings were subjective1 or due to poor focusing1 or the result of aberration of the eye or lens4 ,professor ,simon ,newcomb1 in his ,new ,astronomy for ,everybody1 in speaking of the work of the observers at the ,lick ,observatory and the great telescope at their command coupled with favorable situation1 says3 ,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 ,lowell4 ,newcomb also reproduces in his book the drawings of a region in ,mars known as ,solis ,lacus1 made by ,campbell and ,hussey1 and finds they do not show an exact agreement between them4 ,now such objections might have some weight if drawings made by different observers of the ,solar ,corona1 for example1 or the ,nebula of ,orion1 or the ,milky ,way had any close resemblance4 ,as a matter of fact1 these various drawings depart far more widely from the originals1 as shown by photographic reproduction1 than do the various drawings of ,mars4 ,mr4 ,fison1 in his ,recent ,advances in ,astronomy1 in speaking of the divergence in the drawings made by different observers1 says3 ,in inspecting sketches of the delicate details of the ,corona of the ,sun made at the same place by different observers1 it is difficult to believe that the same object has been represented4 ,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 ,sun1 ,july #bi1 #ahgh4 ,illustration3 ,,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 observers1 many of whom are well-known astronomers1 ,i may say that the various plates resemble in turn the following objects3 a skate's egg-case2 a circular battery discharging fire from one side while the smoke drifts away in the opposite direction2 an ascidian1 known as ,molgula1 with an extra aperture1 however2 a snowshoe2 a radiolarian2 a fighting shield of an ,igorrote savage2 an egg of a hair worm2 a crushed spider1 and other equally dissimilar objects4 ,i have reproduced a few of these drawings 7,plate ,,ii71 that the reader may realize that my similes are not exaggerated4 ,the many drawings which have been made of the ,nebula of ,orion1 by astronomers of distinction1 depart quite as widely from each other as do those of the ,solar ,corona4 ,in ,volume ,,xxv of the ,naval ,observatory ,observations is published a monograph of the central parts of the ,nebula of ,orion1 by ,professor ,e4 ,s4 ,holden4 ,he starts with a drawing made by ,huyghens in #afei and ends with a drawing made by ,professor ,langley in #ahgi4 ,in a summary of the work the author says3 ,i am acquainted with but one drawing of the ,nebula which is entirely above criticism1 that of the late ,g4 ,p4 ,bond4 ,he was a skilled artist1 etc4 ,an examination of the drawings in this ,memoir are equally distracting4 ,in looking at them casually they suggest respectively a ,japanese stocking pattern2 an amoeba2 an embryo cuttlefish2 a plan of ,boston1 and other forms equally divergent4 ,mr4 ,fison1 in his book above quoted1 writes as follows of other astronomical subjects3 ,drawings of the ,milky ,way as seen by the naked eye have been recently executed by two independent observers1 ,mr4 ,boeddicker and ,mr4 ,eaton1 each drawing the result of long and arduous observation1 but in comparing them it is the exception rather than the rule to find any approximation in agreement in respect of the more delicate details4 ,the drawings of the surface features of ,mars by different observers do vary in respect of the more delicate details1 but in every case they represent a map of some kind and do not remind one of a wheelbarrow1 baptismal font1 or other incongruous objects4 ,these divergent drawings of the same object are not confined to celestial bodies4 ,one has only to examine works on ancient ,mexican and ,egyptian monuments1 or those of classical archology1 to see the astounding caricatures and perversions4 ,the various drawings of the famous ,dighton ,rock inscription1 covering a period of two hundred years1 are striking examples of the vagaries of an artist4 ,moreover1 the text accompanying the drawings often states that they were drawn with scrupulous care4 ,the hieroglyphics are pecked out on the face of a rock in rough lines1 half an inch wide and a third of an inch in depth4 ,these marks are in enduring rock2 it is the observer and his imperfect drawing which is at fault4 ,the ,nebula of ,orion1 the ,milky ,way1 and1 for the time being1 the ,solar ,corona are permanent objective realities and have all been photographed1 yet behold the drawings6 ,it is unnecessary to state that the ability to draw varies quite as much with man as the ability to sing4 ,a man may be an excellent observer and yet utterly unable to use a pencil1 and any attempt on the part of one to draw who has no ability in that direction results in a fiasco4 ,it is noteworthy that an artist with no knowledge of astronomy1 or the art of telescopic observation1 will make a more accurate drawing than one made by the best astronomer who has no ability as a draughtsman4 ,concerning the drawings of ,mars1 if one will turn to the ,annals of the ,lowell ,observatory1 ,volume ,i1 ,plate ,,xiv1 he will there see drawings made on successive nights by ,mr4 ,lowell and his assistants1 ,mr4 ,douglass and ,mr4 ,drew1 showing a remarkable agreement4 ,after finishing my observations of ,mars1 which covered nearly a complete presentation of the planet1 ,i made a comparison between my drawings and those made by ,professor ,lowell and his secretary1 ,miss ,leonard1 and a few made by the assistant astronomers1 ,mr4 ,lampland and ,mr4 ,slipher1 and the agreement was almost absolute1 the only difference being that their drawings portrayed additional features which in some cases ,i had caught a glimpse of but could not fix4 ,i found it exceedingly difficult to draw in the correct positions details within a circle1 and particularly when the axis of that circle was inclined some degrees from the vertical1 indicated by a spider's thread in the ocular4 ,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 existence4 ,,ix ,,theories ,,regarding ,,the ,,canals ,in knowledge1 that man only is to be condemned and despised who is not in a state of transition4 ,,faraday4 ,having shown to the satisfaction of any reasonable mind that the delicate lines1 known as canals1 do exist1 it will be interesting to examine some of the theories which have been advanced to explain these markings1 as well as some of the absurd deductions drawn from their existence4 ,the late ,dr4 ,j4 ,joly1 ,professor of ,geology in the ,university of ,dublin1 in a paper on the ,origin of the ,canals of ,mars 7,trans4 ,royal ,soc41 ,dublin7 came to the conclusion that meteoric bodies1 revolving on or near the surface of ,mars1 produced these lines4 ,in brief1 he supposed that ,mars at various times in the early stages of his history1 when his rotation period was much shorter1 attracted small bodies1 which1 after whirling about the planet1 finally came down on the crust and caused these lines4 ,he conceived of satellites twice the diameter of ,phobos1 or say1 seventy-two miles in diameter1 flying about ,mars at a distance of sixty-three miles1 which would at this distance1 by its attractive force1 exert a stress on the supposed thin crust of ,mars of from fifteen to thirty tons per square foot1 and thus rend the surface of the planet in a zone two hundred and twenty miles wide1 thus forming two parallel ridges which might be visible to us as double canals4 ,this preposterous idea takes no account of the greater attractive force of the ,earth1 and that it too should have had precisely the same experience1 more often repeated4 ,no trace of such behaviors1 however1 has ever been detected4 ,the ,moon1 too1 should have caught some of these heavy bodies1 but while conspicuous cracks are seen on her surface1 and delicate ridges are seen radiating from the larger volcanoes1 not a trace of these great meteoric furrows has ever been observed4 ,it takes no account of the chances--one in a million--that these cavorting meteors should meet at common centres1 and if they did1 the impossibility that they should stop abruptly and then start off in opposite directions4 ,it takes no account of many of the lines following the arc of a great circle1 or what finally became of three or four hundred of these meteors to tally with the number of the canals1 unless it is supposed that some of them went whirling around the planet three or four times1 changing their courses instantly and repeatedly4 ,indeed1 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 dream4 ,to heighten the absurdity of this theory1 if that were possible1 ,mr4 ,j4 ,l4 ,e4 ,dryer1 who signs a notice of this paper1 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 planet1 otherwise soberly says3 ,it must be conceded that there is nothing in the new hypothesis contrary to observed facts4 ,mr4 ,j4 ,orr1 in the pages of the ,british ,astronomical ,journal1 assuming that ,schiaparelli believed that the canals were excavated 7despite the fact that ,schiaparelli called them canali1 or channels71 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 entertained4 ,his attempt is as childish and ridiculous as the theory he conjures up4 ,mr4 ,orr1 taking it for granted that the only explanation offered for these lines is that they are excavated1 concludes that a ,martian canal1 like ,tartarus1 should be seventy feet in depth 7one might ask1 why not five hundred or five thousand87 and that the canals of ,mars would contain #a1fcd1jjj of our ,suez ,canals1 and would require an army of two hundred million men1 working for one thousand of our years1 for their construction1 and similar idiocies regarding the population of ,mars1 which he concludes must be #dji1jjj1jjj1 thus showing that all the adult males1 and a large number of women1 must have been engaged in the great work4 ,in connection with this absurd travesty1 let us pause for a moment to consider the extraordinary character of the president of this society before which this paper was read4 ,a man who is the senior assistant of the ,royal ,observatory at ,greenwich1 instead of rebuking this balderdash as entirely beside the question1 stated as the result of an experiment with a lot of charity-school children1 that the canals are merely illusions of the brain1 and this in the face of the testimony of a number of astronomers1 many of whom are highly distinguished1 that the markings do exist4 ,this man seriously commented on the paper by saying3 ,he hoped that ,mr4 ,orr's statistical1 but nevertheless amusing and instructive1 paper might prove one more nail in the coffin of a very absurd idea which had certainly got most undue currency1 namely1 that the canals of ,mars could possibly be the work of human agents4 ,equally astounding1 too1 is it that this nonsense the ,astronomical ,journal of the ,pacific republishes without a word of comment4 ,but what could we expect of the mentality of the senior assistant of the ,royal ,observatory at ,greenwich1 who1 with the great vault of heaven crowded with enigmas awaiting an answer1 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 work4 ,even the day of the month is ascertained2 he finds that the date of this murderous affair was about ,july #bb1 and that the ,sun must have risen exactly at #e ,a4 ,m4 and set at #g ,p4 ,m4 ,the ,moon1 he concludes1 must have been about its third quarter and was within half an hour of setting4 ,he could not fix the year1 however6 ,fancy all this detail without a word of exegetical criticism1 or comment on the precise words of ,joshua4 ,and he said in the sight of ,israel1 ,sun1 stand thou still upon ,gibeon2 and thou1 ,moon1 in the valley of ,ajalon4 ,and the ,sun stood still1 and the ,moon stayed1 until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies4 ,not even a pious query as to why the ,lord did not shower down a few more meteorites1 rather than disarrange the whole solar system4 ,such an attitude of the mind renders one incapable of appreciating anything in astronomic research beyond that which can be measured and photographed4 ,the above is a fair illustration of the intolerable attitude of many of those who deny the existence of the canals1 or1 if admitting them as existent1 resort to every expedient to disprove their artificial character4 ,among the interesting suggestions as to the cause of the lines on ,mars is that proposed by ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 who1 while admitting that they represent bands of vegetation1 believes that they have their counterpart on the ,moon1 and that both are produced by volcanic forces1 the cracking of the surface being the result of internal strain and stress4 ,the fissures thus produced permit the escape of water vapor and carbon dioxide1 and thus the natural irrigation of these cracks is effected and growth of vegetation follows4 ,this opinion should have great weight1 as ,professor ,pickering has made a profound study of lunar details1 and is one of the foremost authorities on the subject4 ,he has also drawn many of the surface features of ,mars1 and was at one time connected with the ,lowell ,observatory4 ,he it was who suggested irrigation to account for the great apparent width of the ,martian lines4 ,in the ,annals of the ,harvard ,college ,observatory1 ,vol4 ,,liii1 ,no4 #ad1 ,professor ,pickering presents a study of a crater on the ,moon's surface1 known as ,eratosthenes1 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 ,mars2 indeed1 he calls these lines canals though he believes them to be cracks4 ,a few spots1 probably craterlets1 he compares to the oases of ,lowell4 ,that there is no atmosphere on the ,moon is admitted by all4 ,professor ,pickering's keen eye has1 however1 detected a change in the appearance of these cracks which he attributes to vegetation1 animated in its growth by water vapor and carbonic acid gas1 as before remarked4 ,in this supposition he may be right1 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 zero1 to one above that of boiling water4 ,one might naturally ask why the greater cracks so conspicuous on the ,moon's surface1 typical examples of which are found in the ,mare ,serenitis1 ,mare ,triangulatis1 and surroundings1 do not emit aqueous vapor and carbon dioxide1 and thus show similar features of widening and change of shade4 ,admitting the correctness of ,pickering's views1 it seems impossible to see any resemblance between this diminutive agglomeration of lines within a lunar crater1 and the great geodetic lines sweeping for hundreds of miles across the face of ,mars4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii ,,chinese ,,bowl1 ,,showing ,,crackle ,in the lunar crater1 known as ,flammarion's ,circle1 a most typical branching crack is seen4 ,an examination of these lunar cracks1 of which ,i made drawings through the great telescope at the ,lowell ,observatory1 showed them to be cracks of the most unmistakable character1 paralleled on the ,earth's surface1 by sunbaked fissures4 ,if volcanic forces have caused these cracks in the ,moon the same kind of energy should have produced the same general results in ,mars1 and circular craters should equally be in evidence1 for many of the lunar craters are sufficiently large to be detected were they on ,mars4 ,they would certainly be indicated on the terminator1 and yet not a trace of such markings has been found4 ,it is rather extraordinary1 too1 that such earthquake fissures on any great scale should not have been filled with trap1 silicate1 or other injected material4 ,indeed it is strange that such a triangulating arrangement of cracks has not been found on the ,earth's surface4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv ,,mud ,,cracks ,,on ,,shore ,,of ,,roger',s ,,lake1 ,,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 ,earth4 ,in such a study he would be amazed at the similarity of cracks4 ,when there is a grain in the substance1 as in wood1 the cracks follow the grain1 though even in this material they are discontinuous4 ,in amorphous material they have essentially the same character2 whether in the almost microscopic crackle of old ,satsuma pottery1 or huge cracks in sun-dried mud1 the areas enclosed are generally polygonal4 ,if the material be of impalpable fineness the edges of the cracks are smooth and clean-cut1 as in ,plate ,,iii1 from a ,chinese bowl2 whereas if the material is coarse and pebbly the edges of the cracks are rough and irregular1 as in ,plate ,,iv1 from the muddy shores of a lake4 ,cracks arising from contraction never converge to a common centre1 and when not connected with another crack they taper to a point4 ,they begin at indefinite places and end in an equally indefinite manner4 ,that there should be a common resemblance in cracks due to contraction is evident as they arise from a shrinking of the surface4 ,the most ancient deposits1 millions of ages ago1 reveal mud cracks differing in no respect from those found to-day4 ,we subjoin a few forms of cracks from various surfaces1 to show their essential resemblance4 ,it will be seen that the cracks in the ,moon are identical in character to those found on the ,mesa at ,flagstaff4 ,they start from some indefinite point1 are irregular in outline and end as indefinitely4 ,a poor asphalt pavement offers one of the best opportunities for the study of the formation of various kinds of cracks and fissures4 ,on the edge of a sloping sidewalk one may see the cracks due to a sliding1 or lateral displacement of the surface2 the effects of subsidence show a number of cracks around the area of depression2 the growth of a tree crowding the asphalt shows the effect of lateral thrust1 and an enlargement of a root below1 or the effects of frost show cracks due to elevation4 ,all these various cracks reveal the same features3 they are discontinuous1 they begin and end without definition4 ,schiaparelli says in regard to the canali of ,mars3 ,none of them have yet been seen cut off in the middle of the continent1 remaining without beginning or without end4 ,these lines on the surface of ,mars1 as a writer in ,nature says1 are almost without exception geodetically straight1 supernaturally so1 and this in spite of their leading in every possible direction4 ,it is inconceivable that cracks should be laid out with such geodetic precision4 ,we have seen that cracks have no definite beginning or termination2 we have seen that the lines of ,mars begin and end at definite places4 ,cracks are irregular1 vary in width and differ entirely from the straight lines depicted by ,schiaparelli1 ,lowell1 and others4 ,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 ago1 as ,mars1 being a much older planet than the ,earth1 must have long since ceased to show those activities which the ,earth1 even to-day1 exhibits in such phenomena as earthquakes1 subsidences1 elevations1 and the like4 ,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 ways1 and no evidence would show1 even on close inspection1 of their former existence1 much less at a distance of #ej1jjj1jjj of miles1 more or less4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v #a4 ,,pottery ,,crackle #b ,,inches #b4 ,,mud ,,cracks #b ,,feet #c4 ,,asphalt ,,cracks #af ,,inches #d4 ,,earth ,,cracks #aj ,,feet #e4 ,,crater ,,cracks1 ,,moon #ee ,,miles #f4 a4 ,,moon b4 ,,africa #ajj ,,miles #aejj ,,miles ,,natural ,,lines ,,cracks1 ,,fissures1 ,,etc4 ,in ,plate ,v1 page #aab1 are given six figures representing various cracks and fissures4 ,no4 #a represents the cracks in the glaze of ,japanese pottery1 magnified4 ,no4 #b shows the mud cracks on the edge of a lake1 to the extent of two feet4 ,no4 #c is a series of cracks in an asphalt pavement1 covering about two feet4 ,no4 #d shows the form of cracks in the surface of a mesa in ,arizona1 the result of the summer heat1 the length being about ten feet4 ,no4 #e is a tracing from a drawing by ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering showing cracks in the lunar crater ,eratosthenes1 with an extent of fifty-five miles4 ,the original drawing represented a much greater widening of the lines which ,professor ,pickering believes to be due to vegetation4 ,i endeavored to trace the centre of each line and ,professor ,pickering said in regard to my tracing3 ,in one or two instances you have assumed that a crack went through the middle of a broad space1 whereas1 for aught we know1 it may have gone along either edge1 but otherwise the tracing obviously follows the outlines of my drawing4 ,it evidently gives a cachet of what appears to be veritable cracks on the surface1 and it is interesting to compare this drawing with the cracks in the asphalt4 ,in ,no4 #f are two drawings2 one marked ,a represents cracks in a region of the ,moon known as ,flammarion's ,circle1 the other ,b represents the great rift in southern ,africa1 probably the most stupendous phenomenon in geological history4 ,this rift has been traced from the ,valley of the ,jordan through the ,dead ,sea1 into the ,gulf of ,akaba1 thence into the ,red ,sea1 which it follows the entire length1 then turning southwesterly into ,africa and branching1 one branch takes in ,lake ,tanganyika1 and the other branch ,lake ,nyassa4 ,a portion north of ,nyassa is still problematical4 ,here is a crack #a1ejj miles long1 most of it filled with detritus1 water1 or forest4 ,it would be an interesting question whether such a fracture would be visible even from the ,moon4 ,a glance at these various figures will give one a conception of the similarity of cracks1 their irregular contour1 their indeterminate origin1 and ending4 ,cracks arising from shrinkage vary only in the material in which the crack takes place2 the conditions resulting from shrinkage or pulling apart are precisely the same4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi #a4 ,,railroads1 ,,illinois #cg ,,miles #b4 ,,streets1 ,,montreal #a_/b ,,mile #c4 ,,irrigation ,,canals1 ,,arizona #a-a_/c ,,miles #d4 ,,canals1 ,,groningen1 ,,holland #aj ,,miles #e4 ,,mars1 ,,schiaparelli',s ,,map #f4 ,,mars1 ,,lowell',s ,,globe ,,artificial ,,lines ,,railways1 ,,streets1 ,,canals1 ,,etc4 ,let us now glance at a series of figures on ,plate ,,vi1 page #aac2 their artificial character may be recognized at once4 ,they are all designed for channels or thoroughfares for the transportation of men1 merchandise1 or water4 ,no4 #a represents a tracing from a railroad map of a county in ,illinois4 ,the convergence of lines to common centres1 and1 in one case1 parallel lines may be seen4 ,the length of the region represented is thirty-seven miles4 ,no4 #b is a tracing of streets in a district of ,montreal1 covering an extent of half a mile4 ,no4 #c is a tracing of a small region near ,phoenix1 ,arizona1 showing irrigating canals4 ,the larger ones follow contour lines of the surface2 the smaller ones are usually laid out in rectangular form to correspond with the original land sections and sub-sections1 the boundary lines of which run north and south1 east and west4 ,no4 #d represents the canals converging on ,groningen1 ,holland4 ,no4 #e is a tracing from a hemispherical map of ,mars made by ,schiaparelli1 and ,no #f is traced from a photograph of a globe on which ,lowell has carefully drawn the canals1 oases1 etc41 of ,mars covering a land extent of #g1djj miles4 ,the remarkable artificiality of all these figures must be admitted4 ,the lines on the first four figures are laid out by an intelligence for similar purposes4 ,no4 #a for the conveyance of passengers and freight2 ,no4 #b for the traffic of a city2 ,no4 #c for the conveyance of water2 ,no4 #d for purposes of navigation1 and ,nos4 #e and #f1 according to ,lowell's view1 for the conveyance of water from melting polar snow caps for irrigation purposes4 ,a simple1 rational explanation1 as their great width and geodetic precision forbid any other4 ,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 says3 ,the mere aspect is enough to cause all theories about glaciation1 fissures1 or surface cracks to die an instant and natural death4 ,consider any other possible tracing of lines on the face of the ,earth as the result of ,nature's forces1 such as river beds1 caons1 chasms1 fissures1 faults1 rifts1 precipitous valleys1 fiords1 the results of sharp folds in the strata1 parallel chains of mountains1 and none of these lines would be straight1 none of them would be of uniform width1 and few of them would have the enormous breadth of the ,martian lines1 they would begin nowhere and1 with the exception of the rivers1 end nowhere4 ,this definition holds good as the result of natural forces from the microscopic crackle on a dinner plate1 to a crack in the ,earth's crust fifteen hundred miles long4 ,having briefly alluded to some of the theories advanced to explain the geodetic network of lines encircling ,mars--theories in one case so puerile1 and in another case an interpretation so monstrous1 though endorsed by astronomers of standing--we turn to the suggestion that these various lines are artificial1 that they were designed for a definite purpose1 namely1 to conduct water from those regions alone where water is found for the purposes of irrigation4 ,we shall call attention to a parallel case where the great ice caps and glaciers of the ,himalaya ,mountains supply water1 by their melting1 for thousands of miles of irrigating canals4 ,let us ask ourselves whether if the snows of the ,himalayas gradually failed1 the crowded millions of ,india would not if necessary reach out to the farthest ,north for this precious fluid8 ,our great centres of population at the present time are reaching out in every direction for water supply4 ,how long would it take ,new ,york ,city to decide in case of water famine to tap the ,great ,lakes to the north1 or to establish pipe lines to the north pole1 if it were necessary to go that distance for water8 ,from the foregoing it is seen that the question of water supply has engaged the energies of man from pre-historic times4 ,these great irrigating works are found1 however1 in regions of sterility1 or light rainfall1 from the rude irrigating canals of ancient ,peru and ,arizona to the marvellous accomplishments of the hydraulic engineer in ,india and ,egypt4 ,this demand for more water is not1 however1 confined to regions of sterility1 the reaching out of cities for supplies of water for potable purposes and for the wasteful disposal of sewage was inevitable4 ,what shall we say1 however1 of the notes of warning in regions of rain8 ,england is considered a land of humidity and copious rains1 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 supply4 ,in a special despatch to the ,new ,york ,herald1 ,mr4 ,bently1 president of the ,royal ,meteorological ,society1 is quoted as saying at its ,annual ,meeting1 ,so enormous now is the drain upon the country's available supplies1 so much have the growth of cities1 the disappearance of forested areas1 the extent of street surface impervious to moisture1 and the diversion of the rivers1 lakes1 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 arrangements1 that ,english engineers and meteorologists at no distant date may find a task of almost insuperable difficulty awaiting their endeavors4 ,dr4 ,mill1 a rainfall expert1 on being consulted by a ,daily ,mail correspondent regarding this alarming statement1 was of the opinion that the question would require early consideration4 ,we quote his words as follows3 ,legislation is needed in the immediate future for the regulation of the rivers4 ,the great question is how to store the water which at present runs to waste on the coasts4 ,the planting of trees on the high water-sheds is one of the first solutions of the problem4 ,the chief difficulty lies in the scarcity of suitable land available for building large reservoirs1 and at some future date the services of engineers will be required to reform the present arrangement of reservoirs4 ,in ,austria the government issues an annual report on the condition of the ,danube and detailed statistics of the rainfall1 with a view to storing all the available water supplies4 ,the work done by the ,austrian government ,i am doing in regard to the ,british ,isles on my own responsibility1 but the rainfall and the river conditions are only a portion of a much larger problem4 ,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 come4 ,such possibilities as here suggested may offer an additional clew to an interpretation of the ,martian markings4 ,the unnatural straightness of these interlacing lines on ,mars1 many of them following the arcs of great circles1 their uniform width throughout1 their always starting from definite areas1 their convergence to common centres1 and their varying visibility synchronizing with the ,martian seasons finds no parallel in natural phenomena4 ,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 ,west1 where1 for thousands of miles1 the land extends in vast level stretches4 ,in these regions would be found lines of railroads running in straight courses1 starting from definite places1 converging to common centres1 their sides1 in certain seasons1 conspicuous with ripening grain fields1 or again the work of the ,united ,states ,reclamation ,bureau running its irrigating canals in various directions through that great region4 ,both these kinds of lines would be artificial and both designed for purposes of conveyance--in the one case1 merchandise and passengers1 in the other case1 water4 ,if the ,martian lines are not artificial some other theories must be offered than those thus far advanced to explain their origin and purpose4 ,the phenomenon of the extraordinary doubling of the canals when first announced was immediately disbelieved2 when1 however1 other observers confirmed ,schiaparelli's discoveries1 and it became evident that these double lines had a veritable existence1 the phenomenon was regarded as an evidence that profound physical changes were going on in the planet4 ,thus in #ahhg ,mr4 ,stanislaus ,maunier1 in ,la ,nature1#f in alluding to the remarkable discovery of the doubling of the canals1 says3 ,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 aspect4 ,this was written in #ahhg1 and continuous observations of the planet since that time have shown no profound changes1 or changes of any kind beyond those which periodically occur with the seasons4 ,since ,mars is a much older planet than the ,earth1 it seems reasonable to believe that it is more stable1 that volcanoes and earthquakes have long ceased to manifest their activities1 that erosive action by water is no longer in evidence1 subsidence and elevation of continental areas no longer occur4 ,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 place4 ,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 eyes2 he further says3 ,it is far easier to explain the gemination if we are willing to introduce the forces pertaining to organic nature2 here the field of plausible supposition is immense1 and in this field of suppositions he suggests changes of vegetation over vast areas4 ,let any intelligent mind soberly consider this rational suggestion of ,schiaparelli's and compare it with other theories that have been advanced1 and he will be compelled to admit that vegetation alone gives us at least a clew to the extraordinary behavior of these parallel lines4 ,to understand the symmetry1 the suddenness1 and the vast extent of this phenomenon1 the further explanation of vegetation superinduced by artificial methods will alone complete the answer4 ,sir ,robert ,ball cannot conceive how ,mars1 a much older planet1 should develop synchronously with the ,earth creatures of intelligence1 an event which he insists should have occurred ages earlier in its history4 ,in this supposition he is quite right1 for if there are creatures of intelligence in ,mars these should have appeared much earlier1 and that is probably what has happened4 ,the problem is one parallel to that urged by ,sir ,boyd ,dawkins in regard to the evidences of man in the ,tertiary rocks4 ,dawkins argued that since the mammals in the ,tertiary had changed so profoundly1 many types becoming extinct1 if man had lived at that time he also should have been affected by the same influences1 and should have changed accordingly4 ,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 characteristics1 hence but little change1 otherwise than an intellectual one1 has taken place in man since his progenitors took to the trees and made up by agility1 cunning1 and alertness what they lacked in physical strength4 ,in the same way1 if1 in the past history of ,mars1 an intelligent creature appeared he must have survived under precisely similar conditions1 and long after favorable environments had passed that were implicated in making him what he was4 ,admitting that there is an intelligent creature of some kind in ,mars1 is it reasonably conceivable that he should have caused such changes in the surface features of that planet as to be visible from the ,earth8 ,professor ,newcomb concludes1 in a recent article in ,harper's ,magazine1 that we cannot expect to see any signs of the works of inhabitants in ,mars1 if such exist4 ,let us1 however1 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 ,mars8 ,and ,i think the question can be answered in only one way4 ,the vast cities such as ,pekin1 ,tokio1 ,london1 and ,new ,york1 with their great expanse of tiled and slated roofs1 and sterile streets1 would certainly have a different albedo from the grass and trees in the immediate outskirts of such places4 ,the tracts of land reclaimed from the sea1 and still more the enormous areas which have been rendered green by irrigation1 must1 of all contrasts1 be markedly conspicuous4 ,to realize the extent of this work1 it is only necessary to state that in ,egypt #f1jjj1jjj acres depend upon irrigation1 and this area to be vastly increased in a short time2 the ,western states of ,america with #aj1jjj1jjj acres1 and this area being rapidly augmented by the work of the ,united ,states ,reclamation ,bureau2 in ,india #be1jjj1jjj acres under irrigation1 and this being continually added to2 above all1 however1 the vast extent of territory from which the dark forests have been removed in this country1 and more particularly in ,china1 must make a visible landmark4 ,if one can recall the appearance of forests in the southern and middle part of ,maine1 say from ,bethel or ,bangor1 fifty years ago1 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 reach1 and now from the same elevations one can see only an occasional clump of blue forest1 while the remaining surface is1 according to the season1 either bright green1 yellow with ripening vegetation1 or white with snow1 out of which the dark clumps of forest growth are most conspicuous4 ,considering the contrasting colors in one year covering hundreds of thousands of square miles in various portions of the country1 the question naturally arises which of these contrasts would be most conspicuous1--the colors just mentioned of solid land surfaces of vegetation1 snow1 and desert1 or diaphanous clouds with their gray shadows4 ,we are told that ,jupiter1 with the mean distance at opposition of nearly #djj1jjj1jjj miles1 shows its clouds1 its red spot1 and the shadow transits of its satellites4 ,surely if these conditions are seen from the ,earth1 the changes in the ,earth's appearance above described might be seen from ,mars1 which at its nearest opposition is only #ce1jjj1jjj miles away1 and1 conversely1 any change of similar character in ,mars would certainly be visible from the ,earth4 ,x ,,comments ,,and ,,criticism ,nothing is more difficult and requires more caution than philosophical deduction1 nor is there anything more adverse to its accuracy than fixity of opinion4 ,,faraday4 ,it will be of interest to examine the writings of certain astronomers1 and writers on astronomy1 to appreciate the unreasonable conservatism1 not to say narrow-mindedness1 which color their opinions4 ,it ill becomes students of science to ridicule the honest and persistent labors of such men as ,schiaparelli1 ,lowell1 ,perrotin1 and others1 unless they can show an equal devotion to the work4 ,they do not recall the deluge of essays1 reviews1 and sober treatises which followed ,darwin's great work1 viewing the evidences of ,darwin not thoughtfully1 nor based upon any knowledge of the subject1 but with contempt1 and1 in many instances1 with vituperation4 ,so rapid1 however1 was the recognition of ,darwin's interpretation of ,nature's facts that most of these writers lived long enough to see their protests entirely discredited1 or to become enthusiastic advocates of the theory4 ,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 poles1 and consequent variation of latitude1 and the final establishment of ,chandler's views1 in the teeth of opposition1 by the greatest astronomers4 ,the character of this irrelevant and adverse criticism may be appreciated by subjoining a few examples4 ,the most amazing of all these expressions is to be found in the report of the ,british ,astronomical ,association1 for #ahib4 ,it seems that a committee had been appointed by the ,association to report on the surface features of ,mars4 ,e4 ,walter ,maunder was made ,director of the ,committee4 ,twenty-six observers1 of whom twenty-one were inhabitants of ,great ,britain1 sent in the result of their work accompanied by drawings4 ,a summary of this work was published in the form of memoranda accompanied by a ,mercator projection map of ,mars1 individual planisphere drawings1 as well as colored plates2 these together represented twenty-eight single canals1 five double canals1 nine oases1 as well as the dark regions so long familiar to astronomers4 ,this was a somewhat remarkable contribution considering the complaints from the different observers in regard to the weather1 and the prejudiced1 and negligent part played by the man at the helm4 ,that ,i am not unjust in these statements may be understood by quoting from the report showing the conditions under which the ,english observers labored1 the delinquent part which ,mr4 ,maunder1 the ,director1 played in the matter1 and the conclusions which ,mr4 ,maunder arrived at after this unsatisfactory performance4 ,he says3 ,the opposition of #ahib proved on the whole a very disappointing one4 ,although ,mars at opposition was almost at its nearest approach to the ,earth1 it was far from being well placed for observation by ,european astronomers owing to its great southerly declination1 and consequent low altitude4#g ,the weather during the autumn of #ahib was for the most part very unfavorable for observation of so difficult an object1 and several members who joined the section at the beginning were unable to contribute either drawings or report4 ,now ,i beg the reader to carefully note the part the ,director played in this important work4 ,here are his words2 there is no need of italicizing them4 ,none of the few evenings which the ,director was able to give to the examination of the planet was really suitable for the purpose1 and as the pressure of other duties rendered it impossible for him to supply any detailed help to the members1 the section was at a very serious disadvantage4 ,he certainly is frank enough to state the disadvantages the section was under with such a man at the head4 ,realizing the conditions of seeing in the fog and soot-begrimed atmosphere of ,england1 the low altitude of ,mars1 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 manner1 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 definition1 at an elevation of #g1jjj feet above the sea-level1 in an atmosphere so clear and steady that stars of the third and fourth magnitude may be seen to set at the horizon line4 ,mr4 ,maunder in speaking of the nomenclature used in his report says1 ,the term 'canal' has also been retained1 though 'canals' in the sense of being artificial productions1 the markings of ,mars which bear that name1 are certainly not4 ,it is difficult1 indeed1 to understand how so preposterous an idea obtained currency for a moment even by the most ignorant4 ,it is impossible to repress one's amazement at these expressions after the confessions he makes as to his official functions on the committee1 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 body4 ,in this connection we cannot refrain from giving a few paragraphs from a paper entitled ,can ,organic ,life ,exist in the ,planetary ,system8 by ,c4 ,a4 ,stetefeldt4 ,the author says3 ,we must1 however1 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 with1 or similar to1 those existing on the ,earth1 and that therefore their organic life may be similar to our own4 ,further1 ,i am far from denying that1 under favorable circumstances1 creatures may be evolved upon planets which revolve around other suns1 whose mental capacity is as much superior to man's as that of the latter is to the lowest form of vertebrates4 ,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 life1 and finally closes in this extraordinary manner3 ,in concluding this investigation we cannot help admiring the inductive acumen of the theologians who considered the ,earth the most important of the planets1 and the centre of creation4 ,although their opinions were not based upon scientific facts1 they arrived at the truth nevertheless4 7,italics ours47 ,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 paper4 ,and this contribution also appeared in the publications of the ,astronomical ,society of the ,pacific1 ,volume ,,vi1 ,no4 #be1 without a word of comment6 ,how different was the behavior of the ,journal when a report of ,percival ,lowell's lecture on ,mars1 written by ,dr4 ,edward ,everett ,hale1 was reproduced in its pages4 ,the following comments were made by ,edward ,s4 ,holden1 then ,director of the ,lick ,observatory3 ,something is seen1 no doubt1 but ,i may add that nothing has been observed at the ,lick ,observatory during the years #ahhh-ahie1 so far as ,i know1 which goes to confirm the very striking conclusions here described4 ,it may be added that during the years #ahhh-ahib nothing was seen of the fifth moon of ,jupiter4 ,the discovery of this satellite with the ,lick telescope was not due to any special efforts on the part of the ,director4 ,the ,rev4 ,e4 ,ledger1 ,nineteenth ,century ,magazine1 ,volume ,,liii1 #aijc1 p4 #ggc1 in an article entitled ,the ,canals of ,mars--,are they ,real8 presents an excellent account of the successive observers of ,mars1 and the results of their work1 and the objections of those who could not see the canals1 or saw them imperfectly4 ,he recalls ,maunder's childish experiments1 and is greatly impressed by them4 ,he then says3 ,astronomers are no doubt very well acquainted with the laws of optics as applied to the eye4 ,they have made1 and may yet make1 many experiments connected with their action4 ,they are accustomed to allow for individual peculiarities in observation1 as1 for instance1 when what is termed personal equation affects the rapidity with which different observers touch a key to record what they see4 ,they may therefore skilfully judge of the effect produced in observations of ,mars by such processes of the eye1 or of the brain1 or nervous system as ,i have referred to4 ,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 canals4 ,they might both assist in observing1 and at the same time carry out careful researches into the optical delusions which brain or eye may experience in connection with telescopic observation4 ,this is certainly a happy thought of the reverend author1 only it would seem in this case that a larger and more diversified corps of specialists1 including alienists1 is needed to attend to that class of astronomers who are suffering with mental strabismus4 ,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 evidence4 ,it is the exception rather than the rule in astronomical science that one finds such unfounded and prejudiced utterances as those above commented upon4 ,the glamour of astrology still lingers1 in the public eye in its respect and awe for the astronomer's work4 ,every eclipse seems in the nature of a prophecy4 ,the public contributes liberally for the support of eclipse expeditions1 observatories1 and the like1 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 ,harvard1 ,director ,campbell at ,lick1 ,director ,hale at the ,solar ,observatory1 ,mount ,wilson1 and many others4 ,their observations are received without question4 ,the thoughtful man would only ask that like credence should be given to the work of every earnest student unless disproved1 even though the field of investigation covers regions hitherto but little explored1 and yet of the very greatest interest to the human race4 ,,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 versa4 ,,henry ,,draper4 ,schiaparelli points out that the polar snows of ,mars prove in an incontrovertible manner that the planet1 like the ,earth1 is surrounded by an atmosphere capable of transporting vapor from one place to another4 ,mr4 ,e4 ,e4 ,barnard1 in the ,astrophysical ,journal1 ,volume ,,xvii1 ,no4 #d1 in speaking of the polar caps1 says3 ,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 winters4 ,so much is at least suggested by the great seasonal changes they undergo from winter to summer4 ,there seems to be a general belief now that ,mars certainly has an atmosphere4 ,this atmosphere seems to be very much less than our own1 and yet it is of sufficient density to produce the phenomena of the polar caps by condensation and evaporation and also to produce1 though rarely1 some form of clouds4 ,among those who have claimed to have established the existence of water vapor in ,mars by the spectroscope are ,rutherford1 ,secchi1 ,huggins1 ,janssen1 and ,vogel2 and these declare the existence of a ,martian atmosphere similar to our own in composition4 ,mr4 ,campbell can find no spectroscopic indication of an atmosphere charged with water vapor4 ,lewis ,e4 ,jewell says3 ,the spectroscopic proof of the presence of a fair amount of water in the atmosphere of ,mars must be regarded as unattainable4 ,professor ,lowell1 despite the aid the admission of water vapor in ,mars would give to his position1 also doubts whether the spectroscope is able to detect the evidence through our own moisture-laden atmosphere4 ,after a minute and exhaustive study of the polar snow caps by the combined observations of ,lowell1 ,douglass and ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 ,mr4 ,lowell says3 ,it is interesting that the cap should so simply tell us of these three important things3 the presence of air1 the presence of water1 and the presence of a temperature1 not incomparable with that of the ,earth4 ,seasonal changes on ,mars have long been recognized and admitted by astronomers1 and these changes are on so vast a scale as to be distinctly visible from the earth4 ,without an atmosphere the surface of ,mars would be inert4 ,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 change4 ,mr4 ,denning believes that certain changes in the appearance of the markings to be due to vaporous condensations4 ,sir ,norman ,lockyer believed he saw the obscuration of a large region by clouds1 this obscuration continuing for some hours4 ,a bright spot on the terminator of ,mars1 discovered by ,douglass at the ,lowell ,observatory1 and which led to the newspaper excitement that signals were being made1 was seen to move and finally disappear and its appearance1 drift and disappearance is interpreted by ,lowell as a cloud illuminated by the ,sun and carried along by the wind4 ,the presence of clouds1 judging from my own brief experience1 was certainly suggested at times by the peculiar way in which a large region known as ,syrtis ,major disappeared and flashed out again4 ,this behavior might be expected of the tenuous lines as a result of refraction and other disturbances in our own atmosphere2 when1 however1 a large1 dark region at one time stands out firm1 clear and sharp-cut as the stroke of a ,japanese brush1 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 obscuration4 ,from an article on ,mars by ,sir ,robert ,ball1 republished in the ,annual ,report of the ,smithsonian ,institution for #aijj1 we quote the following3 ,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 atmosphere4 ,our telescopic observations completely bear this out4 ,it is perfectly certain that there is a certain shell of gaseous material investing ,mars4 ,this is shown in various ways4 ,we note the gradual obscuration of objects on the planet as they approach the edge of the disk1 where they are necessarily viewed through a greatly increased thickness of ,martian atmosphere4 ,we also observe the clearness with which objects are exhibited at the centre of the disk of ,mars1 and though this may be in some measure due to the absence of distortion from the effects of foreshortening1 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 planet4 ,clouds are also sometimes seen apparently floating in the upper region of ,mars4 ,this1 of course1 is possible only on the supposition that there must be an atmosphere which formed the vehicle by which clouds were borne along4 ,it is1 however1 quite obvious that the extent of the ,martian atmosphere must be quite insignificant when compared with that by which our ,earth is enveloped4 ,it is a rare circumstance for any of the main topographical features1 such as the outlines of its so-called continents1 or the coasts of its so-called seas1 to be obscured by clouds to an extent which is appreciable except by very refined observations4 ,professor ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering made seven photographs of ,mars on ,april #i1 and within twenty-four hours made seven additional photographs of the same region4 ,the second series of photographs showed an area of white extending from the polar snow cap far down toward the equator1 covering a surface which he estimated to be as large as the ,united ,states4 ,it afterwards slowly disappeared4 ,how shall we account for this sudden apparition of a vast area of white which the photographs of twenty-four hours before did not reveal4 ,a boy of ten1 as well as the philosopher would simply say a snow-storm had taken place in ,mars4 ,is it1 then1 unreasonable to picture whirling snowflakes1 snow-drifts1 and dazzling whiteness from the ,sun's rays1 and in the rapid melting of the snow1 broad rivers and turbulent brooks with water areas frozen at night8 ,but why should we be compelled to imagine as naked the surface through which these waters find their way8 ,soil there must be from the continual erosion of running water4 ,the character of the rock exposures we cannot guess at1 but a picture of bare rock and lifeless ground is unthinkable4 ,such wide-spread storms without an atmosphere could not occur4 ,the seasonal appearance of these snows and their slow disappearance not only indicates an atmosphere1 but an atmosphere disturbed by established currents which convey the moisture-laden air to regions of congelation4 ,a number of observers who have detected clouds in ,mars described them as being yellowish in color4 ,what more probable than that these yellowish masses are simply dust-storms such as one may often see whirling along over our ,american deserts8 ,when the gusts of wind are fitful like squalls at sea1 the obscuration would be fitful1 to clear up again4 ,the vast areas of desert land in ,mars renders this supposition very probable4 ,since the above was written1 my attention has been called to an early ,bulletin of the ,lowell ,observatory1 in which ,mr4 ,lowell1 in discussing the appearance of a certain large projection on the terminator of ,mars1 says3 ,finally1 its color leads me to believe it not a cloud of water-vapor1 but a cloud of dust4 ,other phenomena of the planet bear out this supposition4 ,,xii ,,notes ,,on ,,irrigation ,your theory of vegetation becomes more and more probable4 ,,schiaparelli in a letter to ,lowell4 ,let one stand on some peak of the ,verd ,mountains1 northeast from ,phoenix1 ,arizona1 overlooking the ,gila ,river as it follows its course across the desert1 and after the river is lost to view he will notice that the foliage along its banks marks its course4 ,if one takes this view in winter time1 the uniform gray of the plains1 unbroken by a single shade of color blends with the light blue of the distant ,plomas and ,castle ,dome ,mountains on the southwest horizon4 ,in the early spring when the water is first let into the irrigating channels with their innumerable divergent ditches1 a shade of green may be seen emerging from the monotonous yellow-gray of the hot and sterile plain1 first conspicuous near the source of the water supply1 and then following along to ,phoenix1 ,tempe1 and other regions till in full efflorescence these cities stand out like great green carpets spread upon the ,earth4 ,from this mountain top not a trace of an irrigating ditch1 large or small1 would be discerned1 except here and there a glint of reflected sunlight1 but the effects of the life-giving waters can be traced in broad bands to the remotest limits of the water channels1 when they would end as abruptly as they had begun4 ,if we examine railroad maps1 the lines of which represent the road-beds utilized to convey passengers and freight to various places1 we shall observe that in mountainous regions the lines run very irregularly1 often paralleling mountain chains1 or following rivers4 ,on level areas such as ,iowa1 ,texas1 and other states1 the railroads run for hundreds of miles in straight lines1 at times converging towards large centres of population4 ,their occasional parallelism and radiation from centres1 all present a certain cachet in angles of approach and alignment that reminds one strongly of similar features in the markings of ,mars4 ,if each railroad were bordered by a wide growth of trees with sterile desert between1 these broad bands as seen from ,mars would be identical with the appearance of similar lines in ,mars as seen from the ,earth4 ,in ,mars1 however1 there are no high elevations since the terminator of ,mars stands out clear cut and not jagged as in the ,moon4 ,the planet being devoid of hill ranges1 and large oceans1 the canals can run in straight lines for hundreds of miles4 ,if it were possible to conceive by analogy a creature on ,mars furnished with a telescope1 he would undoubtedly correlate the irrigating regions of ,arizona as similar in nature to his own canals4 ,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 canals4 ,he would1 of course1 observe that in our winter the irrigating areas became invisible1 to appear again as our summer advanced4 ,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 life1 and proceeding slowly towards the equator would prevent him from understanding the reverse condition on our planet1 with the shade of green being perennial at the equator and spreading slowly north with the advance of summer4 ,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 advent4 ,the illimitable stretches of arid plain1 no green1 rarely an evidence of life1 and then usually in hideous shapes like the hissing and purple-mouthed ,gila monster2 hot pale dust2 blinding sunlight2 ragged clumps of gray sagebrush1 rebuking by their hopeless color and dishevelled appearance1 the intolerable condition of their existence2 angular cacti1 surviving because of their vicious needles1 and then literally a step only from this sterile waste1 and one finds himself wading through rich1 soft alfalfa1 under the deep shade of cottonwood trees1 glistening threads of water when the overhanging vegetation does not hide the channels1 brilliant flowers1 singing birds1 fat cattle and vociferous children4 ,in this apparently irreclaimable desert of ,arizona1 have sprung up prosperous cities1 great farms and fruit orchards4 ,about ,phoenix1 more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres are under the richest and most profitable cultivation1 and all due to a little narrow canal which conveys the water from ,salado ,river1 and distributes it by narrow ditches1 so narrow1 indeed1 as to be invisible except on the nearest approach4 ,there have already been constructed in the ,gila ,valley alone1 two hundred and fifty miles of ditches1 and four hundred miles of parallels4 ,mr4 ,ray ,stannard ,baker1 in the ,century for ,july1 #aijb1 presents in a graphic way1 the marvels of irrigation4 ,major ,j4 ,w4 ,powell1 during the later years of his life devoted his whole time and energy to urging the reclamation of desert lands in the ,west by irrigation4 ,in his reports on the subject he estimated that a region equal in size to ,new ,england1 ,new ,york1 ,pennsylvania1 and ,west ,virginia could be recovered from the desert sands of ,arizona and other regions in the ,west4 ,in ,india1 millions of pounds have been spent for irrigating canals and ditches4 ,a single canal with its tributaries drawing water from the ,ganges measures #c1iaj miles in length1 bringing into cultivation one million acres of land at an expense of fifteen millions of dollars4 ,the idea of irrigation is not due to the advanced intellect of man2 it has been the result of dire necessity and is of great antiquity4 ,mr4 ,frank ,hamilton ,cushing discovered evidences of the most extensive irrigating canals among the ancient ,pueblo ,indians of ,arizona4 ,sir ,c4 ,scott ,moncrief1 in his address as president of the engineering section of the ,british ,association for the ,advancement of ,science1 describes the various forms of irrigation4 ,the primitive method consists in raising water by human labor4 ,early ,egyptian sculpture depicts laborers raising water by means of buckets1 and along the banks of the ,nile the same method may be seen to-day4 ,other methods of raising water are by pumps driven by windmills4 ,in certain regions ,artesian wells furnish water for irrigation4 ,the importance of irrigation is best shown in the fact1 that1 while the rainfall in ,cairo is1 on an average1 one and four tenths inches a year1 yet in the immediate neighborhood land brings #gej per acre2 this value being due to irrigation alone4 ,in speaking of water storage for supplying the irrigating canals the author says3 ,when there is no moderating lake1 a river fed by a glacier has a precious source of supply4 ,the hotter the weather the more rapidly will the ice melt1 and this is just when irrigation is most wanted4 7,judging from this dictum1 the condition in ,mars is ideal47 ,in speaking of the great ,assouan ,reservoir in ,egypt1 he says3 ,the sale value of land irrigated by its waters will be increased by about #abe1jjj1jjj4 ,the increase in irrigation areas in our ,western ,states may be appreciated by the following figures4 ,in #ahhi it amounted to #c1efd1daf acres2 in #aijj1 to #g1eci1ede acres4 ,now it is at least #aj1jjj1jjj acres4 ,without irrigation this land sold for four or five dollars per acre2 with irrigation it brings forty dollars per acre4 ,,xiii ,,variety ,,of ,,conditions ,,under ,,which ,,life ,,exists ,not only does life but intelligence flourish on this globe under a great variety of conditions1 as regards temperature and surroundings1 and no sound reason can be shown why under certain conditions which are frequent in the universe1 intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development4 ,,simon ,,newcomb4 ,the argument most often urged against the idea that life exists in ,mars is that there is no atmosphere in that planet1 or if there is one it is so rarefied that it could not sustain life as we know it4 ,according to ,proctor1 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 planets4 ,it is highly probable that if an air-breathing animal of our earth were instantly immersed in an atmosphere as rare as that of ,mars1 it would perish in a short time4 ,precisely what a species through thousands of generations of selection and survival might adapt itself to1 is an open question4 ,leaving this contention for a moment1 let us consider the almost infinite variety of conditions under which life exists on our globe1 and we shall find that any and all conditions which the surface of ,mars may offer1 if experienced gradually through successive generations1 would not be inimical to terrestrial life from the lowest to the highest1 including even man4 ,mr4 ,garrett ,p4 ,serviss1 in discussing the question of life1 in his book ,other ,worlds1 said3 ,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 world8 ,that kind of assumption has more than once led us far astray even in dealing with terrestrial conditions4 ,it is not so long ago1 for instance1 since life in the depths of the sea was deemed to be demonstrably impossible4 ,the bottom of the ocean1 we were assured1 was a region of eternal darkness and of frightful pressure1 wherein no living creatures could exist4 ,yet the first dip of the deep-sea trawl brought up animals of marvellous delicacy of organization1 which1 although curiously and wonderfully adapted to live in a compressed liquid1 collapsed when lifted into a lighter medium4 ,one has only to make himself familiar with the wide range of conditions under which life in various forms exists on the ,earth1 to realize that the introduction of ,martian conditions here would not be such an overwhelming calamity1 and if these conditions could be introduced by minute increments covering thousands of centuries1 it is not unreasonable to believe that myriads of forms would survive the change1 and among those that survive would be precisely the kinds that thrive under the most diverse conditions here--namely1 man and the higher hymenoptera1 the ants4 ,to enumerate1 in the broadest way1 the variety of conditions under which life exists here1 one has only to enumerate creatures living in the deepest abysses of the ocean2 high up on the slopes of the ,himalayas2 swarming in arctic seas2 withstanding the hot glare of a tropical sun2 living deep in the ground2 breeding in the darkest caves2 flourishing in desert regions2 thriving in water below freezing1 and again in water nearly at the boiling point4 ,professor ,jeffries ,wyman1 in a memoir on ,living ,organisms in ,heated ,water1 has collected data showing that fishes are found living in water ranging from #ajd to #ace ,fahrenheit4 ,he also found that low forms of plant life exist in water of various temperatures as high as3 #afh ,f4 observed by ,dr4 ,hooker in ,sorujkund2 #agd ,capt4 ,strachey in ,thibet2 #ahe ,humboldt in ,la,trinchera2 #aii ,dr4 ,brewer in ,california2 #bjh ,descloizeaux in ,iceland4 ,if we consider man alone1 we find him at ,aden1 on the ,red ,sea1 at a temperature of #acj in the shade1 and in ,siberia at #gj below zero2 grovelling in mines deep in the ,earth1 and living in great communities ten thousand feet above sea-level2 fighting battles on the slopes of the ,himalayas1 at an altitude of #ai1jjj feet2 nomadic on sterile tracts2 sweltering under the glaring sun of the equator1 and existing in regions of perpetual snow and ice1 and without sunlight for six months of the year4 ,such are a few of the varied conditions to which man has become accustomed since he emerged from his tropical and arboreal relatives4 ,the question finally comes down to the effect of the rarefaction of air on life4 ,an inquiry as to how far man can stand changes of atmospheric pressure is of interest in this connection1 for we know that sudden changes are accompanied by mountain sickness1 at great elevations1 and caisson disease under great pressure4 ,large birds soar among the high peaks of the ,andes and drop at once to sea-level4 ,i have dredged delicate mollusks at a depth of one hundred and fifty fathoms of water and kept them alive for weeks in an aquarium4 ,man1 while showing a sensitiveness to changes in barometric pressure when experienced suddenly1 can nevertheless get accustomed to great ranges of pressure4 ,the cities of ,bogota and ,quito are #aj1jjj feet above the level of the sea and yet in ,quito when ,de ,saussure1 the naturalist1 became so ill from the rarefaction that he could hardly find energy enough to read his instruments1 and his servants1 digging holes in the snow1 fainted from the exertion1 the natives were pursuing their various activities1 and bull-fights were going on6 ,one has only to read the accounts of the ,english expedition to ,thibet to learn that troops fought in skirmishes at the height of #ai1jjj feet4 ,mr4 ,douglas ,w4 ,freshfield 7in ,scot4 ,geo4 ,mag41 ,april1 #aije7 gives an account of mountain sickness in the ,sikkim ,himalaya4 ,he says the effect of high altitude was different in different individuals2 some men were entirely free from it1 and among them a ,goorkha1 who ran back in a pass at an altitude of #bj1jjj feet to hurry up some loiterers4 ,another member of the party1 an ,englishman1 actually gained in weight1 and had an increased appetite4 ,here1 then1 are a few men among a small number1 without previous experience in rarefied air1 feeling no disturbance1 and1 in one case1 actually benefited by it6 ,the question arises as to what natural selection would do among a hundred million say1 who1 through many centuries1 might be subject to a gradual attenuation of the air4 ,the result of rarefaction of the atmosphere and the absence of moisture is associated with marked hygienic influences4 ,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 altitudes1 the relation of dry soil to health1 etc4 ,important work has been done by ,drs4 ,john ,weinzirl1 ,c4 ,edw4 ,magnusson1 ,f4 ,s4 ,maltby1 and ,mrs4 ,w4 ,c4 ,hadley1 and their investigations go to prove that high altitudes and absence of moisture are favorable to the health of man on this world1 and by analogy would not be inimical to the survival of certain forms of life in ,mars4 ,dr4 ,s4 ,e4 ,solby 7in ,medical ,climatology1 p4 #dc1 #ahig71 in describing the effects of rarefaction of the air says3 ,the amount of air taken in at each breath becomes greater1 and the air-cells1 many of which are at lower altitudes often unused1 are dilated4 ,if we consider the atmospheric pressure under which a man can work and live1 we find equal adaptability4 ,mr4 ,gardner ,d4 ,hiscox1 in his work on ,compressed ,air1 ,its ,production1 ,uses1 and ,applications1 says3 ,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 atmosphere4 ,that while the pressure remains stationary all subjective phenomena disappear4 ,he speaks of pressure of forty or fifty pounds to the square inch1 and says that1 at these pressures1 taste1 smell1 and the sense of touch lose their acuteness4 ,in the ,engineering ,record for ,january #bc1 #aijd1 there is an interesting article on ,caisson ,disease4 ,it says that twenty pounds pressure per square inch is common on foundation work in ,new ,york1 and that bridge piers have been built when pressures of nearly fifty pounds were required4 ,the deepest pneumatic work in ,new ,york was done in the ,east ,river gas tunnel1 when the maximum pressure was about forty-seven to fifty pounds per square inch above atmospheric4 ,in the gas tunnel four men died from the effects of heavy pressure1 while none died from that reason under bridge work4 ,the article further says that ordinarily strong young men in proper condition do not suffer from working two four-hour shifts daily1 under pressure up to twenty-five or thirty pounds2 above that limit injurious effects may be felt1 etc4 ,let any reasonable man consider the meaning of these data4 ,without any selective action on the race1 without even a graded increase of pressure from boyhood up1 these workmen perform hard labor of stone excavation at these pressures1 and in the same way1 without previous experience1 men are fighting battles at #ai1jjj feet altitude1 and in one instance growing fat at #bj1jjj feet4 ,eminent ,german and ,french scientists have studied the effects of pneumatic pressure by numerous experiments on men and animals4 ,one experimenter subjected a great number of dogs1 cats1 rabbits1 guinea-pigs1 and other animals to repeated pressures up to one hundred pounds1 and carefully observed the effects of the varying conditions1 some of which were fatal1 while others were apparently harmless4 ,the experiments showed that sudden release from heavy pressures was fatal1 but that if three or four hours were occupied in reducing a pressure of one hundred pounds1 it was harmless4 ,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 adaptation4 ,as a matter of fact we use but a small portion of our lung capacity4 ,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 air1 and also when he has expired the accustomed quantity of air in normal breathing1 he can continue to expire a great deal more air4 ,professor ,jeffries ,wyman1 the famous lecturer on comparative anatomy at ,harvard1 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 effort2 also that having expired the ordinary quantity we could expire a hundred cubic inches more and when the lungs were removed from the body1 an extra hundred cubic inches could be forced from them4 ,a surgeon friend tells me that many men live and work with the greater portion of both lungs diseased1 and unable to perform their functions4 ,it would be an interesting inquiry to ascertain what other species of the animal kingdom has so wide a range as man4 ,the dog evidently follows him in all altitudes and at all temperatures4 ,the group of insects to which the bees1 wasps1 and ants belong1 have always been recognized as standing highest in intelligence among the invertebrates4 ,in the great work of ,dr4 and ,mrs4 ,peckham on wasps are shown manifestations of intelligence among the wasps that are simply startling1 and the remarkable work of ,miss ,adele ,m4 ,fielde on the ants adds greatly to the evidences of their unique intelligence4 ,the ant stands among the invertebrates much as man does among the vertebrates4 ,one has only to state concretely that ants practise a division of labor2 distinguish certain colors2 estimate numbers2 recognize friends and enemies2 harvest seeds1 and1 it is said1 raise them1 hence are called agricultural ants2 have insect cows and milk them2 collect leaves which they chop up for the purpose of raising a kind of fungus upon which they live2 organize raids and fight battles in masses2 enslave other species2 build covered ways and tunnels2 and perform other acts of a similar nature4 ,bearing these statements in mind it is an interesting fact that at altitudes in ,arizona1 where man finds it impossible to live except by fetching water from regions below1 the ant1 equally dependent on water1 has survived on these high tablelands1 and manages to raise huge colonies4 ,in wandering over the mesa at ,flagstaff1 at an elevation of over #g1jjj feet1 the extreme dryness of the ground is indicated by long cracks which appear on the surface4 ,here1 where hardly any insect is found except an occasional roaming butterfly1 the ant has survived and is met with in great numbers4 ,even a rare solitary insect known as the velvet ant1 and consequently without communal aid1 is found chirping merrily amidst these arid surroundings4 ,in this connection1 it is interesting to observe that creatures endowed with the highest intelligence1 both vertebrate and invertebrate1 manage to survive in considerable numbers in regions devoid of water4 ,one conveys it to his habitations from lower levels1 the other digs wells or manages to utilize the moisture from the roots of trees4 ,,xiv ,,my ,,own ,,work ,snow caps of solid carbonic acid gas1 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 performance1 and so forth and so on1 in hypotheses each more astounding than its predecessor1 commend themselves to man1 if only by such means he may escape the admission of anything approaching his kind4 ,,percival ,,lowell4 ,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 telescope1 and if so did ,i make out any markings or canals4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii ,,dome ,,of ,,the ,,lowell ,,observatory1 ,,flagstaff1 ,,arizona ,it was my good fortune to have the privilege of observing ,mars every night at the ,lowell ,observatory 7see ,plate ,,vii7 for thirty-four days1 covering an almost complete presentation of the planet4 ,a few nights were cloudy and no observations were made4 ,with these exceptions ,i was in the observer's chair several times each evening4 ,the twenty-four inch refractor of which ,i had the use was the last telescope ,clark ever made1 and he pronounced it his best one4 ,this instrument 7,plate ,,viii7 is mounted on a mesa near the town of ,flagstaff1 ,arizona1 at a height of over #g1jjj feet above sea-level1 in an atmosphere of remarkable clarity and steadiness4 ,i have already stated on page #hj my first experiences in observing and will only present the brief notes ,i made at the time of observation4 ,better results would have accompanied these efforts had ,i followed the custom of ,michael ,faraday and asked what was ,i to look at1 what was ,i expected to see8 ,i had been somewhat prejudiced as to the existence of the canals by the comments of sporadic observers1 many of whom1 by the way1 had never been able to see them1 and denying that any one else ever had1 straightway proceeded to suggest a theory to explain their presence6 ,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 disk4 ,the night before ,i left the ,observatory for home ,i asked ,mr4 ,lowell for the first time1 to indicate the position of some conspicuous canal which ,i had not seen4 ,this he did and examining the region which ,i supposed he had indicated on the disk ,i searched in vain for the line4 ,in doing so another line was detected and drawn1 and on confessing my failure to see the line he had described1 showed him my drawing1 when he exclaimed1 ,why1 you have got it1 and sure enough when he showed me his drawing and repeated the directions he had given me1 ,i found that ,i had been looking at the wrong pole of the planet4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii ,,twenty-,,four ,,inch ,,telescope ,,of ,,the ,,lowell ,,observatory1 ,,flagstaff1 ,,arizona ,in one stage of great discouragement ,i came across a statement made by ,mr4 ,a4 ,stanley ,williams which has already been quoted1 namely1 that he had to observe continually for two months before sufficient sensitiveness enabled him to make out the more delicate markings4 ,that ,i might have seen more had ,i been acclimated1 and had been accustomed to telescopic observation there is no doubt4 ,the record is poor enough and yet under the conditions mentioned the results may be of interest to the reader4 ,may #ad4 ,midnight4 ,saw planet for the first time4 ,a beautiful luminous disk with shades of tone dimly visible4 ,southern pole cap white and seen4 ,may #ae4 ,certain details sufficiently distinct to make out dark areas1 and at times a line or two4 ,may #af4 ,occasional flashes of a few lines1 while broad darkened area and cuniform area on right visible1 and1 in one flash1 a line supporting the wedge as well as basal line4 ,with no better seeing conditions than last night1 more details came out1 and for the first time ,i am encouraged to believe that each day an improvement will take place4 ,i saw enough to make my first drawing4 ,may #ag4 ,bad seeing4 ,i made out only the broad southern band1 the line at the northern pole and the wedge-shaped area to the right below1 also a slight discoloration in the middle4 ,may #ah4 ,not very good seeing4 ,could make out but little more than ,i did last night4 ,may #ai4 ,seeing about the same1 perhaps slightly less4 ,saw rift in southern dark band and north pole appeared luminous4 ,may #bj4 ,mr4 ,lowell informed me this morning that the luminous appearance around the north pole that ,i saw last night was the result of a snowstorm4 ,seeing fair4 ,considerable vibration of planet4 ,saw new snow field of the northern pole distinctly outlined and much confused markings4 ,looked in vain for spots but could not discern them4 ,may #ba4 ,seeing clearer1 and for the first time ,i made out distinctly two spots1 or oases4 ,mr4 ,lowell informed me that ,schiaparelli had never seen them4 ,the snow which fell on ,may #ai was still conspicuous4 ,may #bb4 ,with a headache and a seedy condition from not being acclimated1 ,i yet found an improvement in my seeing capacities4 ,i made out a promontory in the southern dark belt1 also a canal running down from the ,trivium4 ,may #bc4 ,bad seeing4 ,could not define snow cap though dark southern band showed4 ,made no drawing4 ,may #bd4 ,am in despair of seeing anything when the others see so much4 ,i must have an old and worn-out retina4 ,in looking1 lines flash out at times but it is impossible to locate them4 ,i can certainly see more than ,huyghens did1 but not much more4 ,may #be4 ,heavens very cloudy and ,mars obscured4 ,may #bf4 ,poor seeing--saw but a few markings4 ,may #bg4 ,snow and hail storm in the afternoon4 ,temperature #ce at night4 ,seeing zero1 and consequently no observation4 ,may #cj4 ,to-night markings and more particularly shades seemed abundant yet so evanescent that only an intimate knowledge by long study could define them4 ,i gave up in despair4 ,may #ca4 ,saw a little more than ,i saw last night but did not see a trace of things that ,mr4 ,lowell and his assistants apparently saw without effort4 ,i realize that it requires a special training to observe the flickering evanescent markings on ,mars4 ,june #a4 ,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 anything4 ,june #b4 ,i went to the ,observatory to-night in despair of ever seeing anything more4 ,got into the observing chair and immediately saw a number of markings ,i had not seen before1 as my drawings show4 ,i have purposely refrained from studying the maps1 and so do not know the names of the lines detected4 ,june #c4 ,atmosphere so unsteady that it was impossible to make anything out of ,mars1 so after struggling awhile gave it up in disgust4 ,june #d4 ,seeing about #d1 yet manage to see a few planetary details4 ,june #e4 ,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 sketch1 and looking at the region ,i can see no trace of a canal or anything else4 ,june #g4 ,seeing very good and in my observations tonight added another canal4 ,it is a most difficult matter to catch the fleeting lines as they appear with startling distinctness to instantly vanish again4 ,june #i4 ,seeing fairly good4 ,could make out but little more4 ,color of regions very strong and vivid4 ,june #aj4 ,seeing a little better than last night4 ,added three new canals1 and these canals flashed out three or four times before ,i was willing to record them1 and then ,i did not believe them till ,mr4 ,lowell showed me a drawing he had made just before1 and the two drawings corresponded4 ,june #aa4 ,looked at eight o'clock and the markings of larger features came out strong and dark and yet the seeing was not estimated high4 ,june #ab4 ,rather poor seeing though some of the dark regions came out with remarkable distinctness4 ,every day ,i notice a very slight improvement in detecting lines4 ,markings formerly made out with great difficulty are now instantly recognized4 ,june #ac4 ,in my observations to-night added one new canal and completed another1 and was able to detect one that ,mr4 ,lowell had not seen during the evening--a well-known one he says4 ,it simply shows that one must continually observe as the lines flash out for a single instant4 ,june #ad4 ,made out still another canal to-night4 ,the markings show very clear1 in fact some parts were vivid in distinctness and the lower part of ,syrtis ,major dark blue4 ,june #ae4 ,poor seeing1 yet ,i was able to see a few of the prominent features and defined the wedge-shaped region below4 ,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 fix4 ,other lines flashed out for an instant but these were not recorded1 simply because ,i could not definitely locate them4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ix ,,may #ai ,,may #bb ,snow fell ,may #ai ,,june #e ,,june #i-aj ,,june #ac ,,june #aa-ac ,,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 ,flagstaff4 ,poor seeing1 therefore1 at ,flagstaff would be equal1 if not superior1 to the best seeing at much lower levels4 ,an astronomer who resigned his position in a western observatory for duties at ,mount ,wilson1 ,california1 told me that for thirty consecutive nights the seeing was superior to the best nights he had observed in at his former post4 ,,xv ,,what ,,the ,,martians ,,might ,,say ,,of ,,us ,o wad some power the giftie gie us1 ,to see oursels as others see us6 ,,robert ,,burns4 ,for every single perplexity of interpretation we encounter in our study of the surface markings of ,mars1 the ,martian would encounter a dozen perplexities in interpreting the various features on the surface of the ,earth4 ,admitting the conclusions of ,lowell of the existence of intelligence in ,mars1 and that that intelligence has been associated for ages with a planet having only slight elevations of land1 a tenuous atmosphere1 a scarcity of water which has been utilized for ages through artificial channels1 as we have done in various parts of the world since prehistoric times1 having vast tracts of sterile plains1 and1 within these sterile tracts large oases fed by irrigating canals1 regions of sparse vegetation1 and no large bodies of water2 with these conditions going beyond the history of these intelligences1 what must be the ,martian interpretation of the surface features of this world8 ,it is a perfectly fair inquiry1 for by such means we may appreciate the attitude of some of our interpreters of ,mars4 ,in examining the ,earth1 then1 as we have examined ,mars1 the ,martian would find large yellow and reddish areas1 extensive greenish areas1 and1 besides1 large regions of varying shades of blue1 possibly1 occupying three-fourths of the ,earth's surface4 ,the yellow areas he would interpret as desert land1 the greenish areas he might consider vegetation1 but what would he make out of the larger regions of blue8 ,this would certainly puzzle him1 because1 unfamiliar with oceans1 he could not believe that such vast tracts could really be water4 ,he would easily interpret the polar snow caps1 and the waters at their edges1 but the oceans would be impossible to solve4 ,the suggestion1 by some audacious interpreter1 that this vast blue area was water1 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 purposes4 ,even the polar snow caps would be doubted1 because they seemed to extend far down into temperate latitudes2 and on their recedence in summer1 there would be seen no dark1 bordering seas as the result of their melting4 ,the vegetation1 instead of unfolding at the north and gradually extending southward1 would unfold in a contrary direction1 appearing first in south temperate latitudes and developing northward4 ,the perennial character of the vegetation in the tropics would puzzle him4 ,even if he recognized oases in the deserts of ,america and ,africa1 the results of ,artesian wells or springs1 he could not believe them to be vegetation2 for he would detect no irrigating canals running into them4 ,he would come to the conclusion that no creature could possibly exist on the ,earth1 as the tremendous force of gravitation with great atmospheric pressure would forbid the existence of any organic forms4 ,the immense clouds veiling the surface must at times suffer condensation1 and the impact of raindrops would1 from their velocity and weight1 smash everything in the way of life4 ,life1 if it existed in forms supported by appendages1 must have legs of iron to sustain its weight1 and a crust like a turtle to be impervious to raindrops1 and this would be contrary to all ,martian analogy4 ,the courses of rivers1 if detected1 would puzzle him from their irregularity1 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 poles4 ,in fact1 about the only feature outside the polar snow caps that he would instantly recognize1 would be the great ice cap of the ,himalayas4 ,india1 that vast region extending from latitude #ce nearly to the equator1 with its great plains and sterile regions1 with its overpowering heat1 and a dense population1 depends for the sustenance of many of its millions upon the thousands of miles of irrigating canals1 fed from the melting snow caps of the ,himalayas4 ,india has no great lakes1 but in the northern plains great rivers course their way to the sea4 ,the ,ganges and the ,indus and their tributaries derive their waters from the melting glaciers1 and from these1 a most extensive irrigating system of canals and reservoirs draw their waters4 ,as the heat increases the ice melts more rapidly1 and so more water is supplied at just the time when it is most needed4 ,the whole scheme is on so vast a scale that a ,martian would recognize its meaning1 though he would wonder at the tortuous outlines of the larger canals4 ,flammarion has1 in a similar manner1 presented the arguments of ,martian astronomers as to whether life exists anywhere but upon the planet ,mars4 ,he says1 among other fancies1 that the sapient ,martian argues that houses could not be built on the ,earth1 on account of the violence with which building materials1 such as bricks1 blocks1 etc41 would drop1 and thus endanger life4 ,believing that ,mars is rightly balanced as to temperature1 the ,earth being so much nearer the ,sun1 would be too hot for life to exist4 ,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 man4 ,the ,martian considers our year too short4 ,in his reflections he says3 ,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-four1 if1 indeed1 they are not already dead4 ,seriously1 if there is an intelligence in ,mars1 it must have evolved along the same general lines as intelligence has developed on the ,earth4 ,being an older planet1 it must have outgrown many of the vagaries and illusions which still hamper man in his progress here4 ,in the dim past1 however1 we can imagine some ,martian astronomer with the enigma of our ,earth before him1 and the great vault of heaven with its thousands of riddles unanswered1 consulting records and covering pages with mathematical formul to ascertain the precise spot upon which grew the bean stalk by which a ,martian ,jack ascended to encounter the giant4 ,indeed1 the imagination can conjure up an infinite number of parallels4 ,if ,mars is an older sphere1 we trust it has long outgrown the superstitions which still hamper man in his interpretation of the inexorable phenomena of ,nature on this little planet4 ,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 worship4 ,these are his words3 ,science is teaching the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment1 and not authority4 ,she is teaching it to estimate the value of evidence2 she is creating a firm and living faith in the existence of immutable moral and physical laws1 perfect obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being4 ,,xvi ,,schiaparelli1 ,,lowell1 ,,perrotin1 ,,thollon ,every age has its problem1 by solving which humanity is helped forward4 ,,heinrich ,,heine4 ,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 ,mars4 ,testimony from astronomical sources has been quoted as to their keen-sightedness in this work which1 as ,sir ,robert ,ball has said1 indicates one of the utmost refinements of astronomical observation4 ,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 given4 ,illustration3 ,,giovanni ,,virginio ,,schiaparelli ,the two astronomers most widely known in connection with the study of ,mars are ,professor ,giovanni ,schiaparelli and ,professor ,percival ,lowell4 ,lowell had just graduated from ,harvard1 at the age of twenty-one1 when ,schiaparelli1 at the age of forty-two1 made his first great discovery of the canali of ,mars4 ,macpherson1 in his valuable history of the ,astronomers of ,to-day1 says of ,schiaparelli3 ,his studies of meteoric astronomy1 of ,mars1 ,venus1 and ,mercury1 of double stars and of stellar distribution1 have given him a place second to none among living students of the heavens4 ,from the same interesting book we gather the following facts3 ,schiaparelli was born in ,sabigliano1 in ,piedmont1 in #ahce4 ,he attended the usual schools in his native town and then entered the ,university of ,turin as a student of mathematics and architecture4 ,before he was twenty years old he decided to devote himself to the study of astronomy4 ,at the age of twenty-four he was an assistant in the celebrated ,observatory of ,pulkova4 ,when the kingdom of ,italy was organized he became an assistant in the ,brera ,observatory1 ,milan4 ,he became suddenly famous at the age of twenty-seven by the discovery of a new asteroid4 ,in #ahfb he became ,director of the ,observatory4 ,schiaparelli's first great discovery was the relationship between comets and meteoric showers4 ,in #ahgb he was accorded the gold medal of the ,royal ,astronomical ,society for his various astronomical discoveries4 ,professor ,simon ,newcomb gives him high praise when he says3 ,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 sky1 the conscientious minuteness of his examinations1 and his eminence as an investigator4 ,schiaparelli's researches into the relation of comets and meteors were developed in #ahgc1 in his remarkable work ',le ,stelle ,cardenti1' which is1 according to ,sir ,norman ,lockyer1 one of the greatest contributions to astronomical literature which the nineteenth century has produced4 ,macpherson closes his interesting memoir of ,schiaparelli by saying3 ,his devotion to astronomy1 his singularly accurate observations and his wonderful discoveries have secured for him an exalted position among the greatest astronomers of modern times4 ,for a further appreciation of the work of ,schiaparelli the reader is referred to ,macpherson's ,astronomers of ,to-day4 ,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 surface1 whatever one's interpretation of them may be4 ,illustration3 ,,percival ,,lowell ,percival ,lowell was born in ,boston in #ahee4 ,he was graduated from ,harvard in #ahgf1 and prepared for his graduating thesis an essay on the ,nebular ,hypothesis4 ,lowell is a many-sided man4 ,early interested in mathematics1 he became one of the founders of the ,mathematical and ,physical ,society of ,boston4 ,a visit to ,japan1 where he lived a number of years1 resulted in the writing of three interesting books3 ,the ,soul of the ,far ,east1 #ahhf2 ,noto1 #ahia2 and ,occult ,japan1 #ahid4 ,during his residence in ,japan he was chosen foreign ,secretary and adviser to the ,korean ,special ,commission1 then about to visit the ,united ,states1 which he accompanied4 ,on his return to ,korea he was the guest of the ,korean ,government1 and this experience prompted him to write ,a ,korean ,coup d' tat1 #ahid1 and his well-known volume1 ,choson1 the ,land of the ,morning ,calm1 #ahhe4 ,on his return to ,america he undertook an eclipse expedition to ,tripoli with ,professor ,todd4 ,his early interest in astronomical subjects was now fully awakened1 and the red planet1 which he had observed in boyhood with a small telescope from the roof of his father's house1 aroused his interest on account of the heated discussions over ,schiaparelli's discoveries4 ,with an impetuosity and enthusiasm which characterizes all his work1 he set about to secure a proper region and a sufficient elevation for an observatory site4 ,this was found in northern ,arizona at an elevation of over #g1jjj feet4 ,here1 then1 was established the ,lowell ,observatory with a twenty-four inch refractor made by ,clark especially for this ,observatory1 the last1 and1 according to the maker's words1 the best telescope he had ever made4 ,lowell insisted that the location of an observatory was a much more important factor than the size of the instrument1 and says3 ,when this is recognized1 as it eventually will be1 it will become the fashion to put up observatories where they may see rather than be seen4 ,it may be said with truth that1 for the first time in the history of astronomy1 an observatory has been erected and fitted for the special purpose of studying the surface features of ,mars4 ,during unfavorable oppositions ,lowell has turned his attention to the other planets1 notably ,mercury and ,venus1 with the result of adding many new and interesting details concerning these bodies4 ,three volumes of quarto memoirs and many bulletins from the ,lowell ,observatory attest to his industry4 ,he has been fortunate in securing talented assistants1 and their contributions may be found in the various publications of the ,observatory4 ,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 ,mars1 and the tilt of the planet's equator to its ecliptic1 which was furnished by ,professor ,lowell in compliance with a request4 ,mr4 ,lowell is a ,fellow of the ,american ,academy of ,arts and ,sciences2 ,member of the ,royal ,asiatic ,society of ,great ,britain2 ,american ,philosophical ,society2 ,socit ,astronomique de ,france2 ,american ,astronomical and ,astrophysical ,society2 ,astronomische ,gesellschaft2 ,socit ,belge d',astronomie2 ,fellow of the ,american ,geographical ,society2 ,honorary ,member ,sociedad ,astronomica de ,mexico2 and others4 ,in #aijd he was awarded the ,janssen medal of the ,astronomical ,society of ,france for his researches on ,mars4 ,mr4 ,macpherson1 in his memoir on ,lowell1 says that ,mr4 ,lowell1 by his unwearied devotion to astronomy1 has already gained for himself an enduring reputation4 ,illustration3 ,,henri ,,perrotin ,m4 ,henry ,perrotin and his assistant1 ,m4 ,thollon1 have been quoted in previous pages as having markedly confirmed the discoveries of ,schiaparelli4 ,through the courtesy of ,professor ,lowell ,i am enabled to present the likenesses of these two astronomers4 ,i am indebted to the exhaustive work of ,miss ,agnes ,m4 ,clerke1 entitled the ,history of ,astronomy during the ,nineteenth ,century1 for the following memoranda of some of the work accomplished by these men4 ,perrotin made a series of observations on ,venus fully confirming ,schiaparelli's inference of synchronous rotation and revolution3 ,a remarkable collection of drawings made by ,mr4 ,lowell in #ahif appeared decisive in favor of the views of ,schiaparelli4 ,in other words1 ,venus1 like the ,moon1 presents the same face to the ,sun in its revolution about that luminary4 ,perrotin has made important observations on the rings of ,saturn2 his double-star measurements are also considered work of the highest character4 ,illustration3 ,m4 ,,thollon ,thollon has made many spectroscopic studies1 among which were delicate experiments showing the lateral displacement of lines in the solar spectrum arising from the ,sun's rotation4 ,in the ,annals of the ,nice ,observatory he published a great atlas consisting of thirty-three maps1 exhibiting in quadruplicate a subdivision of the solar spectrum under varied conditions of weather and zenith distance4 ,he also studied the spectrum of the great comet of #ahhb1 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 second4 ,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 power4 ,the character and reputation of these men1 as well as others who have been quoted in these pages1 must be weighed against the few who1 not content with denying the existence of the canali in ,mars1 have in strong language abused those who accept them as veritable markings on the planet's surface4 ,,xvii ,,last ,,words ,the uniformity of the course of ,nature will appear as the ultimate major premise of all inductions4 ,,john ,,stuart ,,mill4 ,the final question is1 do the lines as depicted and described by various observers exist on the surface of ,mars8 ,those who have made the greatest addition to our knowledge of the character of these lines1 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 observation4 ,the most successful work has been accomplished with instruments of fine definition in regions of steady atmosphere and high altitude1 or at intervals of clarity and steadiness in regions otherwise unfavorable4 ,finally1 and most convincing of all1 ,mr4 ,lowell's assistant1 ,mr4 ,lampland1 after many attempts has succeeded in photographing the more conspicuous linear markings4 ,the lines do exist essentially as figured by ,schiaparelli and ,lowell4 ,it now rests with the objectors to suggest any better interpretation of the markings of ,mars than that they are the results of intelligent effort4 ,the medival attitude of some astronomers regarding this question recalls the story of ,scheiner1 a ,jesuit brother1 who1 independently of ,galileo and ,fabricius1 discovered spots on the ,sun4 ,eager with enthusiasm he informed his ,superior of his remarkable discovery and begged to be allowed to publish it to the world4 ,the ,superior replied1 ,go1 my son2 tranquilize yourself and rest assured that what you take for spots on the ,sun are the faults of your glasses or of your eyes4 ,this happened three hundred years ago1 and yet to-day a few astronomers of this class still survive4 ,if one will calmly reason about the matter1 let him consider a parallel case of interpretation4 ,he digs out from the ground a fragment of stone2 its somewhat symmetrical shape suggests to him the idea that it may be a rude stone implement4 ,if he wishes to know what kind of rock it is and its geological age1 he refers it to a geologist2 if he wishes to know its composition1 he asks a mineralogist1 who1 if necessary1 will analyze it for him4 ,if1 however1 he is curious to know whether its peculiar1 fractured surface is due to frost or other natural agency1 or whether it is the work of some rude savage1 he inquires of an archologist1 who alone will be able to tell him whether it is a worked stone or natural fragment4 ,he will probably tell him whether it was shaped by paleolithic man1 and whether it is a rough stone implement or a core1 reject or chip4 ,so with the study of ,mars1 as we have already pointed out1 there are certain matters of information about the planet which the astronomer alone can impart1 while the superficial markings are just as certainly to be interpreted by another class of students who may or not be familiar with astronomical methods4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was quite natural that astronomers1 the most conservative of all classes of observers1 should have doubted the first announcement of ,schiaparelli of the startling discovery of the canali marking the face of the planet1 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 seen4 ,what added greatly to the doubt about the lines1 and at the same time strengthened the idea that the lines were illusory1 was the subsequent announcement by ,schiaparelli--undeterred by the universal skepticism--that at times the lines appeared double4 ,what more convincing evidence could be offered than that the phenomenon was purely subjective8 ,a few astronomers expressed their doubts in a courteous though hesitating manner4 ,professor ,young1 in his valuable text-book1 ,elements of ,astronomy 7#ahij71 in correctly reporting ,schiaparelli's discovery says3 ,he is so careful and experienced an observer that his results cannot be lightly rejected2 and yet it is not easy to banish a vague suspicion of some error or illusion1 partly because his observations have thus far received so little confirmation from others1 and partly because his 'canals' are so difficult to explain4 ,they can hardly be rivers1 because they are quite straight2 nor can they be artificial water-ways since the narrowest of them are forty or fifty miles wide4 ,to add to the mystery1 he finds that at certain times many of them become doubled1--the two which replace the former single one running parallel to each other for hundreds1 and sometimes thousands1 of miles1 with a space of #bjj or #cjj miles between them4 ,he thinks that this gemination of the canals follows the course of the planet's seasons4 ,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 worlds4 ,one cannot but regret that some philosopher had not1 years before ,schiaparelli's time1 expressed the conviction that ,mars might perhaps be more favorable to the existence of intelligent life than our own world1 and with this conviction proceed to formulate the conditions which must of necessity exist3 namely1 that the planet being a much older world than ours1 its waters had mostly vanished by chemical combination with the rocks and otherwise4 ,following this assumption1 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 purposes4 ,the philosopher might have superadded to this idea the prediction that1 when telescopes were strong enough and eyes were keen enough1 evidence of the truth of this supposition would be found in canals of some sort and that such lines should be carefully sought for4 ,fancy the exultation of ,schiaparelli when at last he found the lines precisely as indicated4 ,such an announcement from so distinguished an astronomer would have been hailed with acclaim4 ,alas6 for the conservatism of astronomers1 such powers of prevision are sadly wanting4 ,le ,verrier's prediction of an outer planet was a matter of dead certainty4 ,the perturbations of ,uranus could not be accounted for except by the assumption of an outside body1 and had it not been for the characteristic reserve of ,english astronomers1 ,adams might have had the full credit4 ,so rare are predictions of this nature in the history of astronomy that this instance will probably be quoted to the end of time4 ,the masses1 still ignorant of the certainty of mathematical astronomy1 regard the prediction of an eclipse as in the nature of a prophecy4 ,the liberal attitude of naturalists stands in marked contrast1 and the history of their work is filled with examples of prediction and repeated confirmations4 ,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 subject4 ,the existence of forms was predicted1 based on the idea of evolution1 and these have been found again and again4 ,our museums display in their cases remains of fossil animals which complete many series undreamed of in pre-,darwinian days4 ,this wonderful work has been accomplished without resort to algebraic formul1 and yet when mathematics can be applied1 as it is in the law of variation1 quantitative studies in heredity1 and statistical methods generally1 it is promptly seized upon by the biologist4 99 99 99 99 99 ,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 absurd4 ,if1 on the other hand1 he finds himself in agreement with those who believe the markings are the result of intelligent effort1 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 ,mars4 ,indeed1 he is compelled to do so1 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 below4 ,large white spots in equatorial regions which could not possibly be snow-covered hills1 might be masses of white flowers or cloth-covered areas for the better cultivation of certain plants4 ,lines that dimly stretched across the surface might be rivers1 caons1 rifts1 or bands of irrigation1 according to their character4 ,as we compare the circular markings on the ,moon with our terrestrial craters and fissures1 and cracks on its surface with similar fissures on the ,earth1 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 ,earth4 ,once proved that the markings of ,mars are due to erosion1 cracks1 encircling meteors big enough to raise ridges by their attractive force1 then all that has been written in demonstration of their artificial character goes for naught4 ,the intelligent reader unprejudiced in the matter will1 however1 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 ,mars4 ,,index ,algebraic formul1 #gc4 ,american astronomers1 ,holden1 ,pickering1 ,young1 ,swift1 ,comstock1 ,barnard1 ,wilson1 drew the more conspicuous canals1 #fe4 ,ancient irrigation1 #aae4 ,ants surviving at high altitudes1 #aeg2 unique intelligence1 #aef4 ,astronomer's chief work1 #gd2 conservatism1 #ge4 ,astronomers who have seen the canals1 #hc4 ,astronomical subjects remote from ,martian studies1 #gb4 ,atmosphere and moisture1 ,barnard and others1 #acd1 #ace2 ,sir ,robert ,ball1 #acg4 ,austria's care of water1 #aag4 ,ball1 ,sir ,robert1 difficulties of observation1 #hd2 life on ,mars quite likely1 #fh1 #fi2 objection to ,mars being inhabited1 #aba4 ,barbour1 ,w4 ,d41 with a four inch achromatic1 #hh4 ,barnard's1 ,dr41 description of dark regions1 #dc4 ,bees1 wasps1 and ants1 #aef4 ,canali supposed to mean canals1 #ci4 ,canals appear double1 #da2 artificiality of1 #db2 as distinct as engraved lines1 #ei2 chain of reasoning in regard to1 #dg2 double1 #da2 of ,mars1 #dj2 unchangeable in position1 #db4 ,cassini1 #cc4 ,chandler's oscillation of pole1 #abf4 ,checkerboard appearance of ,west1 #dh4 ,clerke's1 ,agnes ,m41 expressions1 #ee4 ,clouds in ,mars1 #aci2 in ,mars1 ,sir ,norman ,lockyer1 #acf4 ,comments and criticism1 #abe4 ,committee of ,british ,astronomical ,association1 #abf4 ,conception of life in other worlds1 #ag4 ,conservatism of astronomers1 #ahe4 ,cracks all of the same nature1 #ajh2 discontinuous1 #aji2 in asphalt pavement1 #aji4 ,cultivation under cloth1 ,porto ,rico1 #ej4 ,dark regions not seas1 #de4 ,dawes1 remarkable distinctness of vision1 #hi4 ,de la ,rive1 memoir of ,faraday1 #gf4 ,denning's1 ,mr41 testimony1 #ef1 #eg4 ,difficulties of seeing1 #gi4 ,dighton ,rock1 #ig4 ,draper1 ,dr4 ,henry1 ,are other worlds inhabited8 #hg2 difficulties of seeing1 #hg2 high altitudes for telescopes1 #hh4 ,drawings of ,mars by different observers1 #ih4 ,dust storms in ,mars1 #adj4 ,earth1 a standard1 #be1 #bf1 #ahf2 early ideas regarding the1 #g2 improbability of its being unique1 #ac4 ,earth's distance from the sun1 #aa2 temperature above normal1 #cg4 ,emerson's expressions1 #ba4 ,england's unsteady atmosphere1 #hd4 ,epicyclic theory of ,ptolemy1 #h4 ,evolution of the ,solar ,system1 ,t4 ,j4 ,j4 ,see1 #bc4 ,failure of water in ,england1 #aaf4 ,faraday's1 ,michael1 attitude1 #gf4 ,fauth1 ,dr4 ,phil41 #fc2 drawings of ,mars1 #fc4 ,first look at ,mars1 #hj4 ,fison's1 ,mr41 comments1 #ig4 ,flammarion's picture of the ,earth from ,mars1 #afi2 work on ,mars1 #ea4 ,fruit trees1 ,santa ,clara ,valley1 #di4 ,gill's1 ,sir ,david1 testimony1 #ij4 ,hebraic conceptions1 astronomers imbued with1 #ba4 ,hebraic conceptions of the universe1 #h4 ,herschel1 ,sir ,john1 on snow caps1 #gf4 ,high altitudes favorable to health1 #aeb4 ,holden1 ,e4 ,s41 on nebula of ,orion1 #if4 ,howe's1 ,herbert ,a41 remarks1 #fe1 #ff4 ,huxley's estimate of mathematicians1 #gd4 ,huyghens1 #cb4 ,ice caps of ,himalaya1 #aae4 ,iles1 ,george1 illustration of cooling bodies1 #be4 ,illusions1 supposes1 #ei4 ,irrelevant criticism1 #abf4 ,irrigation1 ancient in ,arizona1 in ,egypt1 in ,india1 #ade2 marvels of1 #adc2 notes on1 #ada4 ,joly's1 ,dr4 ,j41 theory1 #ajj4 ,keeler's definition of astrophysics1 #gg4 ,lampland1 photographs of ,mars1 #cb4 ,ledger's1 ,rev4 ,e41 canals of ,mars1 #aca4 ,liberal attitude of naturalists1 #ahe4 ,life at high altitudes1 #aej2 in other worlds1 ,garrett ,p4 ,serviss1 #adh2 under atmospheric pressure1 #aec4 ,lindsay's1 ,thomas1 expressions1 #ee4 ,lines of artificial character1 #aab4 ,lockyer1 ,sir ,norman1 saw clouds in ,mars1 #acf4 ,lockyer's1 ,w4 ,j41 testimony1 #hi4 ,lowell1 ,percival1 brief sketch of1 #agd2 different telescopes used by1 #hb2 gives reason why canals cannot always be seen1 #ic2 his acute eyesight1 #he1 #hf2 his book on ,mars1 #ca2 his various publications1 #ca2 long practice in observing1 #he2 snow caps prove atmosphere1 #ace2 on life on ,mars1 #cb1 #fg2 on twilight atmosphere in ,mars1 #cd4 ,lung capacity1 #aee2 at high altitudes1 #aeb4 ,macpherson1 ,hector1 ,jr41 agrees with ,lowell1 #fh4 ,mars1 appearance of ,earth from1 #aah2 beginning of life in1 #af2 canals1 #dj2 canals continuous1 #aji2 dark regions change with the season1 #ch2 dark regions not seas1 #cg2 desert lands1 #ci2 detached fields of snow1 #cg2 disappearance of southern snow cap1 #cg2 distance from sun1 #ab2 double canals1 #de1 #df2 drawings of1 coincided1 #ha2 glints of brilliant light1 #cg2 has it water8 #ce2 has life appeared in8 #ae2 life in1 from analogy1 #ae2 much like the world1 #af2 nearest approach to earth1 #cb2 oases1 #dd2 seasonal changes in1 #cd2 seasons1 #cc2 rarefaction of atmosphere in1 #ce2 rotation of1 ,cassini1 #cc2 temperature of1 #ce2 terminator of1 ,douglass1 #ce2 those who see and those who do not see1 #he2 tilt of axis1 #cc2 white polar caps1 #cc4 ,maunder1 director of committee1 #abf4 ,maunders's1 ,e4 ,w41 comments1 #ajc4 ,maunier1 ,stanislaus1 on canal doubling1 #aai4 ,maxwell1 ,clerk1 on mathematicians1 #gd4 ,medival attitude of some astronomers1 #aha4 ,michel1 ,louise1 teaching children1 #gc4 ,morehouse1 ,george ,w41 believes ,mars is inhabited1 #fg1 #fh4 ,my own work1 #aeh4 ,newcomb's1 ,professor1 opinion1 #bd2 other worlds inhabited1 #bh2 ,reminiscences1 #bg4 ,number of acres under irrigation1 #abb4 ,observations of ,mars1 #ast period1 #ea2 #b;d period1 #eb2 #c;d period1 #ec2 #dth period1 ,lowell's work1 #ed4 ,orr's1 ,j41 theory1 #ajb4 ,parallel case of interpretation1 #aha4 ,patterson's1 ,john ,a41 expressions1 #ef4 ,perrotin1 brief sketch of1 #agg4 ,perrotin and ,janssen describes the canals1 #fc2 and ,thollon1 #eh4 ,perrotin's painstaking care1 #fc1 #fd4 ,phillips'1 ,rev4 ,theo4 ,e4 ,r41 drawing1 #fb4 ,pickering1 ,w4 ,h41 canals seen by1 #fc2 shows importance of steady atmosphere1 #hg2 observations in ,jamaica by1 #hh2 polariscope observations by1 #cf-ch2 theory of1 #aje4 ,planetology1 #gg4 ,plurality of worlds1 astronomer's belief in1 #ah2 ,edward ,hitchcock's views of the1 #ba2 ,flammarion's views of the1 #ai2 ,newcomb's attitude in regard to the1 #bh2 ,newcomb's belief in the1 #bi2 ,o4 ,m4 ,mitchell's views in regard to the1 #ai2 ,sir ,david ,brewster's views of the1 #ag2 ,sir ,richard ,owen's views in regard to the1 #ai2 ,tyndall's views of the1 #bb4 ,polar snow cap1 proof deduced from ,lowell1 ,douglass1 and ,pickering1 #ace4 ,profound changes by man1 #abc4 ,railroads in ,iowa and ,texas1 #adb4 ,review of ,lowell's book1 #ff4 ,rift in ,southern ,africa1 #aab4 ,schiaparelli1 abstemiousness when observing1 #hd2 brief sketch of1 #agb2 canals artificial1 #fb2 canali natural1 #fj2 discovery1 #eg2 discovery of canals1 #ci2 does not deny intelligence in ,mars1 #fj2 suggestion as to doubling1 #abj4 ,sea1 so-called1 land areas1 #ci4 ,seasonal changes1 #acf4 ,snow storms in ,mars1 ,w4 ,h4 ,pickering1 #ach4 ,solar system a standard for universe1 #bf4 ,stars1 bright points of light1 #g2 similar to our sun1 #i4 ,stetefeldt's1 ,c4 ,a41 views1 #abi4 ,study of planetary markings1 #gj4 ,sun and planets reduced to minute scale1 #aa4 ,temperature under which man exists1 #adi4 ,terby1 ,dr41 identifies many canals1 #fd4 ,theories regarding canals1 #ajj4 ,thollon1 brief sketch of1 #agh4 ,titles of papers in astronomical journals1 #ga4 ,todd1 ,professor1 says canals result of design1 #fh4 ,turner1 ,h4 ,h41 ,astronomical ,discovery1 #gh2 on the difficulties of seeing1 #ia4 ,tycho ,brahe1 #h4 ,tyndall on imagination1 #gg4 ,tyndall's expressions on the ,nebular ,theory1 #ae2 reference to ,nebular ,theory1 #bd4 ,unfolding of plant life on the earth1 #de4 ,variation in drawings by different observers1 #id1 #ie2 of ,milky ,way1 #ie2 of ,nebula of ,orion1 #ie2 of ,solar ,corona1 #ie1 #if4 ,variety of conditions under which life exists1 #adg4 ,vastness of the universe1 #aj4 ,wallace1 ,alfred ,russel1 human paradox1 #bi2 review of1 in ,london ,nature1 #ah4 ,water vapor1 no spectroscopic proof of1 ,campbell1 #ace4 ,webb's1 ,rev4 ,t4 ,w41 difficulties of seeing1 #ia1 #ib4 ,what the ,martians might say of us1 #aff4 ,white spots in equatorial regions of ,mars1 #dh4 ,white weed in ,new ,england1 #di4 ,williams1 ,a4 ,stanley1 difficulty in observation1 #hb4 ,would the work of man show in ,mars8 #abb4 ,young1 ,c4 ,a41 on snow caps1 #gf1 #abf2 on ,schiaparelli's discovery1 #ahc4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,some of our readers may not know that light travels1 in round numbers1 at the rate of #ahf1jjj miles a second4 #b ,the terminator represents the limit of light on that side of the planet in the shade1 in other words1 where the light terminates4 ,in viewing the ,moon1 when at quarter or half1 the terminator is seen very ragged on account of the illumination of higher points on the surface4 ,if the ,moon was as smooth as a billiard ball the terminator would be clear cut4 #c ,the world in its ignorance of ,italian assumed that the word meant exclusively canals1 and1 if canals1 then dug by shovels4 ,what6 a canal thirty miles wide and two thousand miles long dug in the snap of the finger8 ,impossible conception1 you say4 ,we shall see later the sober utterances of a member of the ,british ,astronomical ,society on this gratuitous assumption1 and an equally serious comment by the chief assistant of the ,royal ,observatory at ,greenwich 7,e4 ,s4 ,m474 #d ,the views so long held that the dark shaded regions were bodies of water1 or seas1 was disproved by the observations of ,pickering and ,douglass1 who distinctly traced the course of the canals across these dark areas4 ,the observations of ,dr4 ,e4 ,barnard certainly sustain the contention that they are land areas and probably depressions1 representing ancient ocean beds4 ,dr4 ,barnard1 using the telescope at the ,lick ,observatory1 says3 ,under the best conditions these dark regions which are always shown1 with smaller telescopes1 of nearly uniform shade1 broke up into a vast amount of very fine details4 ,i hardly know how to describe the appearance of these ',seas' under these conditions4 ,to those1 however1 who have looked down upon a mountainous country from a considerable elevation1 perhaps some conception of the appearance presented by these dark regions may be had4 ,from what ,i know of the appearance of the country about ,mt4 ,hamilton1 as seen from the ,observatory1 ,i can imagine that1 as viewed from a very great elevation1 this region1 broken by caon1 and slope and ridge1 would look like the surface of these ,martian seas4 #e ,sterling ,heiley1 in ,pearson's ,magazine1 ,june1 #aije4 #f ,a translation of which may be found in the ,popular ,science ,monthly1 ,vol4 ,,xxxv1 p4 #ecb4 #g ,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 dollars4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book2 otherwise they were not changed4 ,simple typographical errors were corrected2 occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained2 inconsistent hyphenation retained4 ,ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained4 ,page #adf3 ,quotation mark preceding ',the sale value' has no matching closing mark4 ,page #aib3 ,stetefelt's is spelled ,stetefeldt on page #abi4 ,the latter is correct4 ,page #aib3 ,tycho ,brahe probably should be indexed as ,brahe1 ,tycho4