Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/216

 Is Mars Alive ?

By Waldemar Ksempffert

��IT was in 1877 that the Italian astronomer, Schiaperelli, detected on the planet Mars those curiously straight lines which he christened canali and which have since been a bone of contention among astronomers. Later he also saw his "canals" double, very curiously, until they looked like parallel rail- way tracks — something which has not been satisfac- torily explain- ed to this day. Now that Mars is about to ap- p r o a c h the earth again, a

���E. C. Slipher, of Doctor Lowell's staff, took this instru- ment with him to South America. The drawings of the "canals" made by Mr. Slipher with this instrument agreed in detail with those made at Flagstaff, Arizona

��The Seven Hundred

Puzzling Canals

and What They

Mean

��ception of our animal and plant life or even of our geographical and physical conditions.

Far simpler is the task of the earthly astronomer who studies Mars. The planet is never obscured. No clouds, no veils of mist can d i m the view ; for the Martian atmo- sphere is ever dry, rare and severe, except around the melting caps. A weather

��number of observers, headed by Pro- fessor W. H. Pickering of Harvard, are to add their opinions to the dozens which have been delivered in past years, all without materially affecting the validity of Schiaperelli's work.

Although Mars can never approach us nearer than thirty-five million miles (which is much nearer than it will ap- proach in February), we know more about its surface markings, in some re- spects, than we know about our own Earth. If the Earth were viewed as we view Mars, the only evidence of human handiwork that we could see would be the extensive grain fields of Canada and the United States. Of natural phenom- ena we would note the melting of the Himalayan and Rocky Mountain snows and the consequent flourishing of vege- tation ; the great caps of snow that cover the poles ; the continents and oceans ; and the clouds that girdle the Earth. If a Martian were asked to fathom the mystery of a planet of which he knew only these things, we would hardly ex- pect him to form a very accurate con-

��prophet would have nothing to do on Mars. There is no weather — only the changes of the seasons.

Watching the Snows of Mars

Soon after the telescope was invented and used for astronomical observation it was discovered that there is snow on Mars. During each Martian winter great white caps settle down on the poles ; during each spring and summer they dwindle and disappear. In the dead of winter these white expanses may measure thirty-three hundred miles in extent.

Besides the snow, astronomers long ago discovered that there are curious blue-green and russet areas on the plan- et. At a time when astronomy was not as advanced as it is now, the blue-green areas were supposed to be seas and the russet expanses continents, with the re- sult that both were christened with pic- turesque but inapt names drawn from classical mythology.

Some years after Schiaperelli discov- ered the famous canals of Mars, Pro-

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