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Show Miscellany Mystery of Mars By Garrett P Servls The mystery of the planet Mars may be solved by some such stroke of gen ub combined -n th luck as that wh h re suited in the discovery of the X rays nineteen years ago The problem that Mars presents is as elus ve as it is f asc nat ng When you put a telescopic view of the planet bes de a picture of the earth the re seniblances between them are very str k ng much more 60, perhaps to the eye of an astronomer than to that of a person unfam la w th the appearances of the planetary disks There are th ee sets of planets n the solar sjsteni as concerns the r gen eral aspect First are those 1 ke Mer cury and the moon whqse surfaces never show any change Everything seems to be fixed and unalterable up on them Thev are e ther foss 1 worlds from which all 1 fe has departed or worlds wh eh fron the beg nn ng werej' ne er anjth ng b t gra en n ageB Seconl the e a p ano s e 1 p ter n 1 Sat n o u fa e w le et i(, m boil ge eral fea tures are in continual mot on No h ing upon them remains unchanged even for an hour The vast equator al belts of Jup ter for instance wh ch are broader than the earth and 260 000 miles long (longer than from here to the moon) f uctuate like great stream erB st etched by the w nd The r boundaries are cont nually Bhiit ng spots and gaps appear in them their colors change and somet mes one of them will spl t asunder lengthwise, while huge wh te balloon shape-! masses go fl tt ng over them like clouds over a storn driven sea Third come the most interest ng of the planets those which possess ooth of the character sties just describe 1 They have, at the same t me perma nent unalterable features, and fea tures that exh bit continual and more or less regular changes Only such planets as these can be regarded as the abodes of 1 fe in its h gher forms i e . life of the human type If we could look at our own globe from aiar oft us ng a telescope we should f nt that t s a typ cal example of th s k nd ot planet Its continents apd oceans would always show the same outl nes but the wh tened c rcles around the poles due to the existence of the Arct c and Ant arct c snowf elds would wax and wane n extent w th the seasons the colors of the continental areas wo Id change w th the growth and d sappearance of vegetat on and clouds float ng above seas and lands would from t me to time obscure the r permanent fea tures To th s class Mars belougs and that fact is n tself enough to mal e a pr n a fac e case n ijavor of the hab tabil ty of that planet In some wajB ts rese nblance to the earth s start 1 rtf Its polar snowcaps for nstance spread b ghten and then fade and re cede exactly as we know those of the earth would be seen to do f om ads lance Then too with the change of sea sons on Mars wh ch has almost exact ly the! same mcl nat on of ax s to orbi tal plane that the earth has broad areas of ts surface alter color as we know that the land surfaces of the earth mu6t do when vegetat on sprouts m the spr ng or decays n the autumn In add t on to th s are the so called canals which are s mplj na row dark 1 nes on Mars wh ch appear and d sappear with the com ng and go ng of summer f rst in one hem sphere and then jn the other, and wh ch some as tronomers have thought n av be water courses perhaps of a t fic al or g n wh ch are f lied wheneve the melt ng of the polar snows furnishes a supply of water Accord ng to th s v ew Mars is a half dr ed up planet, wh ch yet reta ns a ren nant of its former populat on oi m tell gent be ngs and these be ngs be come by force of circumstances superb eng neers ha e covered the r des ccated planet w th a g gant e system of rr ga t on cana s The two st ongest arguments aga nst the hab tab 1 ty of Ma s ar se fron ts great d stance from the sun wh h re suits n ts rece vmg only half as much solar heat as the ea th gets and ts ap parent lack of sutf c ent atmosphere to na nta n the h gher forms of 1 fe as the exist on the earth It nust be confessed that neither of these aijgu ments s conclus e for it is not un reasonable to suppose that creatures as bighl organ zei as we are nay be phys call) adjusted to 1 ve at Ion er tein peratures and n rare atn osphere or the raref ed atmosphere of Mars may be so const tuted that t ser es as a blanket to reta n heat |