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Show '; . ' . ; . ' ..,..---. v.j - . .'- (J - ' V ! V ' :, i . . I " ; ' ' ' - r-5, i A Map of the "Water- f! XUltl ways" of Mars Drawn by fl '''hlK'VC ' I ' -ll2"r H Prof. Lowell from Years il4fcvLi fV of Observations. ThiS ftlt?Fpfe ASlYQTh Network of CanalB he f A&f fe t ' M'JwM Believed to Be the Work I WrTSk;V VJ f kir; M&m&'-f- 'il' I JlL.- 2 ofInte.liKentBcinRS,Not lP fPM iVSSf J Necessarily of Human 1 ,fiW' XV VJrW Hr&Wl Shape. Who by Gigantic f iL- 27 Engineering Works g V-fS- Of f A Carved the Melting Snow, tVV from Their Polea Across 44 '''WJ A 1 the Surface of the Dying 3 Of Crf World, Just as Similar wifViW 7 Canals on Earth Carry LMWOfmM!: ' F Fertili.y Into Our Own NSp? FOSIf Infelfe By Prof. Garrett P. Serviss THE sudden death of Professor Tercival Lowell, at his observatory observa-tory at Flagstaff, Arizona, gives n. new interest to the whole subject of life on other worlds than the earth, because be-cause at the moment of his death Pro- ' fesaor Lowell was marshalling his latest observations, made only a few months ago, in support of his famous theory that the mysterious planet Mars is fight- ins a desperate battle for life, and that we can plainly see the signs of that battle in the strange markings on the surface of the planet, which appear, disappear dis-appear and reappear, like the lines of trenches alternately obliterated, captured, cap-tured, re-obliterated, re-captured, and dug yet again, on the front where Europe Is fighting. This year's observations convinced Professor Lowell more strongly than ever that his views are correct. Mars'a fight for life Is made with water and canals, instead of gunpowder and military mili-tary trenches. The whole man-power of the planet is enlisted in the struggle, which is not a tight between races but a universal struggle with nature. But the word "man" must not be misunderstood. At the time of his death Professor Lowell was just begining to make the public comprehend that the wonderful inhabitants inhabi-tants of Mars were to be regarded as "men" only in the sense of intellgence and In that, he thought, they are hundreds hun-dreds of thousands, or milions of years ahead of us. They may have any bodily shape that best suits the circumstances of their world. They may not look like men at all, or they may have the human form evolutionized into some shape far more efficient than it has yet attained here. They belong to a later geological age than ours. (The Martian Intelligences might look upon us as we look upon monkeys in a menagerie, and their learned doctors might say: "See what we were like once! These creatures have a gleam of our Intelligence, and their limbs and sense organs indicate the line of evolution that ours have followed. They even show the germ of some of our most wonderful organs in their growing sensitiveness to electric forces. Give them time, and place them amid our surroundings, and who knows but that they might develop electro - magnetic vision, electro - magnetic mag-netic hearing and electro-magnetic muscular mus-cular control? They might eveu discover the secret of using lnter-atomic energy, which has saved us." Lowell's last observations, made during dur-ing the latest opposition of Mars, which occurred last Winter and Spring, were 50 striking in their graphical illustration of his theory that the strange lines on Mars indicate the working out of an intellectual scheme, or purpose, and are not mere vagaries of nature, that anybody any-body must be impressed. If not convinced, con-vinced, by them. Look at the two views of Mars, herewith reproduced, showine the planet as it was soon at the Flagstaff observatory, respectively on the -Siii of January, and the -nd of March this year. When the first view was taken Summer was advancing over Uie northern hemisphere hemis-phere of Mars. The north pole of the planet was inclined toward the earth, and its great snowy area is shown at the bottom of Uie, picture, bordered with dark Fighting Off Extinction Upon lines, ana crossed 'by a "canal'Mike marking. Thus might the earth appear if we could look down upon it from the moon when the sunlight was flooding the north pole with perpetual day, and the wintry blanket, accumulated during the six-months six-months nolar nieht. was beginning to dissolve and disappear. Notice, by comparing com-paring the two views, how rapidly the polar snow-cap melted away in the course of only about five weeks. Observe the various markings on the planet, first in the right-hand, or January, Jan-uary, view and then in the left-hand, or March view. The curious forked figure directly above the centre encloses a triangular tri-angular region named by Lowell the Fastigium Aryn, which he selected as the "Greenwich of Mars," i. e. the place of beginning for reckoning longitudes on the planet. Of course, it will be understood that he had no idea that the inhabitants of Mars use it for that purpose; he chose it to guide his own map-making and measurements, because it is always distinctly dis-tinctly visible. It lies nearly on the equator of Mars. The curious dark figure near the right-hand lower edge, the "Mare Acidalium." which is in a latitude about corresponding with that of New York, shows what remarkable changes occurred between the end of January and the beginnig of March, but the most significant changes are those to be seen scattered over the disk of the planet. Now. anybody who really wants to understand what Lowell's theory about the inhabitants of Mars and their battle for the life of a whole world is. and who wishes to see the kind of evidence on which that theory is supported, cannot do better than to look a little closely at these two pictures. I he does, he will find that a great drama of planetary life, of some kind, is being enacted before his eyes. Remember that it is the north-em north-em hemisphere of Mars which is represented, repre-sented, but turned upside down in these telescopic views, so that the pole is at the bottom. The faint narrow lines resembling resem-bling spiders' webs, are the things called canals, but which, and this is of the utmost ut-most importance, are to be regarded not as water courses, but as bands of vegetation, vege-tation, in which thousands of irrigating ditches have been constructed. The object of the whole gigantic system sys-tem is to utilize the water set free by the annual melting of the polar snows in order to keep the vegetation of the planet alive, because Mars has nd longer any rivers, lakes, or even seas. The dark regions may be marshes that occupy oc-cupy the sunken beds of former lakes, while the round spots at the crossings of the lines are the centres of population, where the irrigated bands have met and been expanded into areas of cultivation covered with gardens and plantations, and having, possibly, towns or cities in their midst. But here again, as Professor Lowell not long beiore his death insisted, we must beware of assuming that t ho supposed sup-posed "cities" are composed of houses like ours, or populated by beings closely resembling m?n. The one great thing in which they must resemble men is the possession of marvellously developed brains. Wiat kind of houses they build, cad how many legs, arms and eyes they - The Late Great American Astronomer's Newest Evidence of the Existence of Active and Powerful Intelligences possess we have. no means of guessing. To return to the tell-tale pictures. In five weeks the area of snow about the pole decreased more than half. Its edge" all around I'etreated 250 miles. Tha diameter of the polar snow-cap on January Jan-uary 28 was 2,000 miles; on March 2 it was only 1,500 miles. In the interval a field of snow 1,375,000 square miles in area had melted. What became of the water, since there are no oceans on Mars to receive it? The answer, according accord-ing to Lowell's idea, is to be found In the increase (which can be plainly seen by comparing the two views) in tha number and distinctness of the canallike canal-like lines and some of the dark areas. The reader can see this for himself. In January the lines were relatively few and faint. In March they were far more numerous and darker, some had doubled which were single before, and the black round knots, the supposed centres cen-tres of cultivation and population, were increased in number and distinctness. That would be exactly what would happen hap-pen if the water from the polar snow had been developed into annual fertility, plicity of ditches, into long narrow strips of land, which for thousands of years had been developed into annaul fertility, just as the narrow valley of the Nile was developed and cultivated by the Egyptians with the aid of the yearly flood of waters brought down by the river upon whose pulses the life and prosperity of Egypt depend yet to-day Wherever the water goes vegetation springs, and Its dark lines and patches spread over the reddish desert. In some cases the dark spots on Mars have a decidedly greenish, or bluish, tint. The difference between Mars and Egypt is that while the latter has only to struggle for the maintenance of vegetation vege-tation in a single valley, Mars is doing battle against sterility over its entire habitable surface. Mars is a gigantic Egypt, a world whose whole face has become be-come a desert, and which has not even a great river to give it water, but must depend upon supplies from the atmospheric atmos-pheric moisture which every Winter becomes be-comes locked up in polar snow! Of course this fascinating theory is open to a multitude of objections. How, for instance, does it, or can it, happen that the rare atmosphere of Mars is able to retain any moisture at all? Why has not all the water been lost in the vast deserts, or dissipated by the escape of the watery vapor into space? And even If we assume that there can be water-vapor in the atmosphere of an otherwise dried up planet, is it possible that its condensation into snow and its subsequent dissolution into liquid water could furnish enough of the latter to irrigate millions of square miles of thirsty land? Then there are the difficulties connected con-nected with the conveyance of the water from the polar circles toward and even across the equator of the planet. Nature would not do it by centrifugal force unless the equatorial protuberance of the planet was far less than its rotation should, by mechanical law, have produced beiore i's globe solidified. This can hardly be possible, and so nothing but the intervention of an enormous system of engineering devices ccuid cause the melted snow water to flow away from the poles. Copyright, ISIS, by tha Star Com pan ft. M.. . O . Professor Lowell's Last Maps of the Canals on Mars. On the Left Is Shown the Markings as They Appeared on January 28, 1916 and on the Right 1 heir Appearance on March 2, 1916. The Rapid Growth of Vegetation Along Enormous Artificial Waterways Was Responsible, Re-sponsible, in Professor Pro-fessor Lowell's Opinion, for the Changes Shown. the Dying Planet . . . v ' . P V, . v ' I : ' v ' '1 ik ' . "P s " " ' , J ; ' P f - ''-, , p V ,. . p x k'" - - ' . ; ; I P- f "mV s t ' i 3 r( 1 "p 'P v " . ; . ' P - -vr.P ' t" . i . 1 -' i':,' v I f ' ' 1 ' , ,..1 . , ' ' - ' .y '-,,'' ' P ' . SP - , . - p P nn V . .... , , "T I p - P : U- - P p ' v P t r' ' 1 How the South Polar Snow Caps of Mars and Earth Compare. It Is the Melting of the Snow and Ice from the .Martian Poles, Clearly Visible Through the Great Telescopes, That Provides, According to the Late Prof. Lowell's Theories, the Life-Giving Waters That Run Through the Artificial "Canals" of Mars Professor Lowell did not hesitate to assume that such an intervention has taken place. That is. indeed, of the very essence of bis theory. He imagined, without pretending to know anything of the details, a vast organization of pumping pump-ing stations capable o: el, -rating lite water to heights which would keep it flowing in the desired direction. Wherever Wher-ever nature had furnished favorable slopes they would be availed of. The lines on Mars show where by the combined com-bined influence ot natural and artificial conditions, continued for ages for it is not lately that Mars fell into its predicament pre-dicament the water has been trained to flow. And now as to the Martians themselves. them-selves. Because of the relatively slight force of gravity on Mars (nearly three times less than on the earth 1, the Martian Mar-tian could be a physical giant a: least fi-ty-foid more efficient ;"or mechanical y. Great Britain Eights P.ssc-rved, s , . 3 How the Earth May U!tim;itcly Conir.ninicite with Mars. The Distinguished I-rcncii Artist, li. Jurist's Conception of the Manner bv Which Man Mav "Converse" "Con-verse" with the Builders of the Canals. Gigantic lie-Hectors lie-Hectors That Will Throw Kays of Intense Liht Through Our Atmosphere and Out, Through Space Upon Up-on Mars' Face When It Is Nearest to Us. achievement, cm a world of small grav-itv. grav-itv. than a man is on a world of great gravity. Add to this, as Lowell did, mental men-tal superiority, and Buperioritv m bodily organization. Including, Includ-ing, perhaps, senses and organs unknown to us, and the assumptions as-sumptions concerning concern-ing the Martian's tremendous tre-mendous engineering achieve ments approach ap-proach a little nearer near-er the realm of probability. prob-ability. We, who in the last two years have beheld what modern man can do when his fighting blood is up, and how easily he nerforms things which Caesar, only 2,000 years ago, would have thought only possible to a god, may not too hastily deny the effectiveness ef-fectiveness of the scientific e v o 1 ution of the intelligence. And such evolution, as regards the Martians, Mar-tians, is another thing which is of the very essence of Lowell's theory. Intelligence In-telligence ought to be able to hasten evolution under the stimulus of necessity. Lowell was also pushing his inquiries into the conditions as to habitabiiity of other planets besides Mars. , He studied Venus, the nearest to the earth in distance dis-tance and in size. and. contrary to what might have been expected, arrived at the conclusion that Venus is in a worse condition, as far as life is concerned, than .Mars. His studios of its surface convinced him that it is a complete desert, and he insisted to the last that Venus, owing to an effect of its relative nearness to the sun, ha3 lost its rotatory ro-tatory momentum to such a degree that it has perpetual burning day on one sine and perpetual freezing night on the other side. The little world of Mercury be thought, as ail astronomers do, could not possibly pos-sibly contain life of any kind that depends de-pends upon an atmosphere and water, Jupiter, Saturn and the outer pianeta Uranus and Neptune showed to him no signs that they are solid, habitable worlds. So the final result of his expensive ex-pensive and long-continued observations in search of exlra-terrestrial life in the solor system, for which he constructed and equipped a great observatory, situated situ-ated in a region of remarkable atmospheric atmos-pheric steadiness and clearness, was the choice of Mars as the only probable abode of such life, and, as we have seen, he believed that even the inhabitants of Mars are able to maintain themselves only at the cost of turning all their superhuman intelligence and energv to the single unending task of keeping np a water supply. They are like a bo-sieged bo-sieged garrison which can satisfy its thirst only by incessant pumping from intermittent springs! Lowell's last work at Flafstaff confirmed con-firmed and strengthened all the conclusions conclu-sions that his former work had led him to do. He was able last Soring to mako new, and even more convincing, photographs photo-graphs showing the existence of the canal-like canal-like lines. The pictures herewith reproduced repro-duced are based upon some of those photographs. pho-tographs. But the originals are very small, only the fraction of an inch in diameter, and only a trainod eve can trace the faint indications of the lines. But they correspond, as far as they go, with what the eve at the telescope shows, and are therefore confirmatory in their nature, and furnish an annwer to the hostile criticism which has been most persistently urged In England. In a word, Percival Lowell, the first astronomer who ever erected out of his own private funds a great observatory for the sole purpose of trying to settle the most interesting question that astronomy as-tronomy raises, that of the existence of other inhabited planets than ours, certainly cer-tainly succeeded in proving that Mars is streaked with a multitude of strange lines and dots, which, while resuming the same places at each return, appear and disappear, and undergo prot'nvsive alterations, in most singular coincidence with the advance and retreat of the polar snows. Those things are there on that world, but whether the explanat ion of them offered by Professor :LowcIl is sound or not is another quc-Tion, for the solution of which the world will have to wait. But that solution will never be reached by anyone who is content con-tent to scoff ot those who call in the Eld of the constructive imagination to furnish Science with hypothe.-es which may serve her for crutches iu eltiut over difficult ground. |