Show N Newest est eV Check on Mars lars I Shows It an Arid Planet Washington It It was once the fashion to suggest that the ever- ever curious marks on the planet Mars were due to some like human-like agency a race of Martian men who had constructed gigantic ditches or canals Then when the markings were found to change with the Martian seasons the hypothesis was brought forward that the markings were perhaps plant growth and other vegetation But even this last suggestion that the canals on Mars were merely great straight stretches of plant growth possibly like the midwestern west mid ern em shelter belt may be a century I hence has had its difficulties One of f the most n recent e en t of these e I e t. t 1 U 11 use un 1 I. I lYl I. I Wilson Vilson observatory of the Carnegie institution of Washington where ii it has been found from a study of the light spectrum of Mars that the water vapor present in its atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere atmos atmos- phere at least in the equatorial region region region re re- re- re gion where the observations were made An outside limit for water vapor in Mars' Mars air would be about 5 per cent of that present in the earths earth's surface |