Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-04-09

The earth is, must have a great deal more
| heat Her heat is not so great as that of
| Mercury; still she has twice as much
heat as the earth has. In ether respects
! Venus is more like the earth. Although
| Venus has no moon, yet being nearer the
| sun she must have tides, and they are
| barely comparable with those that exist
IN the earth.
/ But there is one peculiarly in the con-
| dition of Venus that seems very unfavora-
| BILE to life, as we know it here. Accord
| ing to the, observations of the italian
astronomers the axis, instead of being
| sloping at a small angle, has a large
angle. Only for short time would she
have equal day and night, but when the
northern pole is toward the sun all the
| polar parts would be continually turned
| toward the sun; not merely small part,
| but very nearly half OF the planet on that
| side. When the southern pole would be
| turned toward the sun that side would
have a continual day, and there would
| be continual night over nearly half of
the planet. So there would be a very
great change in the condition of
| the planet in winter and summer. 1t
| is continual night, and after that ex-
! tremely heated summer. These changes
| are not agreeable to our ideas of the pos
sibilities of life. They suggest this Dos
sibility, emigration. That is absolutely
necessary to certain classes of beings
here on this earth.
| MARS.
Mars, instead of being like Venus, is a
planet that we can study very fully in
| deed. We have here the orbits; here is
that of the earth, there that of Mars.
| A portion of the time the face of
! Mars is turned toward the sun, and
| is also turned toward the earth.
and thus Illuminated is studied to
great advantage. You can conceive.
! therefore, how it is that astronomers have
been able to take such pictures as these of
TIC planet, having features resembling
those of the earth. There is an appear
ance of two bright white points at Oppo-
site sides, which have always been called
the snowy poles of Mars. Herschel was
| the first to perceive that they waxed and
waned in size He noticed that the axis
was inclined very much like that of our
earth, or rather more than our earth, but
so nearly like it that the same sort of sea-
! sons prevail. He noticed that when the
summer was in progress the polar regions
seemed smaller than in winter. That was
the first thing to show that the planet was
! like our earth Our snowy regions do
not cover more than the arctic regions
and they occupy about the same proper
! lions as those of Mars surface. Since
| the polar SHOWS do not extend further,
! therefore the same sort CT climate it
seemed probable prevailed there. Other
| features corresponding to the idea of the
habitableness of Mars were noticed.
| Some portions have greenish hue, as
| though there were oceans. The planets
continents, or what we call continents,
were ruddy; and white surfaces some
times seemed to form over these CONT
nents or oceans, and to melt away during
the day, as if clouds were being dissipated
by the action of the sun.
The theory in relation to Mars was that
it was disc or globe covered with a hoar
frost, and having other peculiarities differ
ent from ours. That theory seemed to
me so inconsistent that | put forward N.Y.
self, or at least | adopted, the theory that
Mars is globe like our earth, where all
storm, clouds, rivers, being produced, de-
mutation taking place-everything seemed
so much like the earth. But then came
this annoying theory that would put
Mars altogether out of the scheme of an
inhabited world, that it was only covered
at night by hOar frost, and that there was
everything in Mars unlike the earth in
stead of like it. l determined to destroy
that noxious theory, and began an essay
to destroy it. But | found as [ went
along that the old theory was as strong as
the one adopted in its stead, and [ fin
ished that essay by advocating the theory
that intended to destroy. I found there
was very good reason indeed to believe that
Mars is in a condition quite unlike our
earth; that 1t has a very rare atmosphere;
that it has an atmosphere bearing the
same relation to that Of this globe that the
| oceans of Mars and It's continents bear to
ours. The oceans in Mars are very much
smaller prOpOrtionately than the oceans
on our own earth. There is no Pacific
there. In fact there is no Atlantic. You
have only oceans comparatively small;
the lands and seas are intermiXed. You
take the case of our own earth. The two
Americas form single island; Europe,
Asia and Africa form another large
island; and we have the oceans around
| those islands. There is nothing of that
in Mars You can travel from any one
part OF Mars to another. You need not
leave The sea or land, according to your
taste, If you are an inhabitant Of Mars.
And then there is the small gravity of the
planet. 1.-THE gravity of our own earth
were suddenly changed to the gravity in
Mars, pound weight would be reduced
from sixteen to six ounces, and the air
would be reduced in the same proportion.
1t had been shown by a certain German
| astronomer that the period of rotation of
Mars was "a hours, 81 minutes and 231a
seconds, or Whereabouts. Then another
German astronomer, Keiser, improved on
that, and he made the period of rotation
"a hours, 81 minutes and % 6-10 seconds.
Well, then an English student of astron-
| omy, one who does not venture to call
himself an astronomer, an English stu
dent, MIR. Proctor, thought he would try
his hand at this problem. And, to his
great distress, he found that his result
was greater than the Germans by a whole
tenth OF secOnd-that it should be pa
hours, 81 minutes and % 7-10 of a second.
Keiser thought it necessary to 60 over
his work and publish paper on the sub
Ject-he died only year ago. From his
paper L found he seemed to make out his
case very accurately indeed. There was
a wonderful amount of German care and
labor, many details; but / found, strange
~ enough, two mistakes. He called the
years 100 and 1900 leap years, whereas
we know that in the Gregorian calendar
they are not leap years, and that made all
the difference. And when that was cor
rected, found my theory OF the planet
was correct, and the actual time 1t turned
around in was "a hours, q minutes and
% 71O seconds. 1t may seem to you I'M