The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1886-07-17
FORESTS IN MARS.
Observations Of French Astronomer
on Our NeighborGng Planet,

n rTehcH phllosopheI, d MdullCe
Lespiault, who ranks high among
astronomers, has lately broached the
theory that the people of the planet
Mars having been put to discomfort
by the want of regular rains, have
undertaken the re-fOresting of their
globe on comprehensive scale.
Every one is familiar with the broad
bands which seam the surface Of Mars,
and which it has been the fashion 20
consider canals. In Proctor's map the
name of seas is given to these canals.
One Is marked Phillips sea, another
Beer Sea, another TychO sea, another
SclrOter sea, and so ON. But NJ
Lespiault, who has studied Mars
through telescopes more powerful than
his predecessors used, concludes, first,
that the mathematical regularity OF
the outlines of these so called seas
forbids the idea that they are natural
phenomena; and he rejects as absurd
the notion that tile people of that
planet can have constructed canals
over a thousand miles long and over
fity miles wide. He thinks it more
likely that the Martians, who inhabit
much colder world than this, cut
down all their standing wood for fuel :;
that droughts ensued, and that to oh
ylate universal starvation the Emperor
or Grand Tycoon nr President Of the
MartIau realm compelled the people To
plant lines OF tnresi trees extending
quite round their globe. and spreading
from thirty In sixty miles in width
II Is these forests. in his notion, which
we have denominated canals.
1t Is an ingenious fancy. Mars is
little planet compared with ours; its
diameter is only shout 4400 miles, and
its mass one sixth that of the earth.
But there ate many points of re
sembaBce. The Martian day is about
the same MS ours. The Marian psles
are covered With snow and ice, which
helt IN the spring, as is tile cast on
this earth. Mars has an atmosphere
which-perhaps owing tn NJ. Lsspi
ault's forests-Seems to he abuntantly
&fAl EN1 viii itl0INtAif. DNl TIC
changes in the seasons must be start.
ling. When Mars is nearest tie sun
he is 26.000,000 miles nearer To the
source of solar heat than when he is
fufihcst away. Fancy the changes in
the thermometer Even mt his best,
when he Is l26.O0O,0O0 miles from the
sun. il makes one shiyer TO think of
the normal cold of midsummer in
Mars. We all know the change pro.
dueed on this globe by difference of
100000 miles in our distance from
the sun; what should we experience if
that difference we're increased nine
foldi To have climate like ours the
atmosphere of Mars should be much
denser than that of the earth But. in
fact, its atmospheric density is only
about one-fifth that of the earth. Re.
cent geological discovery has estab.
lished the fact that man existed prior
Ia at lea-, one of the glacial epochs
He may have lived through il. II is
hard 10 -: how he could. But there
are writer's who think hp did. If SO,
his sufferings, when The face of the
globe WAS covered with 5000 to 5000
feet OF ice, may enable us to form an
idea of what the people of Mars must
endure in their nomM condition, and
what sort of agricultural conditions
must prevail il. as NJ. Lespiault aug
gesls, they are planting belts OF forests
To maintain their rainfall.
Whether we shall ever come 10 form
closer acquaintance with the deni-
zens of cur nearest neighb0rs in the
planetary world is one OF those prob
lens which amuse scientific specula.
tors. Mars ut times passes within 3d.
000, 900 miles of the earth. How long
will il be before some one devises u
telescope that will reduce this distance
Ia few score miiesl Can it ever be
dsnel Those who have carefully stud
led the recent French photographs of
the moon will he cautious how they
reply in the negative. We know more
nf the surface of the moon on the side
that is turned towards us than we do
of parts of Australia. Who shall set
limits to science I An age which, by
the delicate application of scientific
tests. could determine not only that
lhc little speck in the heavens we call
Mars has an atmosphere, but that that
atmosphere contains moisture, surely
can hope some day to annihilate space
and brioU the nhcnomena of other