The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1886-09-17
ON THE PLANET MARS.
THEORY THAT THE PLANET Is IN.
HABlTED bY HUMAN BEINGS.

Neighbor-Rsd Color Of the Land-Mar.
.. tial Atmospherc-Probab sixo Of the
Martialites-An objection.
Some time ago 1t was observed that stu
ated at each pole Of Mars there Is white
patch, which increases and decreases ut regu.
lar intervals This had been observed for
many years before the explanation was sug-
gested by Hcrschel that 1t was due to the
freezing Of the sea, and was exactly analogous
to our Arctic and Antarctic oceans. II this
was true the patch Of ice would Of course de-
crease in the martial summer and increase
again as the winter came on. This was soon
shown to be the fact. Thus we see that, as
far as regards the sea, Mars Is very similar
to our earth, with the exception that the pro-
portion Of land is much larger. On the earth
the land is only about one-third Of the area OF
the sea, while on Mars the land and sea sur
faces seem to be about equal in extent. The
land is much cut up by the water, which ex-
lists not so much in the form Of a few large
oceans, but rather as a number of curious
| SLuIttl, IibTTOW lilcUS ullu CLuhuClS, "AASu
intersect the continents in oil directions
The bright red color of the land is q curious
fact for which no adequate explanation has
as yet been suggested. Herschel considered
| it was due to the peculiar nature Of the soil;
but it certainly seems curious that in this
point Mars should differ from all the other
planets. The appearance of the earth seen
from similar distance would probably be
;,,tx hrOvyN In fart
the earth we have no soil or rock, which &C
ours in any quantity, of the red color which
we observe on Mars. There is therefore no
vegetation, unless we adopt the curious
theory advanced by French savant that in
Mars the foliage is red. Unluckily we have
no instrument that can at all help us here;
the telescope and spectroscope are alike use
less, and for the present we must content our
selves with vain conjectures.
THE EXISTENCE OF LIFE.
The next point that ought to engage our at
tention is the atmosphere, without which no
lie is possible. Without entering into calcu
lations we NAV state that the pressure of the
air at the surface of Mars would be about
equal to five inches of mercury, or about one
sixth of the normal atmospheric pressure on
lie earth Now, given an atmosphere and
large extent of sea, we would naturally ex-
pect that clouds would form a prominent
feature on the Martial surface; and observa-
ton has proved this to be the case. The air
on Mars being much less dense than on the
earth, it is presumable that the winds would
move with much greater velocity; and for
this reason it has been thought that trees
could not grow to any considerable height.
We must, however, bear in mind that though
the velocity would be high the actual force
of the wind would probably not be very
great on account of its excessive tenuity.
In an inquiry as to the probability Of the
existence of life, one of the most important
points to be taken into account is the amount
of heat available. Now, Mars is at such a
distance from the sun that on the whole it
would receive about two-fifths as much solar
heat as we do. This does not, however, give
the amount of heat that is actually received
on, the surface of the planet,.a considerable
proportion being absorbed by the atmos.
phere: and since our atmosphere is so much
denser and thicker than that of Mars, it fol-
lows that we lose much larger percentage of
the solar heat To calculate the exact amour
of heat absorbed by given thickness of air
is a very difficult, if not impossible, problem;
out it seems likely that, taking everything
1uCO ACCOUNT, tuc VI 1AdIS VIII IT,
ccive more heat from the sun than we do.
This would have the effect of making the
evaporation very large, and if SO the martial
atmosphere would be mostly composed of
water vapor.
According to Professor Langley, the true
color of the sun is blue, and its yellowness is
due to the dirt always present in the air. To
the inhabitants of Mars it would most prob
i,,Io flN1,
also have volcanoes to fill the air with lava
dust.
Let us now sum up the facts as we have
stated, and determine, as far as we can, what
sort of man the inhabitant of Mars must be.
In the first place, the force of gravitation at
the surface is only just over one-third Of its
equivalent on the earth; pound would,
therefore, weigh about six ounces in Mars If,
therefore, we assume that the men are of such
a size that their weight and activity are the
same as ours, they would be about fourteen
feet high on the average This would make
their strength very great, for not only would
1t be actually superior to ours, hut, as every
weight is SO much smaller, it would be ap-
parently proportionally increased.
SKILL OF THE MARTIALITEs.
We should therefore, expect to find that
the Martialites have executed large engineer
ing works; perhaps also their telescopes are
much superior to ours, and we have been OBJ
jects of interest for their observers. With re-
gard to telescopes, it may be interesting to
examine what is the effect Of the highest mag
nifying power we can use. At his nearest
approach, the distance from us to Mars is
about 81, 200 600 miles; and assuming that
the highest power that can be used with adj
vantage is 1900, we approach with our
telescopes to a distance of $4,000 miles, so
that houses or towns, or, indeed, any arti-
fetal works, would be hopelessly invisible.
With regard to the supply of heat and light,
we have seen that the Martialite is not worse
off than we are. To him the sun would APP
pear as a white or perhaps blue disk, about
two-thirds of the diameter that it appears to
us The Martial day differs but slightly from
ours; his year, however, is much longer, being
about GS7 of our days, which is about $50
martial days. The inclination of his axis to
the rlopo of the orbit is slch that his seasons