The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-08-31

land is mnch cut up by the water, which ex-
lists not ~ much III the form of "a few large
oceans, but rather aS number of curious
shaped, narrow inl"ts and channels, which
interSs-'t the continents in all directions.
The bright r-l color ot the land i "A curious
fact for which no adequate explanation has
rs yet been suggested. Herschel considered
IL was due t. 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 "a similar distance would probably h. a
dirty green, perhaps brown In fact, ON
tn" earth "" have no soil or rock, which a.,
ours in any quantity, IF the rel color which
We observe nu Mars There Is therefore no
vegetation, unless we adopt the curious
theory advanced 10y French Savant that in
Mars the foliage Is rcd Unluckiiy We have
mo instrument that can ut all help us here;
the telescope and sIcctroScopc are alik" use
les, ami for the present we must content our-
selves with vain con lectures
THE E%ISTENCE OF LIFE
The next point that Ought to engage our at
tention l. tho atmosphere, without which no
life Is pnSSibl. Without entering into calcU
latioms We may state that the pressure of the
air at the surface Of Mars would lie about
equal Ia five inches of mercury, or about one
sixth of the normal atmospheric pressure on
the earth. Now, given am atmosphere and q
large extent If sea, would naturally
pcct that clouds would form prominent
feature ON the Martial surface; and otscrva-
tIon has proved this tn he the case The air
ON Mars ncing much l,e,S dense than the
earth, it l. pr,Sumahc that the winds would
move with much greater velocity; and for
this reason it has h.cn thought that trees
could not grow tn any considerable height.
We must however, h..lr III mind that though
the velocity would bc high, the actual force
of the wind would probably not liz very
great ON account of its excessive tcnuity.
In an inquiry as 10 the probability of the
existence OF life one of the most important
points to he taken into =>count Is the amount
of heat available. Now, Mars is at such a
distance from the sun that ON the whole il
would receive about twO-fifths rs much solar
heat a. We do This does not, however, give
the amount of heat that is actually received
ON the surface of the planet, considerable
proportion Icing absorbed by the atrno4-
phere; and sine" our atmosphere Is 50 much
denSer and thicker than that of Mars, 10 fol
lows that lose IA much larger percentage OF
the solar heat To calculate the exact amount
of heat absorbed 10y given thickness of air
Is IA very difficult, ii not impossible, problem.
hut it seems likely that, taking everything
into account, the inhabitants of Mars will re
ccivc more heat from the sun than do.
This would have the effect OF making the
evaporation very large, and if the martial
atmosphere would h. mostly composed of
water ynpor.
According to Professor Langley, the true
color Of the sun IL blue, and its ycllowncss Is
due IL the dirt always present in the air. To
the inhabitants uf Mars 1T would most prob
ably appear nearly white, unless, indeed, they
also have volcanoes to till the air with lava
dust.
Lot n..Ix hA net ns. yxsa hpN-.
stated, and determine, as far "a can, what
sort of man the inhahitant of Mars must he
In the first place the force of gravitation ut
the surface l. only just over one-third of it,
equiv ai,nt ON the earth; n pound would.
therefore, weigh about six ounces in Mars Ii.
Therefore, We assume that the men are of such
=, size that their weight and activity the
same ours, they would tie about fourteen
feet high ON the average. This would make
their strength very great, for not only would
il IT, actually superior to ours, but, every
weight i much smaller, 1T would To-, al,-
parcntlY rrup"rt"nally increased
SKILL OF THE aARTIAIITES-
We should, therefore, expect IL find that
the Martalit'-S have executed large engineer
ing works. perhaps also their telescopes are
much superior To- Ours and We have been oh
iects of interest for their Observers With re
gard to telescopes, it may H. interesting to
Is
nifying power We can use. At his nearest
approach, the distance from To Mars il
about 3s,SD,u1 miles; and assuming that
the highest power that can be used with adj
vantage l. 10, we Approach with our
telescopes tn "A distance of $1,000 miles, 50
that houses or towns, or, indeed, any arti-
fetal works, would he hopeleSsly invisible.
With regard To the supply of heat and light,
we have seen that the Martialite Is not worse
pear as white or perhaps blue disk, about
two-thiriS of the diameter that it appears To
US The Martial day differs hut slightly from
ours; his year, however, Is much longer, being,
about Ga Of our days, which Is about GlG
martial days The inclination of his axis To
the plane of the orbit is such that his seaso-.s
would lie very similar to ours IL is diff
fcult to reconcile the idea of an extensive
vegetation with his peculiar rel color; 1t Is
Just possible however, that some Of the green
Iatchss generally supposed /" he seas may ia
reality L. large forests.
The most valid digestion o. the haltahil.iy
of Mars lies ia the fact of the extremely low
atmosphere pressure, which, We have seen,
would probably average about five inches Of
mercury. The lowest pressure that man has
ever lived ia, even for short ti'ne, is about
seven inches which was reached by CoxSeIi
and GlaiSher in their famous balloon ascent.
The aeronautS, however, narrowly escaped
perishing, mot only on accOsi.,- OF the low
pressure, Tut also because OF the extreme
cold
Ii seems impossible tf9t n nan constituted
exactly as W. are could live for any length Of
time breathing air only onc-sixth cf the den
sity OF ours. But 1t is rather going out of our
way To assume TINT tho Marti..l.tes would be
exactly the same as We arc IN svery way; the
chances arc million tn one against it; and
on the other hand, a very slight modification
OF the lung arrangement. would suffice to
make life perfectly possible unde. such con-
ditions. Chambers Journal