Morris tribune., 1888-07-18
VIEWING THE RED PLANET.

epeculations About the ''Canals" In Mars
and Their Builders.
People who can obtain the privilege Of
looking at Mars through the Lick tele-
scope should not neglect the opportunity.
Several years have elapsed since this re-
markable planet could be seen to such ad-
vantage as at present. and it viii be three
years before we have an equal chance
again. It has certainly never been exam
ined before through telescope OF such
power as the monster refractor on Mount
Hamilton.
It may be interesting to lovers OF as
tronomy to know that the eminent French
astronomer. NJ. Perrotin. Is engaged In
minute study Of Mars, and that his dis
coveries confirm those Of NJ. SchiapartH
In every particular. It seems actually
true that the longitudinal stripes which
circle round the planet are bodies Of water,
which must, according to all laws OF
probability, be artificial No one ever
saw or conceived O system of parallel
rivers from 1000 to 1900 miles long and
straight as plumb lines Everything is
possible, Of course, but such straight
rivers It Is impossible to reconcile with
the principles Of cosmogony as we under
stand them. On this planet, at all events,
nature abhors a straight line. and BY
analogy 1t should do so In Mars.
Yet, II these bodies Of water are canals,
as SchiaparilH believed and Perrotin seems
hardly to doubt, what monstrous works
they must be. They are from fifty to
eighty miles wide. Fancy the labor OF
digging such canal, the time 1t must
have taken, and the number of workmen
1t must have employed. The pyramids Of
Egypt are triffng In comparison. The
Suez canal is 1877 feet wide at the surface
and the Nicaragua somewhat wider. Our
canals on this one horse globe are con-
sidered long when they reach 100 miles IN
length. The Panama canal viii be less
than sixty miles long. The canals Of
Mars reach q length Of z, 900 miles-say as
far as from here to Omaha What traffic
there must be to support such enterprisesl
On the waterways Of China travellers de-
scribe the ineessant ebb and flow Of
multitudinous crowds, but to require
canals Of such dimensions as we have de-
scribed, the movement Of traffic IN Mars
must be far more prodigious. In fact,
staggers belief; considering that the
that Of the earth, the diameter being
3I4VV 4u4lCS 40 6heSd01ob OgOOV b4CJ
warrant the widest conjectures as to the
density with which 1t may be peopled-
What manner Of man lives In Mars, II
there be men there, has always been a
favorable topic Of speculation. The law
of gravitation tells us that he may be
fourteen feet high-not such son of
Anak as the inhabitant Of the asteroids,
but still ono who would regard the Belgian
giant as O remarkable dwarf Possibly
the enormous public works on Mars may
be explained ON the theory that these tai
fellows can work in proportion to their
stature-that one citizen of Mars can
showed % much dirt as two and half den
liens Of this world
Whether the grass Of Mars Is red, as
the old astronomers averred. modern tele-
scopes have failed to decide. It Is very
difficult to determine colors when an OBJ
iect lens collects $4,000 times as much
light as normally enters the human eye.
But the speculative astronomer Is safe In
asserting his belief that Martian cabbages
are of the color Of our beet roots, as no
one can disprove the assertion.-San
Francisco Gall