The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-07-19
VIEWING THE RED PLANET.
SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE CANALS" IN
MARS AND THEIR BUILDERS.

People who can obtain the privilege
of looking at Mars through the Lick
telescope should not neglect the oppor-
tunity. Several years have elapsed since
this remarkable planet could be seen to
such advantage as at present, and it will
be three years before we have an equal
chance again. 1t has certainly never
been examined before through telescope
of such power as the monster refractOr
on Mount Hamilton.
1t may be interesting to lovers of as
tronomy to know that the eminent
French astronomer, NJ. Perrotin, is en-
gagged in minute study of Mars and
that his discoveries confirm those of NJ.
Schlaparili In every particular. 1t 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 a system of paral-
lei rivers from 1000 to 1000 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
understand them. On this planet, at
all events, nature abhors a straight line
u1Nt W uhO1OSs IL SuOulb w 81 Ill MATS.
Yet If these bodies of water are canals,
as Schiaparilli believed and Perrotin
seems hardly to doubt what monstrous
to eighty miles wide. Fancy the labor of
digging such canal, the time it must
have taken, and the number OF workmen
it must have employed. The pyramids
of Egypt are tritling in comparison.
Suez canal is 1877 feet wide at the surface,
and the Nicaragua somewhat wider.
Our canals on this one horse globe are
considered long when they reach 100
miles in length. The Panama canal will
be less than sixty miles long. The ca
mails Of Mars reach length of 1000 miles
say as far as from here to Omaha. What
traffic there must be to support such
enterprises On the waterways of China
travellers describe the incessant ebb and
flow OF multltudlnous crowds, but to re-
qulre canals of such dimensions as we
have described, the movement of traffic in
Mars must be far more prodlgiOus. In
fact, they imply population which al
most staggers belief; considering that
the volume of the planet is only one
sixth that of the EARTH the diameter being
400 miles as against 5000 miles, they
warrant the widest conjectures as to the
density with which it may be peopled.
What manner of man lives in Mars. if
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 a son of
Anak as the inhabitant of the asteroids,
but still one who would regard the Bel
gian giant as remarkable dwarf. Pos
s1bly the enormous public works on
Mars may be explained on the theory
that these tall fellows can work in pro-
portion to their stature-that one citizen
of Mars can shovel as much dirt as two
and half denizens of this world.
Whether the grass of Mars is red, as
the old astronomers averred. modern tele-
scopes have failed to decide. 1t Is very
difficult to determine colors when an OBJ
lect lens collects 10000 times as much
light as normally enters the human eve.
But the speculative astronomer is safe in
asserting his belief that Marian cabbages
are of the color of our beet roots, as no
one can disprove the assertion San
Francisco Call.