Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-07-13
OUR NEWT NEIGHBOR IN SPACE.

Tho planet Mars is bidding for atten-
ton from imaginative people Just now.
Sir William Herschel guessed long ago
that it had an atmosphere, clouds, land
and water and ice and snow. All this
guess work has boen verified, and we were
about to settle down to the belief that
Mars had all the requisites for first
class dwelling place, when news comes of
the striking changes on the planets sur
face observed by Director Perrotin of
the Nice observatory. He reports that he
has once more viewed the straight, dark
lines observed by Schiapareli some 10
years ago, and generally known as canals.
These remain standing puzzle to as-
tronomers. They appear on the reddish
background of the continents of the
planet, alone or in pairs, crossing one an
other at every conceivable angle. and seem
ing to connect the seas of the two hem
lspheres, different parts of the same sea,
or one canal with another. 1t is straight
ness aud regularity of these pass ages
that have given them the name of canals.
and all sorts of oxtravagant surmises are
being made as to how they came to be
CONSTRUCTED. 1t has been suggested that
Mars is Peopied by gigantic race, which
busies itself with internal improvements
ON grand scale. 1t is paiufsI to think
Of the appropriations which must have
been made to dig these canals, some of
which are 900 miles leng and so miles
wide. De LessepS never in his widest
dreams contemplated such big bitches"
as those, and it would be interesting to
calculate how long, at the rate at which
the Panama canal is progressing, it would
take to CONSTRUCT one of the Mavortian
water ways. But why should so many
passages have been openeGY Was it to
give every laboring man on the planet
employment, or had tho merchant marine
taken start which was necessary to in
crease by giving every facility for trsnsitS
Three important changes in the sur
face at the planet are noted by NJ. Perro
tin since his observations two years ago
the disappearance of a continent, the
opening of new canal Just north of
where the continent was situated, and the
appearance of sort of canal, uniting two
seas at the north pcle. Continents over
in Mars average smaller than with us, and
Lydia, the one which was swallowed up, is
only little larger than France. There is
a chance for Lydia yet, for NJ. Perrotin
| thinks that its inundatiou may be only
| periodical, occurring perhaps once in six
| years. This would give the suppositious
inhabitants chance to try the Noah's ark
! business only little less often than We
! undergo presidential elections They
| could wsnder around tbs planet until their
! continent bobbed up screnely from the
/ waves again. But alas for fancy, the
| general opinion of those who have made
q study of Mavortisn geography is that
| there is as yet no human life on the
! planet. The changes recorded by Direc.
| tor Perrotin seem to show that the rela-
tions of the land ans water are still IN
settled. 1t is most likely that Mars is re
pesting the history of our own earth, and
is being gradually prepared for man and
the lower animals. If this turns out to be
the case, and larger and more powerful
telescopes continue to be invented, we
msy expect to get some useful object
LESSONS in the mysteries of the earth's
' evolution