Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-19
OUR NEXT NEIGHBOR IN SPACE.

The 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 been verified, and we were
about to settle down TO the belief that
Mars had all the requisites for a 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 Schiaparelli 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
ispheres, different parts of the same sea,
or one canal with another. It is straight
ness and regularity of these pass ages
that have given them the name of canals,
and all sorts of extravagant surmises are
being made rs to how they came to be
constructed. It has been suggested that
Mars is peopled by gigantic race, which
busies itself witt internal improvements
on grand scale. 1t is painfHl to think
of the appropriations which must have
been made to dig these canals, some of
which are 1000 miles long 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
waterways. But why should so many
passages have been opened? Was it to
give every laboring man on the planet
employment, or had the merchant marine
taken start which was necessary to in
crease by giving every facility for transit3
Three important changes in the sur
face at the planet are noted by N. Perro
tan since his observations two years ago.
the disappearance of a continent, the
opening of a new canal just north of
where the continent was situated, and the
appearance of a sort of canal, uniting two
seas at the north pole. 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 inundation may be only
periodical, occurring perhaps once in six
years. This would give the suggestions
inhabitants chance TO try the Noah's ark
business only little less often than we
undergo presidential elections They
could wander around tho planet until their
continent bobbed up serenely from the
waves again. But alas for fancy, the
general opinion of those who have made
study of Mavortian 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 uu
settled. It is most likely that Mars is re
peating the history of our own earth, and
Is being gradually prepared for man and
the sower animals. If this turns out 10 be
the case, and larger end more powerful
telescopes continue TO be invented, we
may expect to get some useful object
LESSONS in the mysteries of the earth's
ution.