The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-06-14
VIEWING THE RED PLANET.
Specmlations Abont 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 1t will be three
years before we have an equal chance
again 1t has certainly never been exam
med before through telescope Of. such
power as the monster refractor on Mount
Hamilton.
II may DO interesting to lovers Of as
tronomy to know that the eminent French
astronomer. NJ. Perrotin. is engaged in a
minute study of Mars. and that his dis
coveres confirm those Of NJ Schiaparilli
in every particular. 10 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 system Of parallel
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 under
stand them. On this planet. at all events.
nature abhors straight line. and by
analogy it should do SO in Mars
Yet. if these bodies Of water are canals
as Schiaparilli believed and Perrotin seems
hardly TO donbt, what monstrous works
they must be They are from fifty 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 Tho pyramids OF
Egypt are trihing in comparison The
Suez canal IL 1917 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 will be less
than sixty miles long The canals OF
Mars reach u length of :, 1000 miles-say as
far az from here to Omaha What traffic
there must be to support such enterprises
On the waterways of China travellers de
scribe the incessant ebb and dow OF
multltudinous 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.
they imply n population which almost
stacCers belief, considering that the
volume Of the planet is only one-sixth
that of the earth. the diameter being
LOO miles as against 5000 miles, they
warrant the widest conjectures as to the
density with which it may be peopied
What manner of man lives in Mars il
there be men there has always been
favorable topic of speculation The law
of grayitation tells It's that he may be
fourteen feet high-not such a son OF
Anak It's the inhabitant of the asteroids,
but still one who would regard the Belgian
giant rs u remarkable dwarf Possibly
the enormous pubic works on Mars may
be explained on the theory that these tall
fellows can work in proportion to their
stature-that one citizen OF Mars can
shovel as much dirt as two and half den
izens 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 Oh
iect lens collects 10000 times as much
light as normally enters the human eye
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