Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-06-28
on TIE PLANET MARS.
THE CANALS A LONG KNOWN MYs-
Terry OF The HEAVENS.

Mari Favorabiy situated for AstrooemL
en-, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Rather Custous
Facts What Life on Our Netghbor
Planet .. Supposed To Re Like.
VI Berthelot. one Of the arademicians,
Is evidently a light hearted savant. for he
a, once asked VI de lesseps, who was
present At the meeting If he had by
chance q brother protector In Mars.
wtereat all the learned astronomers
smiled solemnly This is surely the
first time thai joke has been imported
from spot $500 900 miles of which is
about the distance OF the planet Mars
from our earth The canals perceived b.
VI Perrutin upon the surface OF our next
outside neighbor in the solar system.
however are a long known mystery OF the
heavens. and one that is probably A. far
IA ever from being solved by the face
tious wizard
Mars happens to be better situated for
observation by astronomers than any
oil body In the sky except the moon
He Is more than hundred times farther
of than the moon At his very closest ap
preach and measures only 4.200 miles
through at his equator but. unlike the
moon. lie exhibits In turn every portion
of his surface. rotating in q day which Is
about halt An hour longer than our own
Thus the entire face Of the planet Mars
has been pretty accurately mapped. and
presents a diversified aspect OF large
patches OF alternating lighter and darker
markings which may naturally suggest
The divisions OF land and water At the
poles OF Mars are extensive white regions.
which sonnet mes show up In the teid OF
the telescope with striking briliIancy and
cleurness Ut definition and since these
undergo periodic changes. occasionally
almost vanishing and then shining forth
again at Just the seasons when II would
be winter with the Martians, astronomers
had been led TO call them ice caps and
to believe that we actually behold the
Arctic and Antarctic polar seas of the
planet IN the form Of these little white
saiicers stuck on each end of the star of
war
As for the canals with which NJ Per
rotiu pnked scientific fun at NJ de lIesseps
they are certainly very curious objects
From sea |, sea or what looks like it,
run these straight passages wearing an
appearance nj doubt OF some immense
artificial york some Panama OF Suez
caral on colossal scale They do no,
alter OF extend there they always arei-
some Of them completed others appaT
emily imperfect n II the Marian cham
ini ~ ,irpures had refused to sanction a
lottery loon for the fulillment of the
Original design But when NM Perrotin
and Faye begin to talk OF engineers
and men IL. Mars il ~ necessary to re
member that to be seen nj all even as II
bar line these canals IN Mars would have
~. hn
Thames--say thirty or forty miles across
and us their length is to be reckoned in
hundreds oil miles the navvies in Mars. ii
they exist, must certainly be wonderful
beings
Astronomers admirable on so many
points are never SO stupid and unimagin
ative H. when meditating on the proba
blities of life beyond this earth. that old
and fascinating topic of more worlds
than one They take their terrest rial
notions and experiences much too Dlindly
INTO space they ask II there be an atmos
phere in the moon. or water In Mars and
IL any doubts exist about these elements
they soiemnly conclude that these and
OF her lovely and eligible ceiesta l abOdes
ARE tenautless As If life were not con
ceivabie without lungs and liver As II
we mus, always carry about with us into
the glorious promotions of inter stellar
space the dentist. the anti bilious pill and
bronchitis
II Is true that for beings constructed
a. we are AT present Mars would be a
novel and rather a surprising kind of
abode Surprising we found dense air
enough to breat he there, and water sufi
cient for tea and washing which are
both dubious points-the diminished
gravitation of the little planet is 80 great
that 1t would induce q physical and
mental levity fatal to dullness and for
budding sense of fatigne What IL
hundred weight here would there weigh
only fifty SIX pounds. and we could all 60
up stairs five steps at time. or Jump
twice our own height with ease and grace
Then ii would assuredly be very nice II
we were living in the right latitude on
Mars to have a quick moon and a slow
rloon. always careering round like splen
did Chinese lanterns saving gas bills and
encouraging long walks of lovers and
Martial p,etry fall from a horse
would seldom or never prove at all seri
OTIS In the Martial hunting fields. the
rider would rebound from the soft soil
like an India rubber cushion Aerial
navigation has quite possibly been solved
long ago by the fort unate people Of the
red planet the conditions being so ex
tremply favorable and who knows. in
deed whe, her the so called canals" are
not vast tobogganing slides where the
entire population enjoys the unwonted
sense of swift descent and some little
spice Of perilr But we may lie sure of
this that II there be sentient Great ures
on the silver and pearl surfaces of Mars
they are of a very different type from our
terr~si rial frames. for life Is always the
equation of its surrounding conditions
and we denizens OF the earth have lungs
aid ,arvnx simply because We live at
the bottom Of an aerial sea. just as fish