Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-05-04
The Red Planet.


sPEcULArIoNs ABOUT THE CANALS" IN MARS AMI
THEIR BUILDERS.
From the San Francisco Call, April %.
People who can obtain the privilege OF looking
at Mars through the Lick telescope should not neg.
lect the opportunity. 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 Ger
tainly never been examined before through Jee-
scope OF such power as the monster rerract0r on
Mount Hamilton.
know that the eminent French astronomer NJ.
Perrotin, Is engaged In minute study or Mars,
and that his discoveries confirm those OF NJ Schia-
parlll In every particular. 1t seems actually true
that the longitudinal stripes which circle round
the planet are bodies OF water, which must ac-
cording to all laws OF PROBABILITY, be artlfcial.
NO one ever saw or conceived system OF parallel
rivers from 1000 TO 900 miles long and straight
as plumb lines Everything Is possible OF course,
Gle with the principles Of cosmoSony as we Un-
derstand them. ON this planet, at all event s,
nature abhors q straight line. and by analogy il
Yet, II these bodies of water are canals as
Schiaparilli believed and Perrotin seems hardly
10 doubt, what monstrous works they must be-
labor OF digging such a canal, the time it must
have taken, and the number OF workmen it
must have employed. The pyramids Of Egypt
1877 feet wide at the surface, and the Nicaragua
canal is TO be $50 feet; the Martial canals are
S,oOO Times WIDER. our canals on this One-hOrSo
globe are considered long when they reach 100
miles in length. The Panama canal will be less
than 90 miles long. The canals OF Mars reach a
length OF 1000 mtleS-Say as far as from here
to Omaha What q trafhc there must be to sup
port such enterprises! On the waterways OF China
travellers describe the incessant ebb and flow OF
multitudinous crowds, but to require canals Of
such dimensions as we have described the move
ment OF traffic In Mars must be far more pro-
dtgtOus. In fact they imply population which
almost staggers belief; considering that the vol
ume OF the planet is only One-sixth that of the
earth. the diameter being T. 400 miles as against
5000 miles, they warrant the widest conjectures
as to the destiny with which 1t may be peOpled.
What manner OF man lives in Mars, II there be
men there, has always been favorable topic OF
speculation. The law OF gravttatiOn tells us that
ne may be II feet high; not such q son OF Ajax as
the tnhabitant OF the asteroids, but still one who
would regard the Belgian giant as q remarkable
dwarf. Possibly the enormous public 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 denizens Of this world
Whether the grass OF Mars is red, as the old as
tronomers averred, modern telescopes have failed
TO decide. 1t Is very dtfcult 70 determine colors
when an object lens collects thirty thousand times
as much light as normally enters the human eye
But the speculative astronomer Is safe In asserting
mis- belief that Marian cabbages are OF the color
OF our beet roots. as no one can dtsprove the as
serttOn.