The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-10-07
THE PLANET MARS.
Camille FlammariOn in Reply TO
Professor Holden.
ARE THERE ANY INHABITANTS
In That Bright and Shining Star 9-Questions
Concerning Certain White spots-Are
They Polar Shows?
Especial to THEHERALD-Examiner Disuat,

Especial to THE HERALD-Examiner Dispatch.l
PARIS, Oct. 6.-TBy cable to the
". Y. Herald. THE following is part of
Camille Flammarion's reply to com
munication from Prof. Holden, of the Lick
observatory.
"Mr. Holden is aware that the Calf
fornia astronomers have observed canals
on Mars but he states he does not know
what the spots on Mars signify. He says
the markings of reddish-yellow have been
supposed to be water and the whitish ones
to be snow. 1t is entirely uncertain.
''The Interpretation generally admitted
by astronomers is without doubt, hypo-
thetical, but we are exactly in the position
of an observer who should examine the
earth from afar, say from the planet Venus,
Our seas would appear to him darker than
the continents, because they absorb the
SUMS light. The polar SHOWS, like clouds,
would seem of brilliant white
ness. He might think that the
simplest way of adjusting the differ
ences would he TO admit in fact that
there are on the terrestrial globe continents,
seas, polar SHOWS and clouds. recognize,
as does the learned director of the Lick
/
are those dark spots; do not know what
are those polar white spots.
Don't let Us for e. thatWilliam Hirschel
the greatest observer and astronomer thai
ever lived, wrote as follows: The analogy
between Mars and the earth is perhaps by
far the greatest in the whole solar system
Their diurnal motion is nearly the samC
and the obliquity of their respective eclip-
Tics on which the seasons depend. is not
very different. If, then, we find that tn,
globe we inhabit has its polar res ion!
frozen, covered with mountains of snow
that only partly melt when alternately
exposed TO the sun, l may well be permitted
to surmi5e that the same causes may nav,
the same effects on the globe of Mars; tina
the light polar spots are owing to vivid re
Elections Of light from the frozen regions
and that the reduction of these spots is Il
be ascribed to their being exposed TO tn
sum-
''He speaks little further on of cloud
that float, saying quite plainly: Its inhab
itantS enjoy situation in many respect
similar to ours These words were writ
ten on December !, 1873, more than cen
fury ago. Certain of the rigorists may as
sert that this pre- occupation is not of sci
: entific order, that it would be more sedat
Of us to hold to the maxim of not lookin
after anything. 1t seems TO me, however
: that Prof. Holden himself sees things in
higher light than that He has certainl
asked himself if those white polar spots o.
Mars are not really snow. Whether tn
dark spos do not represent seas, he cann(
think otherwise. 1t is well enough for hill
!, to say we have not proved them yet; ths
we are not absolutely sure His mind is
too high an order for that. AL spectrum
q analysists- have shown that there is clearl
water on Mars. 1t exists somewhere
snow and clouds are composed Of
1t remains to be seen whether ii
: water is redish and its contents blueis
If Prof. Holden thinks so, he viii be ma
ing less tenable hypothesis than at frs
1 have before me at this moment, on II
. work table, about four hundred DRAWN!
{ of the planet Mars, showing as plain
d, daylight that constant changes are rakiI
)" place in the dark spots. Water being
very changeable element explains the
:, changes. 1t would not be the same thiI
g were it terra tirma. And what l shOu
like to know at this moment, in the
terests of science, is whether those clev
observers, Messrs. Holden, Keebe al
Burnham, have also observed this year [
cutting up of the seas and lakes of Ma
and what is their opinion of those {
surredly strange phenomena, for certain
they know well enough even were it e
tIrely hypothetical that their opini
would interest all friends of SCIENCE