The Arizona champion., 1890-12-20
THE PLANET MARS.
The Mysterious Canals of the
 Heavens.
SGEE RATHER CURIOUS FACTS.
What Life in our NeighbOr Planet is
 Supposed tO.~be Like.

Nj Berthelot, one of the academicisns
 is evidently light hearted savant, for he
 at once asked NJ de Lesseps, who was
 present ct the meeting If he had by chance a brother projectOr in Mars whereat all the learned astronomers smiled solemnly This is, surely. the , first time that joke has been imported
 from spot 35 900 900 miles of, which is
 about the distance of the planet Mars
 from our earth. The canals perceived b,
 NJ. Perrotin upon the surface of our next
 outside ueighboT in the solar system,
 however, are long known mystery of the
 heavens, and one that is probably as far as ever from being solved by the face tious wizard.
 Mars happens to be better situated for
 observation by astronomers than any
 other body in the sky except the moon
 He Is more than hundred times farther
 of than the moon at his very closest ap-
 proach, and measures only 4,200 miles
 through at his equator; but, unlike the
 moon, he exhibits in turn every portion
 of his surface rotating in day which is
 about half 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 sometimes show up in tne field of
 the telescope with striking brilliancy and
 clearnsss of de6nitioni and since these
 undergo periodic changes, occasionally
 almost vanishing and then shining forth
 again at just the seasons when 1t would
 be winter with the Martians, astronomers
 had been led to call them lice caps" and
 to believe that we actually behold the Arctic and Antarctic polar seas of the planet in the form of these little white saucers stuck on each end of the "star of Yer."
 As for the canals with which NJ Per rotin poked scientific fun at Nj. de Lesseps, they are certainly very curious objects. From sen tc sea, or what looks like it, run these straight passages. wearing all appearance no doubt, of some immense artificial work-some Panama or Suez canal on colossal scale. They do not alter or extend-there they always arel- some of them completed, others appar- ently imperfect, as if the Martian cham Der of deputies had refused to sanction 6 lottery losn for the fulfllment of the original design But when NM. Perrotin and Faye begin to talk of engineers" and men in Mars" 1t is necessary to re member that to be seen at all, even as a hair line, these canals in Mars would have to be at least 500 times as broad as the Thames-say thirty or forty miles across and as their length Is to be reckoned in hundreds of miles, the navvies in Mars, If they exist, must certainly be wonderful beingsl
 Astronomers, admirable on 30 many points. are never so stupid and unimagin- ative ss when meditating on the proba bilities of life beyond this earth. that old and fascinating topic of more worlds than one" They take their terrestrial notions and experiences much too blindly into space, they ask if there be an atmos phere in the moon, or water In Mars, and if any doubts exist about these elements they solemnly conclude that these and other lovely and eligible celestial ahodes are tenantless. As if life were not con ceivable without lungs and iverl As if we must always carry about with us into the glorious promotions Of inter-stellar space the dentist, the anti bilious pill and bronchitis.
 It Is true that for beings constructed ss we are at present Mars would be novel and rather a surprising kind of abode. Supposing we found dense air enough to breathe there, and water sUffi cient for tea and washins-which are both dubious points-the diminished gravitatiou of the little planet is so great that it would induce a physical and mental levity fatal to dullness and for bidding sense of fatigue. What is a hundred weight here would there weigh only fifty six pounds, and we could all go up stairs five steps at a time. or jump twice our own height with ease and grace Then 1t would assuredly be very nice. if | we were living in the right latitude on Mars. to have quick moon and slow moon. always careering round like splen did Chinese lanterns saving gus bills and long walks of lovers and | Martial poetry A fall from a horse l would seldom or never prove at all seri ous in tho Martial hunting fields; the 1 rider would rebound from the soft soil ! like an India rubber cushion. Aerial . navigation has quite possibly been solved | long ago by the fortunate people of the . red planet, the conditions being so ex tremely favorable. and who knows, in deed, whether 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 perilH But we may be sure Of this, that If there be seutient creatures on the silver and pearl surfaces of Mars. they are of & very different type from our frames, for life Is always the of its surrounding conditions. and we denizens of the earth have lungs and larynx simply because we live at the bottom of an aerial sea- just as fish possess gills because they breathe the London Telegraph.