Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-25
THOSE CANALS ON MARS.
WRITTEN FOE THE DISPATCH. ]

Ab tne present time Lnere Is an unuSual
interest manifested in the topography OF
our plane tary neighbor Mars. The excep-
tional nearness of this perihelIac visit has
directed attention to him from every
quarter OF the EARTH Astronomers of high
and low degree have impressed glasses of
large and small caliber into star.gazing
service and the laity can only stand by
with expectsnt interest, while these people
assay to unravel the great mystery of the
heavens.
There seems to be some confirmation from
the great Lick Observatory of Schiaparellps 9
great Marsian 'canals" and their bisecting
and terminating tendency. 1t is interest
ing to know that what the Milanese astrono-
mer averred that he saw 15 years ago. now
receives conclusive confirmation, although
the only significance there is in this is that
he really saw, as he thought he saw, but it is
not in any sense confrmatory that his
definition OF what he saw and others now
see is correct.
Know Little About the Moon.
Let us indulge in some observations, and
at the same time let US not be fighty,
though the subject be rather aerial, but let
us be calm and easy, as ir dis cussing the pro-
posed Ohio River IN Lake Erie Ship Canal.
Our ruddy neighbor has diameter that is
only little more than one-half that of the
earth. That is to say, while our earth
has diameter OF about 5000 miles, that OF
Mars is 4.25S34 miles. AS against our cfrcum-
ference of "a 900 miles, our celestial neighbOr
has Is, ,359L miles, or about twice the circum
ference OF the moon, but the greater near
ness OF this last mentioned luminary to our
larger than the red orb OF the great "canals."
Now 1t seems remarkable that SO much
moro should be known OF Mars than OF the
moon, and strange, too, that we should
l. ID nf oil na n flrn hon1 n1r1fo
physical condition OF our satellite, since we
are still SO much in the dark on some OF the
commOnest physics of the earth. Verify
there must be something in going away from
home for honor! 1t Is rs II we got from the
credulous stranger what our neighbor, who
knows us well, would deny to US. With the
moon SO near that it is apparently s. times
our satellite has not been completely dis
sected. Yea, and with the earth right under
our feet, how unanimous and how lucid we
geological changes, its evolution of life and
forms and especially as to its anthropology.
The Changes on the Planet.
But let US consider more particularly the
supposirious Marsian Canals" These are
subject to most remarkable shrinkings and
expansions to degree that is to US utterly
fne1plicable. Not only are these immense
channels subject to wonderful transforms
ttons, but lakes and considerable seas also
present the same changing phenomena
This 1neXplicable metamorphOsis, however,
is only such, if we attempt TO associate such
evident physical commotion with the pres
ence of higher man. 1t is not difficult to grasp
the causes of the earths earlier change of
aqueous and other outlines, that resulted
in establishing continental cemeteries; but
it would knock all scientific inclination
silly to so utterly ignore natures synthetical
with the emergence and submergence of
continents, the presence of highly de-
veloped, refined and mathematical human
with most transcendent grasp of the
profits of commerce, amid such an unstable
environment
Canals7 What under the canopy could
such humans want with canals when the
water surface one year with another might
vary from 200 to 500 ieet in altitude?
Canals? If 1--WE assume that the adult Mar
sian is Al feet high, that he weighs u tons
that his muscles are as large as stove pipe
his nerves as an oil well cable, that he has q
bushel basket full of brain has the sand"
OF wildcat, and the activity OF a red sQuir-
rel, he would need all this more, to excavate
some of which are 3.355L miles long, 435
miles wide and of depth of which, how
ever, the astronomical deponents are siientl
Must Do Things ON Big Scale.
Says NJ Camille Flammarion: SIT is
sometimes only of three degrees, or 11lZ
miles, tor small and very narrow canals.'
Yes, that is to say, when these gigantic
Marsaus dig a small trench to drain q corn
field the excavation is as wide as from Pitts
burg to Akron, O., and If only snort line
affair, might reach from Passamaquoddy
Bay to Lake Ponchartraini
Oh, there is nothing small about these
Marsians, not even the lasts over which
their shoes are made.
We have only one thing on earth that will
match them, and that Is the adj ustable and
elastic Imagination of the men who amuse
themselves and astonish the earth playing
wi tIlb oil
We are assured that our entertaining
neighbor is much older than our earth, and
there is every reason to believe that the
Information is correct, for on the exact and
precise age of the earth there is a unanimous
unanimity, an agreeable argument and
concurrent concurrence that is touching to
beholGl
Alder7 Why certainly. While we hesi-
tated and slung mud at each other about
digging a canal, such as the Marsians have
to carry away the slops of their kttchens-a
canal across the ridge that divides the Ohio
Valley from the Great Lake basin-they
would dig through the Andes Mountains,and
do it as an appetizer for breakfast.
Not Mere Question of Seeing.
But, for clear and comprehensive
OF the stages of terrestrial man,
together with the conditions of his env j.
an acquaintance with terrestrial
geology is fmperatively necessary. How
can anything be reared If there be no toun-
datfOn on which 1T may be DasedI le viii
surely be discovered before anything very
definite is determined that the problem of
planetary humanity, or stellar humanity in
general, is more of Il celestial inter-geolog-
ical and anthropological question, than a
merely astronomical one, for what
Is the mere seeing of signs
If we be not equipped to in
terpret their significance. Not one of
these astronomers so far as the writer has
been able to learn, has proposed to invoke
the aid of a comprehensive anthropology and |
Dne at least of popular prominence, in some |
oi his utterances, has disclosed woiul lack |
Of knowledge of the rudiments of common |
geology. Nature produces tens of thou |
sands of acorns to each oak tree that she |
produces, thousands OF ltie-germs for each |
living form she produces. she al |
lowed cons of ages to pass ere she |
invited man to tread the earth. |
md she allowed cons more to pass, before |
ne stood one iota higher on the plane OF |
utility, than many another animal. She has
infinite time, space and material and she |
,an afford to have and beyond doubt does |
rave, many spheres whirling in space, whose |
conditions are such, that no highly devel- |
oped life can respond to them. II it be a ]
net that Mars is the theater of such tremend- |
,us physical transformations, the careful |
,eoloaist ana anthropologist can see nothing |
rl,<A. 1s1.,H 81. zrI