The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-10-06

THEIR GREAT ENGINEERING skill
IN MAKING CANALS.

nsns spscllatisns In Regard - tks
rsspis-Thsir Size as Csnparsa -
These 81 Earth-Rsasens ssr Buila-
ing chs Canais.
Mars weighs but one ninth Of what
the earth weighs, and. therefore, objects
OF given mass weigh here nine times
as much as they would weigh IL taken to
Mars, says the Baltimore Sun. For ex-
ample, our standard silver dollar Of
412 Ia grains would weigh but 45.0
grains in Mars, and would doubtless be
refused by the Martians IL rendered in
payment Of debts, public or private. II
follows, however, from the lesser power
Of the force Of gravitation in Mars that
it is a paradise for fat men. The reason
the elderly person gets tired sooner than
the small boy Is not that the muscles Of
his legs are inferior, but that they have
more to carry. The fat person here has
as powerful muscles rs he had when
lean, but they have greater weight to
bear and they tire under It.
In Mars it is different. There our
stout person Of 800 pounds would weigh
but 33 1-8.legs and all, so that he could
trip along with his present muscles as
lightly as kitten. Even " the fat
lady Of the. museum could easily do her
twenty miles q day and not feel it.
Agility, we may assume, with vivacity
as its accompanying virtue, is char
acteristic Of the people Of Mars. Doubt
less the Martians, owing to the light bur
den on their legs. grow taller than we
do, and are larger and more powerful in
every way. Weight restricts develop.
ment. The strength of muscle and bone
may be exceeded If an animal exceeds Q
certain size.
In the sea the whale grows larger than
any terrestrial creature because the
water bears him up. Like the bicyclist.
he has only to propel himself by NOV
ing his legs-that is to say, his fins. II
man lived in the sea he might grow
much larger than he does. In Mars he
could, with the same strength of muscle
and bone, grow nine times az large as he
does here. A man fifty-four feet in
height, with corresponding develop
ment in other directions, would be q
powerful animal. He would be capable
of doing an incredible amount of work
per day. Citizens Of such proportions
might very well undertake the colossal
canals with which the surface Of Mars
is SO strikingly marked.
These canals signalize the astonishing
strength and energy Of the Martlans.
They are supposed to point also to
pathetic necessity. Their planet, weak
in gravity, Is weakening now in all the
natural forces. Its heat is rapidly de-
parting. Its crust is cooling. and as 1t
cools its strata, like those of our moon,
absorb the water Of its oceans. The
astronomers Of Mars foresee coming
time when all the water and atmosphere
Of their planet will disappear, being alb
sorbed, as in the case of our moon. by
the chilled material of its interior. They
have dug their canals in large part. it Is
believed, to bring the water Of their
shrinking oceans to their famished lands.
Originally undertaken, perhaps, as water.
ways, these canals are supposed to be
now vastly deepened channels for the
conveyance of the water required
for irrigation and drinking purposes.
The extent and extreme width
OF the excavations staggers belief,
but it win be remembered that
Mars is much older than the earth and
that now with the Martians it is now
dig or die.
So they dig, and they dig double lines.
They parallel every waterway. possibly
to avert the calamity Of want of water
over their vast continental areas in case
one OF the canals should get stopped
up by landslide. It has been doubted
whether the canals of Mars are really
double, but the astronomers Of the Lick
Observatory say they observed them on
the night Of August II with their incom-
parable telescope, and testify that they
are distinctly double They add that
they are " perfectly straight lines pass
ing through the continents from sea to
sea.
As canal in Mars would have to be
twenty miles wide torbe visible with our
best telescopes, it is evident that the
Martians must have given much atten-
tion to engineering. There is no evidence
that they have used steam or cleo.
tricity for transportation or for indus
trial purposes. Being under the neces-
sity Of having large water supply, it is
possible that they have not found it to
pay to use powers other than water
power. Besides land much intersected
by canals of vast width and depth could
not well develop an extensive railway
system. Without coal-there is no evi.
dence that Mars had carboniferous
period-the manufacture of steam en-.
gines could make but little progress.
why He Dida't Aecept.