The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-03-08
THE SITUATION UPON MARS.
It's Rivers or Double Canals Puzzle the
Investigating Astronomer

! Investigating Astronomer.
! The first sight of Mars through an OBJ
servatory telescope is almost terrifying
| even for a person of good nerves 1t is as
| if one saw the whole earth, with its icy
| poles, as a solid globe floating overhead
/ One distinguishes clearly the dark blue seas
and the brilliant, beaming, many hued dry
! land-and on this the dry beds of the multi
| tude Of lakes, bays, CULTS, streams and ca
mails, these latter either parallel to each 9th.
er or crossing one another at right angles.
AsyOu continue to look, you note the yaria-
tions Of color and of light and shade; and
further, that the outlines on one edge of
the disk pass out of sight, while on the
other the landscape expands; you see that
Mars revolyes on its axis, and that the
ends of the axis are the frozen poles, as
wish Us.
There is further resemblance in the in
clnation in the axis, which provides that
on this planet also the seasons follow each
other i'll regular succession. The ice crust
at the poles diminishes in summer, afford
ing demonstration not only that Mars is
influenced by the suns rays precisely as
we are, but also that the air and water are
identical with ours. In fact. the meteor,
olOgy of Mars is now being reduced to a
science.
Judging the two planets by superficial
characteristics however, one must admit
condition implying higher degree of de
velopment in Mars. The continents of the
earth, seen from a distance, present very
torn appearance, and occupy scarcely a
third of its surface, while Mars is girdled
on both sides of the equator by one con
tlnuouS mainland, intcrsected by net
work of canals and rivers, the land occu-
plying approximately three-fourths of the
whole area of the planet and the water
only one-fourth, rs a consequence of which
1t may be that its atmosphere is less
clouded and Vapor laden than ours. Pc
culiarly characteristic is the arrangement
in which the geological nature of Mars has
laid out the streams (CanalsD
All our streams without exception are
tortuous, and all increase in width as they
near the ocean. On Mars, on the contrary,
the streams flow in straight lines and are
of uniform width from source to mouth,
These streams, from 10 to 100 kilometers
apart, have their banks SO well defined as
to suggest the idea that they are subject
to intelligent regulation. 1t is hardly Dos.
sible to conceive that two parallel canals,
intcrsected at right angles by third, as
in Opher land, can be the work of elemen.
tary forces of nature.
The question suggests itself again by the
two canals which flow from ocean to ocean
through the Island Hellas crossing each
other at right angles in the center. Not
less questionable is the origin of the great
blue Lake of the Sun in the center of Keep
pier land, with its three rectilinear canals
connecting it with the ocean.
Ever and ever the question recurs. Is il
possible that the crust of 4 planet whose
density is only seven-tenths less (sic) than
that of the earth can be so yielding that
the streams at their origin encountered no
impeachment to their direct course, Or
have they really been regulated by the in.
habitants of Mars-an engineering feat
presenting perhaps few serious difficulties
But what most eXcites our establishment
in connection with these canals is that al.
most every one of them is double-i e., it
has its parallel canal alongside of it, but
visible at intervals only. This has thor,
oughly perpleXed all Investigators. The
earth has nothing analogous to aid us to a
Westermann' Monats'-heft