The morning times., 1896-11-08
Is Our Earth Drying Up?

Is the earth driving up? 1t is start
ling question, and what is yet more start
ling, the answer given 10y science is un-
doubtedly affirmative.
Not that there is any occasion for alarm.
The terrestrial water supply is adequate
for long time TO come. 1t is not in our
day that the fountains of the deep viii
fail; neither we, nor our children, nor our
children's children, are likely TO suffer from
a general water famine.
The question is a real one, none the
less, and most serious; for upon the answer
depends the ultimate fate Of the human
race. And this answer based upon strict
scientific reasoning and the most Just
analogies accessible to us, is, as has been
stated, affirmative. Our earth, in very
truth, is slowly drying up.
OF all the planets OF the solar system. Mars
bears the closest resemblance to the world
on which we dwell this is conceded. Further,
| it is in every way probable that Mars Is,
or has been, covered with vegetation there
is much reason to believe that 1t is even
now like our own orb, theater OF lie.
But 1t is older-in effect, much older-than
the earth. Listen to what ferciNal Lowell,
one of the highest authorities on this sub
Ject, says of its present condition. After
a careful survey OF all the evidence, he
summarizes the matter thus:
1t follows that Mars Is very badly off
for water. Such scarcity of water
OH Mars is Just what theory would lead us
to expect. Mars is smaller planet than
the earth, and therefore is relatively more
advanced i'll his evolutionary career. He is
older in age if not in years, for whether
hirth q al at pfIu
or not his smaller size, by causing him to
cool more quickly, would necessarily age
him faster. But as planet grows old, its
oceans, in all probability, dry up, the
water retreating through cracks and cav
erns into its interior. Water thus diSap-
pears from its surface, to say pothinS of
what is continually imprisoned by chem-
cal combination.
Signs of having thus parted with its
oceans we see i'll the case OF the moon, whose
so-callcd seas were probably seas in their
own day, but have now become old sea bot
TOMS ON Mars the same process is going
on. but wouldSeem not yetto have eprogreSS-
ed so far, the seas there being midway in
their career from real seas to arid and
depressed deserts. no longer water sur
faces, they are still the lowest portions
of the planet and, therefore, stand to re-
ceiye what scant water may yet travel
over the surface" MARS: PIP. 1921 23.l
Here them are not one, but two im-
pressive object lessons; and any careful
reader will readily perceive that Mr.. Lowell
| assumes as unquestioncd that this analogy
| is strictly applicable to the earth. Mars
| has gradually dried away until its sur
| face is like desert, through parts of
which the streams from the melting ice
| caps still descend in floods at certain sea-
| sons, making a system of irrigatonp npossi5le;
| and it is a well-known f;:ct that tie telr
scope reveals what appears to be network
of canals all over, the planets disk The
moon, being smaller, has reached a still
more advanced stage
Water is as Essential to the life OF
world us blood TO the life of man: and
the moon is like 4 dry and shrivelcd
mummy, dead for ages. Its almost airless
sky-if sky it can be called-is without
cloud or rain; the basins Of its lakes and the
beds OF it's ancient seas are empty; its
irarched rocks are unclothed with ycrdurr,
and appear like a ragged mass OF hardened
Stag.
Such Is perished world In its last es-
tate, the result of the complete disappear
ance of water from its surface; and IL
scientific reasoning is Of any value, there
is little room for doubt that the earth is
on it's way to condition equally deplorable.
For the teachings of geology and chem
istry lead to the same conclusion. There
is no doubt that there was once far more
water on the earth than now-far too
much, In fact. Vast oceans of hot and
turbid brine ragged over almost its en-