The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-04

watercourses The only one not abso-
iutely contradicted by direct obser-
vations is that they are assures and
wrinkles in the planets crust, produced
by its shrinkage over a comparatively
unyielding nucleus, But then. what
is to be made of their termination %
We have thus set forth the condi-
pear TO bear upon its possible habit
ability by living beings, resembling in
essential characteristics those that in
habit the earth. If we put aside. as
Flammaricn and Lowell have done,
rather airily, we think, the serious
difficulty as to temperature, and assume
with them that the planets water sup
ply is extremely scanty-Which can
hardly be doubted, if water exists there
at all-and that the planets surface,
for the most part an arid waste. is to
some extent made fertile by the chan
nels which distribute the water de-
rived from the melting polar snow
caps, 1t Is clear that we have a con-
d1tlona of affairs which might make
Availability of the sort contemplated
not absurd hypothesis
And yet the great difference between
the earth and Mars as to thinness of
the atmosphere, the absence of clouds
and the lessened force of gravity and
solar radiation must necessitate wide
the two worlds.
Next comes the question whether,
granting the possibility of life upon the
planet, we have any evidence of its ex-
iStence..
THE MEN OF MARS.
AS regards vegetable life, it's exist
ence is, of course, assumed in the,very
plausible explanation which Lowell
and Flammarion give of the canals"
aI14 0I@x
the features CT the planets disc. And
they go further. Mr.. Lowell finds evil
dence of intelligent design and engin-
eering skill in the-according to him
perfect Straightness of the long water
courses and the precision with which
numbers of them converge to or diyerge
from certain centers.. And he enters
into interesting speculations as to the
ability of the people of Mars to per-
form feats of engineering quite beyond
cur human powers
In the first place, owing to the feeble
ness of gravity there, the men of
Mars might attain a strength and
stature nearly three times as great as
ours without eneumbrance from their
own weight, and dealing as they would
have to with rocks only little more
than a third as heavy as they would
be here, their work would be greatly
more effective
Then, too, Lowell, basing his specu-
lation upon the generally received form
OF the nebular hypothesis (Which, con-
trary to Faye's theory, makes Mars an
older world than ours), argues that the
Martlans already possess the engineer
ing skill, machines and appliances
which we shall have upon the earth
some ages hence.
Human beings may then find them
selves upon a world nearly dried up,
a 70 Art 10 iS.ricr io,o
on a scale suggested by what we see
upon our neighbor.
Both Lowell and Flammarion remind
us, however, very properly, that we
must beware of assuming that the
men" Of Mars-its intelligent inhabi-
tants-are vertebral bipeds, like our
selves. If intelligent beings exist there,
the probabilities are strong that they
are very different from us in ways
which we can hardly conjecture since
the difference between the earth and
Mars in physical conditions must al
most necessarily have determined diff.
ferent lines of development on the tive
planets Flammarion- suggests in a
caprice Of speculation 1t would seem;
that the Martians are winged crea-
lures, but whether bats, birds or but
terf1ies he does not attempt to decide
There has been some speculation as
to the possibility of establishing COM
lnunfcat1on- with our hypothetical
neighhcrs, and some enthusiastic anna
Tours have reported glittering spots
upon the planets disc, and have tried
to interpret them as. hailing signals
from the distant world
These" lights" however, were in all
probability mere reflections from favor
ably situated surfaces of the same ma
terial that con1poses4 the polar caps;
and there is not the slightest proba-
bihty that with any instruments we
now possess We could distinguish any
signals they could make And if we
could who could read them?
Still 1T is always wise to be reticent
in denying the possibilities of the
future;- and no less so to be cautious in
accepting as ascertained truth the
startling conclusions and unverif1ed dis.
coveries of imaginative observers. 1t
Is so easy to see what one expects and
wishes to find, especially on disc So
small and delicately marked as that of
Mars. &C. A. Young:
Princeton. N. J. Oct 10, 1895.
WRONG EYE.