The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-06-04
MARS Is PEOPLED.
Professor Lowell Announces The Con-
frmatiOn Of His Theory.
Two Great Discoveries About the
Personality of Our Nearest
Neighbors in Space.

The accompanying striking article
was written from information furnished
the New York Herald" by Percival
Lowell, the astronomer who has just
returned from long season of study and
observation in the Southwest. Mr.
Lowell has Endorsed this presentation
Of the interesting and valuable results
of his work
Percival Lowell, who has recently re-
turned from Mexico, has made some
discoveries of great interest regarding
the planets Mars and Venus. The OBJ
serVations of the planets made at the
Lowell observatory, in Arizona, were
confirmed and enlarged upon by the re-
cent observations in Mexico The re-
suits are of special significance to dwell
ers on the earth, because in the solar
family circle Venus and Mars, on either
hand, are the nearest neighbors to our
own planet. AS the life of the planets
is believed to pursue the same general
course, it follows that we can learn
much from a study of their conditions
about the past and future, the history
and the destiny of our earth.
Mars is in many respects the most in
teresting object in the solar system. It's
phenomenal brightness when nearest
the earth has attracted the gaze and
excited the Imagination of men of all
ages, while the beautiful coloring which
the telescope discloses to observers has
made it the more admired the better it
has been known.
It's general conditions are more like
\, -,
Its day is about forty minutes longer
than ours. 1t has four seasons like our
own, though the greater eccentricity of
its orbit and the slightly greater inclin-
alton of its axis accentuates its seasons,
giving it q colder winter and hotter
summer
Mars has an atmosphere slightly less
dense than our own. This serves to keep
the surface at a mean temperature
above that of the earth. We know this
because, While Mars shows polar caps
like our own planet, these melt off in the
late summer very much more than on
the earth. The presence of polar snow
indicates that there is water on the sur
face of Mars but these last observa-
lions at Flagstaff and Mexico have
shown that there is almost no water on
the planet, visible as such-that is. in
the form of lakes or oceans or seas. The
observations have shown that the blue
green patches formerly supposed to be
water are, in reality, tracts of vegeta-
ton.
MARS IRREGULARITIES
We know this for the following rea-
sons:
First-They are not of the same tint
throughout the whole Marian year.
Second-They are darkest just at the
season when vegetation would be most
luxuriant, and lightest when it would be
most in decay
Third-They undergo a process Of
transformation.
So soon as the polar. snow has begun
to melt, its retreating edge is surround
ed by dark blue belt which follows it
as it goes back toward the poles This
is apparently the only body of water Wis
ible to US.
AS soon as the melting of the snow is
we'll under way-a phenomenon occurs
as on the earth in the late spring and
early summer-the blue green areas in
its neighborhood darken and continue to
darken for a couple of Marian months
Then as autumn advances they proceed
to fade out, owing, as it is believed, to
the falling of the leaves
At the same time throughout the rose
orange parts of the planet, which are
undoubtedly great desert tracts, the So
called canals" make their appearance,
and then gradually darken, just as the
other blue green areas did, and they
II,
blue-green tint.
This is not all. AS the large blue
green areas tighten, canals make their
appearance through them also, showing
conclusively that they are not oceans,
but tracts of vegetation. These canals
in the dark region connect directly
with those in the light one and with
others that run straight up to the snow.
This makes a complete chain to con-
duct the water from the poles to every
part Of the planet.
Now, such a marvellous system as
this appears to be cannot we'll be due
to any natural forces, and finds its best
explanation in the presence of local in
telligence on the planet. which has pur-
posely created a system of irrigation
for the perpetuity of its own existence.
CONFIRMED AT MEXICO.
Such is Mr.. Lowell's theory, as it was
enunciated after the discoveries at
Flagstaff
The theory has been confirmed by the
observations at Mexico. It has there
been seen that the north polar cap
passes through exactly the same course
in it's melting. and gives rise to the
same curious system of inundatiOn that
the south pole does. 1t, too. has canals
that run right into its snow and then
over the surface of the planet.
The canals also pursue the same
course they We're observed to do at
oEIEN - - ~ e. n