The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-14
LIVING BEINGS ON MARS
PROFESSOR LOWELL DECLARES HIS
THEORY is CONFIRMED.
On the other Hand, Recent Observa-
lions shows Venus Has no Day
Nor ANY Inhabitants.
New York Herald.

turned from Mexico has made some dis
coveries of great interest regarding the
planets Mars and Venus. The observations
of the planets made at the Lowell observa-
tory, in Arizona. were confirmed and en-
larged upon by the recent observations in
Mexico. The results are of special signifi
canoe to jewellers 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 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. Its
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
Its general conditions are more like our
earth than those of any other planet. Its
day is about forty minutes longer than
ours. 1t has four seasons like our own,
though the greater eccentricity of it's orbit
and the slightly greater inclination of it's
axis accentuate its seasons, giving it a
colder winter and hotter summer.
Mars has an atmosphere slightly less
dense than our own. This serves to keen
the surface at a mean temperature above
that of the earth. We know this because
while Mars shows polar caps like our own
very much more than on the earth. The
presence of poplar snow indicates that
there is water on the surface of Mars, but
these last observations 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
bIue-green patches formerly supposed TO be
water are, in reality, tracts of vegetation
MARS'S IRREGULARITIES
We know this for the following reasons:
First = They are not of the same tint
throughout the whole Marian year.
Second-They are darkest just at the sea-
son when vegetation would be most luxuri-
decay.
Third-They undergo process of trans
formation
So soon as the polar snow has begun to
melt its retreating edge is surrounded by
q dark blue belt which follows 1t as il goes
pack toward the poles. This is apparently
the only body of water visible TO us.
AS soon as the melting of the snow is
well under way-a phenomenon which oc-
ours as on the earth in the late spring and
early Summertime blue green areas in its
neighborhood darken and continue to dark
en- for couple of Marian months. Then
as autumn advances they proceed to fade
out, OWING as 1t is believed, to the falling
OF the leaves.
AT the same time throughout the rose
orange parts of the planet, which are un-
doubtedly great desert tracts, the so-called
canals" make their appearance, and then
gradually darken, just as the other blue
green areas did, and they themselves are
also apparently of blue-green tint.
This is not all. AS the large blue green
areas tighten, canals make their appear
TCrh nan ole ChnNn yiraer nnIVg
sively that they are not oceans, but tracts
of vegetation. These canals in the dark
region connect directly with those in the
lgnt one ana with others that run straight
up to the snow. This makes a complete
chain to conduct the water from the poles
TO every part of the planet.
Now, such a marvellous system as this
appears to be cannot well be due to any
natural forces, and finds its best explana-
ton in the presence of local intelligence on
the planet; which has purposely created
a system OF irrigation for the perpetuity
of its own existence.
Such is Mr.. Lowell's theory, as it was
enunciated after the discoveries at Flag
staff. The theory has been confirmed by
the observations at Mexico. 1t has there
been seen that the north polar cap passes
through exactly the same course in its
melting, and gives rise to the same curious
system of inundation that the south pole
does. 1t, too, has canals that run right
into it's snow and then over the surface
of the planet.
The canals also pursue the same course
they We're observed to do at Falstaff in
1894 in the matter of their development.
What was anticipated and what came to
pass just as anticipated was the curious
doubling of the canals; At first canal
will appear single, and this continues to
be it's appearance through the earlier part
of the Marian season. Then it gradually
proceeds to twin, that is to say, in place
of one canal it shows two canals abso-
throughout their length. They have the
same association that we see in the twin
rails of railroad track. sl
CANALS AND POLAR SHOWS.
In 1894 at Flagstaff the beginnings of this
curious termination were observed much
and chronicled, but this year in Mexico the
Marian season was much further ad-
vanced, and the doubles came out in great
quantity. Some appeared in a way to show
that they were in a way connected with
melting at the south pole, while others
were connected with the north pole. They
are from thirty-five to forty miles wide
The spots seen where the canals cross
came out again in this years observations
just as in 1894. These so-called cases are
very curious markings. They occur only at
the junction of the different canals, and,
if the telescope power is strong enough,
appear always at these functions. AS they
show the same characteristics OF the canals.
they are, probably like them, vegetation
They are about $50 miles across
What such tracts of vegetation incIose
we do not know. They may be centers of
population. This is the most probable sup
position, for il is to them that the canals
run
These GASES double just as the canals do.
We see then that during the last set of
observations at the Lowell Observatory the
previous theory put forth about Mars has
been confirmed, while great deal has been
added to it in detail-the fine prints as
we may say of the subject.
To Professor William Fl. Pickering is due
the credit of having first considered the
dark areas to be vegetation and not water;
and to A. e. Douglass is due the credit of
detecting the canal" character of lines
in the dark regions, both of which are fun
damental facts in relation to the recent dis
coverieS.
The planet Venus though our next of kin
and our nearest neighbor, has long been
a mystery TO astronomers. They did not
know what she was or what she was
likely to be. They had not determined
whether she had a season, or, more impor-
tant still, whether she had a day. With
out a day life could not exist. All growth,
animal vegetable, depends upon a re-
current supply of water, which must not be
too much or too little The alienation of
night and day. produces periodic cycle
of meteorological change which makes
rain possible. If there is no variation in
the cause there can be none in the effect
and with the absence of change all life
would become impossible,
Moreover, a planet without seasons would
seem to us though not an impossible yet
still a strange place TO live in--an intensely
and perpetually hot belt at the equator
eternal, unchanging cold at the poles, and
a StOrm-SWept, temperate zone between.
Whether a planet has day or not VIII de-
pend on how 1t rotates on its own axis in
it's yearly circuit around the sun. 1t Will
have day of greater or less duration I'M
less it turns on its own axis just fast as
and no faster than, It's orDltal revolution
carries it round the sun. In such a rate of
rotation the one turning Will offset the
other and relatively to the sun the planet
will seem not to turn at ai-that is, it will