The record-union., 1897-07-21

is possible-the solar system is moving
toward Hercules. What the new
Yerkes telescope will have to say about
All these things is awaited with intense
interest.
If the plan of the universe is the
grandest of all problems, the other the
possibility of the existence of intelH-
gent life on some other planet than the
earth, is the most absorbing to man
kind in general. There are some as
tronomerS who do not hesitate to say
that science is absolutely unable to
throw any light on this subject, but
those who hold to the contrary are
more numerous to-day than ever be-
fore. Here is where nothing can take
the place of a big telescope and keen
eye. For discovering faint stars the
Photographic plate IS unexcelled, but
for planetary detail the human eye is
superior There will be times when
conditions for observing the surface of
a planet are most favorable; instants
when everything will flash out and be
gone, and this the eye will catch, While
the camera would only record the ag-
gregate For this reason photographs
of planets have always been unsatis-
factory.
Now, as to life on planets c1rcllng
around other suns than our own, or
even on the suns themselves, nothing
can be said They are too remote to
allow our gaining any such knowledge
Of with thR nlanHtS in
our own solar system, there are but
two of which we can fairly discuss this
matter. These two are Venus and
Mars, the nearest of the earth's neigh
bors. lit is established that the moon
is utterly barren. If it ever possessed
an atmosphere or water it has lost
both now, and it's present condition can
best be described as dried up desola-
ton; but of Venus and Mars there Is
enough basis of ascertained fact to ad-
NIT an opinion.
First, however, it is necessary TO pre-
mise that life cannot exist without cer-
tain requisites, of which water and at
mosphere are the chief. The objection
that no one can say that because these
things are necessary for life on the
earth they are necessary fore life on
other planets is not a valid one, for
all scientific knowledge goes to prove
that the same laws prevail throughout
the. universe Two and two make four
on the earth, and two and two make
four on Jupiter or Sirius. The faintest
and farthest star is as much subject
to the law of gravitation as is the ap-
pie which falls to the earth. Certainly
conditions vary without limit, but prin-
ciples; are the same everywhere. 1t IS
useless to discuss life in other worlds
ait all unless this fact is kept firmly
in mind.
Now, there is at least one well-known
astronomer who seems pretty well con-
WINGED that Mars at least is ha bitable.
That man is Percival Lowell. He built
and equipped am observatory at Flag
staff. Ariz.. for the express purpose OF
studying Mars. Later he moved 1t to
the City of Mexico, and now he is to
bring it back to Arizona. His observa-
tons have been careful and his draw
ings of both Mars and Venus undoubt-
edly excel any ever made before. He
is radical in his deductions. On the
other hand the astronomers at the
Lick Observatory are very conservative.
They affirm, notably, Professor Holden,
that the established facts concerning
Mars are very nbeager. They affirm
that if the planet has any atmosphere
at all it is SO extremely rare as to
preclude any such life as is known on
the earth. 1t is a question of evidence.
1t will be conceded on both sides that
most mysterious changes take place
on Mars. First, at each pole there is
a cap of white which increases when
| it is winter on the planet, and de-
creases when it is summer. 1t is sure
| ly no unWarrantable assumption that
this cap of white is snow, and that its
alternate increase and decrease is due
to freezing and melting, and, if so, why
not water and atmosphere? But the
strangest thing of all is the canals
of Mars
For fifteen years these remarkable
appearances have been more or less
we'll known, and yet to-day astrono-
merS are as far from agreeing as to
what they are as ever. The planet S
surface is covered with a network of
lines which connect what seem to be
bodies of water They seem too regu-
lar to be works of nature, and, if works
of the Marsians, those people are in
comparably superior to the inhabitants
of the earth as engineers. Stranger
still, at certain intervals these canals
appear to be doubled. If simply means
of irrigating the land, why double them
at times, or is the apparent duplication
| an optical phenomenon? Bolder, yet.
Is the doubling an effort on the part
of a highly intelligent race of beings
30
earth? The careful astronomer shud-
ders at the idea, but he cannot deny
that such a solution is possible. With
improved instruments of research, some
| additional light must be thrown on this
matter. When at the next opposition
of Mars, the great lens of the YerkeS
telescope is turned on the planet, great
revelations may be expected-not all at
once, but as fact is added to fact and
observation to observation, the truth
such as men are almost afraid to grasp
at must come out. 1t very often hap
pens that in great matters like these
the layman Will divine the meaning
the essential result-of scientific dis
cOveries before the conservative sci
enlist himself. For many years the
learned men laughed at the idea that
stones fell from the heavens to the
earth. The stories of the peasants to
that effect they dismissed as incredi-
BILE. Yet meteors continued to fall, and
science at last found out about them.
The Yerkes Observatory is fortunate
in having ON it's staff one of the sharp
est-eyed men who ever looked through
7 II