The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1901-02-02

I j E M { = K = +
would seem possible under the circum.
5tances. The year lasts esq DAYS and the
Eeasons are nearly twice as long as here
During tie lorg winte r season q. great
mass Of snow and ice collects at thu
polar regions. At any rate, the polar
caps of Mars really seem to be masses of
ice deposited from vapor in the planet
atmosphere, ard it appears as if the ice
melted during the Marian summer
BY this means an immense quantity Of
water is set free, the polar seas overflow
and as result the land is. submerged as
TAR as the tropics. At the same time
canals begin to make their appearance
! as faint. dark Ines, growing wider and
! wider, until they are about fifty miles
across, and then by way Of variety they
! double, very often within the short inter-
! val of twenty-four hours. The twin
/ carals rrn side by side like railroad
tracks, only in this instance the tracks
Z! are often separated by a distance Of two
or three hundred miles. Il
/ At the junction Of the canals round
spots have been observed, termed 'oa ses''
| by Mr.. Lowell and lakes by the Milan
| csc astronomer Schiaparelli. Their aver
age diameter is about 100 miles, but the
! largest of all, known as the Lake of the
Sum-" is 800 miles long. If we accepted
the theory that the canals were made by
! the Inhabitants Of Mars, and that, mer
4 chandise was, or is, conveyed by means
! of these canals to all parts of that dis
tant world, then the Lake of Mars
/ would seem to be the place where we
might suppose Marian merchants most
do corgregate. < -.
| The idea, however. that the round spots
are cases rather than canals has been
more generally accepted since these spots
have been observed to darken as the spots
increase in size, showing the advance of
| the season and the possible growth of
| vegetation on their surface. This would
| seem to Indicate that the canals and GASES
are of artificial construction and may
have been the work in ages past. of intel
! ligent beings who once peopled this
| planet. --"
/ When we recall the fact that the planet
is subject to yearly inunda tons, devas-
tating large tracts of land. then if Mars
ever was an inhabited world canals must
have proved an obvious necessity. In
TACT, 1t has been suggested by such au-
| thorltles as f1ammarion and Mr.. Lowell
Of the. Flagstaff observatory. Arizona
that the canal system of Me-s is I'M
Fdoubtedly the work of the inhabitants of,
Mars. H" @5y,.. :zs.. w.. :.
These canals are said. to surpass any
OF the great works Of similar kind car
rled out by the orders of the emperors
or China: Or the kings Of Egypt Accord
zig to a calculation made some years
ago by J. Orr of the British Astronomical
association it would require an army Of
10000 men, working for 1000 years, to
construct. the canal system now outlined
| on Mars Nevertheless, owing to the
lessened force of gravity on this planet
! he men might attain a strength and
stature greater than ours without being
burdened by their own weight, and deal
ing as they would have to with material
'allyFsa more thai third heavy
| as mere, their W Dirk ou1d1be greatly more
effective -,
Ii we could be transplanted to tho
planet Mars we would be surprised at the
Inference in the weight of objects in that
little world. The smaller the mass of =
planet the smaller it's attractive mower
An object that would weigh 100 bounds
on the earth would weigh only thirty
e1Sht pounds on Mars. Prof. Young tells
us that "a man who here weighs 1GO
pounds would weigh only sixty pounds on
Mars. If we were able to jump to =
height of five feet on the earth he con,d
Jump thirteen feet there with the ereat test
ease. SO far as this condition goes q
Marian elephant might BE as agile as =
terrestrial deer
Mars is considerably smaller than the
Earth. being only 1900 miles in diameter
while the earth is 1913. If the substance
IN the earth were made into seven halls
each ball would be as large as the n'anet
Mars, its volume being only one-seventh
that OF the earth. Gould Mars and tho
earth he weighed in a gigantic pair of
scales, 1t would take nine globes weigh
ing as much as Mars to make the scales
even, the mass of Mars being one-ninth
that of the GARTH ~ r.. . w. =. .'.. T.
1t seems strange that we are able tn
tell the weight Of planet millions Of
miles distant, but the power of attraction
eXerted by Mars on its own little moons
gives the secret away, Knowing the size
Ct tt MONS of Mars and the attractive
power that must be exerted by Mars to
Keep them from wandering away from hiy
guardianship, we can tell how great is
that power and the mass or quantity of
matter he planet c-ntaine The weight
OF a body IS the force with which IT is
attracted by the mass of planet.
II baseball club could journey to Mars,
and. despite the atmospheric peculiarities
OF the planet play game, the distinc-
ton between mass and weight would he
very forcibly illustrated. The ball would
be drawn toward Mars by only one-third
OF the force that the earth draws it. and
1T would be nearly as light as a rubber
pail. It would stay long in the air when
batted and home runs would be made all
the time.
I II the planet Mars ever has been or is
inhabited it must be by a race Of beings
not constituted as we are. According ia
Prof. Young, "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
dfference between the earth and Mars in
physical conditions must almost neces.
sarlly have determined different lines of
development on the two planets. Tt NAV
be said with confidence. however, that on
Mars the conditiorIs, diff erent rs they
must be from our own, are still more
near.y earthlike than on any other Of the
heavenly bodies which we can see with
our present telescopes
As to the so-called signals from Mars
the same authority assures us "that there
is not the slightest propapnily L.ia.s
any instrument we Low posses we could
distinguish any signals trey could MAXI
AND, surprising thy couiG. HTl-o Wsu,d Us
able to read their meaning"
IN regaru TO Tie leyiys4 Of interest," II
mans for 8 enaling Mars, it is rather curl
ous to note that the time kas about ex-