The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-28
INHABITANTS" OF MARS.
M. Flammarion Says Population Is an
Advanced People"

Paris Correspondence London Standard.
On the top floor of an apartment house
near the Observatore I had the good
fortune to find M. Camille Flammarion,
the eminent French astronomer and
one of the most remarkable men in
France.
On being ushered into his study, a
rather short man. with leonine head
and dreamy eyes, rose to greet me, and
in a simple, unaffected manner babe
me welcome He then introduced me to
his wife. who assists him in all his work
and acts as his secretary. The walls of
his apartment are all windows, and a
broad balcony runs around the whole
fiat. ON which Is mounted an astronom-
zeal telescope.
Naturally enough, one of the first ques-
tions l asked such an authority referred
to the planet Mars.
"Ahi the planet Mars" he replied. II
have been studying that planet closely
for thirty years, and | have prepared a
regular map of it with all its canals.
think | am more interested in this than
anything, for one reason, that | am GER
tain it is inhabited, and probably by peo-
pie much more advanced than we are.
"a thing which is particularly inter-
esting to us at the Juvisy observatory,
which | founded, is that we can watch
the snow melting at the poles in the
spring and, in fact. they nearly disap-
pear in the summer. This. mind you,
In spite of the fact that the year in
Mars is twice as long as ours, that Is
to say, that it really consists of $50
DAYS so that. naturally, the winter is
longer. With regard to the Inhabitants,
think they are very light in weights;
for instance, a man who weighs l4o
pounds on the earth, If he could be sud-
denly transported to Mars, would only
weigh 50 pounds
"The public at large does not really
know the precision of some of our as
Economical observations. Thus we know
the length of the day in Mars by diurnal
rotation to the one hundredth part of
second and from observations which
have now extended over 100 years We
find the length of the day on the planet
is "A hours 81 minutes % seconds. The
climate of the Martians is very mild,
there are no gales, while the atmos-
phere is very light. with scarcely any
clouds The inhabitants enjoy fine
weather, the climate being something
like that of Davos Platz. dry and clear.
We know the globe of Mars perfectly;
in fact far better than the earth.
Il am one of those rare Parisians, M.
Flammarion continued, who has never
changed his abode | have been here
since the war of 1871, in fact | took the
Nat during the war. when l was a cap
tain in the Genie, and / am surrounded
by trees and foliage as If | were in the
country. Thus. in 1871. during the Com
mune. while all Paris was fighting.
turned from the study of men to that of
nature, which, to my mind, is far more
interesting.
q began to note the different phases
of vegetation on the magnificent chest-
nut trees just outside my WINDOWS, on
the Avenue de fObservatire. These trees
were planted by Napoleon in 1901 and
soon got to know them and their pecu-
liarities. numbered them, starting
from the observatory. and noted the
date at which each of them bore buds
then leaves and ultimately flowers.
Some of the trees are forward, while 9TH
ers are slow to put forth shoots. | then
made a chart marking the date of flow
ering on each. This | carried on Tor
thirty years. and finally drawing
curved line through them. 1ound they
correspondent with the solar spots.
II discovered the same thing with the
return of the swallows, the first nightin-
gale and the song of the cuckoo, though
ALL of course, are modified by atmos-
pheric conditions. I have. however, en-
phatically proved that the more solar
spots there are the hotter the spring In
Paris
II do not. however, spend all my time
here, as half the year am at the OBJ
servatory at Juvisy, which. is only about
twenty minutes from Paris There we
have two astronomers working |constant-
ly, principally occupied with the study
of Mars. Jupiter and Venus; we also
carefully observe and register the tenn
perature of the air. the ground. the In
terror of trees and underground streams,
to study how the sun affects climatic
conditions.
1--WE have, as WELL different coiored
glass houses for studying the enect OF
solar heat on plants and here we mace