The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
MARS SAID
TO Be INHABITED
Professor Lowell Claims That
Evidence Proves 1t
CANALSFOR WATER SUPPLY
Efforts Of a Planetary Race for Self
Preservation With Little Moist
ure-Existence of Intelli-
gent Life.

Boston.-Basing his deductions on the
material that he had expounded during
the first seven lectures of his Lowell In
sttute course on Mars as the Abode of
Life" Professor Lowell, In his final lee
ture, said that Mars is an inhabited
planet He said that astronomical dis
covery is of two kinds. First there is
the kind that consists of discovery of an
other asteroid, for instance, on mathe-
NAUTICAL considerations alone; and the
second is that that goes to the bottom
of the affairs of a planet and makes dis
coveries on a planet already well known.
The discovery of truth in the heavens
differs but little from the discovery of
criminals on earth. 1t is simply piece
of detective work, employing similar
methods. The solution of the truth of
discovery is based on two things. cir
cumstantial evidence and motive. Motive
is as much of a necessity in the deter
mination of truths in cosmic as in hui
man affairs. Professor Lowell attacked
his problem from these two points, using
as his circumstantial evidence the facts
concerning the planet that he had enun7
ciated in the other seven lectures.
Mars is of much smaller mass than
is the earth, and, consequently, it should
differ from the earth in some principal
respects. The surface should be smooth
er, oceans should not be present, and the
air should be comparatively thin. The
telescope shows all these facts to be
true concerning Mars. Also, the planet
should have aged quicker than has the
earth, and this fact is shown by the
wide expanse of deserts and the absence
of water on the surface, for it is known
that all planets, including the earth,
slowly but surely lose their water.
Warmth and water are absolute neces-
stiles to life. On Mars the polar caps
which contain the only moisture left on
the planet, furnish through their annual
melting by the sun the only moisture
that the surface of the globe ever re-
ceives. 1t never rains on Mars, and ev-
cry winter the moisture is again depos-
tied in the form of snow around the
poles.
Never Rains on Mars.
The temperature of Mars was shown
NY Professor Lowell in one of the earlier
lectures to be ample for the existence of
life. 1t is a climate of extremes, the
winters being very cold and the summers
very hot.d The mean is 60 degrees, the
same as the mean temperature of the
earth. Experiments on the earth have
during the productive season, it can
stand any amount of cold at any other
season.
An animal on a planet so far distant
from the earth would only make itself
known to persons on the earth by the
work that it had produced on the sur
face of its planet. On Mars there are
just such markings as intelligence might
have made. These markings are the So
called canals. They are not optical illus
ions, for they have existed in the same
places for years and have been photo
graphed. There are two spots on the
planet, 70 miles in diameter and so miles
apart, that have quantity of canals
leading to them. Three of the double
canals embrace Them; that is. just touch
their outer edges. Four other doubles
send their arms each to separate spot,
and a large number of single canals also
run into the spots
The lines are not rivers, for rivers are
never so straight and SC uniformly wide.
They are not cracks, for again cracks
are not straight and usually END before
finishing" Another theory is that me-
teors have raised welts across the sur
face; but this is easily met by the fact
that a welt would never change color so
as to be perfectly visible at one time and
nearly invisible at another.
The systematized arrangement of the
canals to form a network over the sur
face is also inexplcable. The way that
a large number will come together at one
point from great distances over the
planet, all coming as straight as it is
possible for them to do, is not natural.
All these things are not natural objects,
but are the work of an intelligence COM
parable to the human intelligence of the
earth.
Canals Almost Invisible