The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-27
NO CANALS ON MARS.
So Says Professor Pickering. In Harper'ss
 and He Gives His Reasons.

So Says Professor Pickering. In Harper'ss
 and He Gives His Reasons.
 Leaving asids the older and now general ly discreditea explanations that the csnals are gigantic water-ehannels. that they are cracks in . universal covering of ice. and that they are grooves cut by eollidins aster- oIds, we will turn to the explanations held as more probable by the astronorners of the present day.
 Much the oldest of these conAiders them to be caused by narrow ditohes which. crossing the desert regions of the planet. furnish water to vegetation growing along their hanks It is these comparatively broad bands of vegetation. and not the marrow water channels themselves. which are visible in our telescopes. The chief advocate of this view at the present time is Professor Lowell, who has adopted it as the foundation of his theories of Martian civilization. serious objection to this hyppothesis Is the difficulty of forcing wa- ter through the canals for thousands of miles. over . comparatively level country. Professor Lowell gets over this difficulty by stating that 1t is pumped through them artificially Many astronomers recoh rom an artificial explanation where it is posst- bIt to account for the phenomena observ- ed by any natural method
 The difficulty of transporting the water Is further enhanced If we consider the fact. which is gsenrally admitted. that the amount of atmosphere we find on Mars does not exceed one-qWarter the quantity per square mile of surface that we find upon the earth. This view Is based largely on Professor Campbelrs spectroscopic inves- tigations, confirmed by the cleaFness with which we see the details of the planets sur face Since gravity upon Mars is but three eighths of what 1t Is upon the earth the atmosphere pressure on the Martian surface cannot exceed three thirty seconds of our own or ssventy-one millimeters ct mercury. Under this low pressure water boiis at l1s degrees Fahrenheit. If the amount of att mosphere on Mars Is only one-tenth as much as that on the earth. which Is highly probable, the boiling point of water upon the surface of the planet would be reduced to eighty.tour degrees Fahrenheit. That the daylight temperature of the surface does not differ greatly from our owns we know by the rapidity with which the polar ice- caps disappear on the approach of summer, 1t would, therefore. seern that the evapo- ration of water from the surface must proceed with extraordinary rapidity. and the difficulty of transporting 1t through canals. and supplying sufficient for the needs of vegetation upon the way. must be accordingly greatly enhanced.
 Indeed, 1t would seem necessary to sub stitute gigantic wateFmains for the canals. with a most extended system of supple mentary piping. The amount Of power re- auired to pump sufficient water to irrigate anywhere between 100000 and 100000 suuare miles of surface. through such sys- tenn of piping. may be left so any ccmpe- tent hydraulic engineer to compute. with the added statement that most of the water is to be transported to a distance exceed ing 1000 miles.