The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-30
cATAcLYsM ON MARS
British Scientists Think the Red Light
Planet is Injured

London, Oct 2S.-Fresh charges of
an extraordinary nature are reported
in Mars by the Journal of the British
Astronomical association. That plan
ct of mystery was nearer the earth
during September than at any date
since 1892 and in a more favorable po-
sition for observation.
The phenomena observed says the
journal, are altogether without paral-
lei in the records of the past. Vast
changes have transformed here and
there the appearance of Mars dusky
areas. A gloomy, yellow veil has en-
shrouded immense tracts of the Mar
tian surface, obliterating the mark
ings. Changes now in progress on
the surface of Mars are of extraor-
binary interest in view of the theory
developed by Lowell that Mars is in
habited by race of living beings. He
argues that the canals of Mars are
works constructed by dying race,
race menaced by starvation on a des-
ert planet. to carry water supplied by
the melting ice-caps on the poles to
the waterless areas near the equator,
and thus to raise food.
II is suggested that If the markings
have disappeared and the yellow veil
has covered immense tracts on the
surface there must have been some
catastrophe on a gigantic scale, some
cataclysm such as dwarfs the most
violent earthquakes known on our
planet. What is the exact nature of
the cataclysm can, of course, as yet
be only vaguely guessed, but 1t is
worth notice that there have been
other extraordinary happenings re-
Gently on Mars. In August the south
ern polar cap was observed to have
fractured. A dark streak ran all the
way across 1t. About the same time
brilliant spot separated itself from
the polar cap and covered one of the
dusky areas in Mars, partly hiding it
from view.
1t may be that abnormal electrical
conditions in the sun which, accord
ing to Sir Oliver Lodge, caused the
recent magnetic storm on the earth,
have had a far more terrible influence
IN Mars. There they may have I'M
ocked forces that ended forever the
struggle for life of the Martians
Prof. Harold Jacoby. Rutherford
professor of astronomy at Columbia,
when the substance of this dispatch
was communicated to him last night
at his home expressed interest in 1t,
but was deposed to doubt that news
of a marian cataclysm of such an ex-
tent would reach the public by so
slow a route as the Journal of the
British Astronomical association.
Il am inclined to think" said Prof
Jacoby, that II this were as serious
as represented the fact would have
reached the London daily newspapers
themselves long before the British
Astronomical associations's journal
could receive and print it, The dis
turbance would probably also have
been observed elsewhere, | hesitate
to speak definitely without knowing
who observed and reported this and
under what circumstances, but | think
that had 1t been of the extent des-
cribed we would have received earlier
and more detailed intelligence of it,"
Washington, Oct. 2S.-Scientists in
Washington show a marked reluc-
lance to discuss the reported Marian
disaster without fuller knowledge of
the details of the phenomena. Moth
ing had been observed here to pre-
pare their minds for the disclosures
of the British journal and until the full
story OF the observations reaches
them it is doubtful that they will have
much to say.
Prof. w. S. EichelbeFger of the Nav
al Observatory said nothing of the
sort described had ever been recorded
in the history of other planets so that
scientists had nothing with which to
compare the reported cataclysm in
Mars.