El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-01-06
BUILDING CANALS
On The FACE
IF MARS
Continued from Page one,

CONTINUED from Page one.l
the next who can teI2 Bat what the
Maritians are doing in an astronomical
way. we do not know. but what they
are doing in the matter of retaining
what corresponds in Maritian Ian
guage to .'thet Great American Desert
we DO know. Nothing is given ou-
about it at Flagstaff. however, for that
is only where they study these things
and make maps. Boston is where 1t
is all given out DR.. Percival Lower.
who knows all about the stars and
planets and milky ways and great dip
pers Is the man who does the talking
What DR.. Lowell Says.
Dr. Lowell says the observations az
Flagstaff have proved beyond doubt
that there is life on Mars.
Animate wiz is the term DR.. Low
ell applies to the force which is bring
irg about a remarkable phenomenon
on the planet
In the popular way of reporting what
DR. Lowell has discovered the inhabit-
ants of Mars are building new sys-
tenn of canals from known point to
new oasis. Dr. Lowell says he Is
watching them grow
New canals on Mars in the first
sense said the speaker, though al
ways interesting and at times highly
Important are no novelty at this OBJ
servatory, inasmuch as at least 400
have been discovered here in the past
Is years
New Canals.
when Schiaparelli LIFT his great
work he had mapped III canals, with
those detected at Flagstaff the num-
Der has risen to between five and six
hundred
ITO observe. however. a canal new
IN the sense that it had never existed
snteriorly and to prove the fact Is an
astronomic detection OF a different order
and one the significance Of which
speaks for itself. This is what has
happened at the last opposition. al
Flagstaff"
--On September 80. 1909. when the re-
gion OF the Syrtis Major came into
view again after its periodic hiding of
six weeks, two striking canals were
evident to the east of the Syrtis in
places where no canals had ever pre-
viousiy been seen. Not only was their
appearance unprecedented but the
canals themselves were the most con-
spicuous ones on that part of the disc
The New Canals.
of the Syrtis Major and from a point
on its eastern side south convergine
to an oasis. Itself new. on the Cocy-
tus about two-thirds Of the distance TO
where that canal meets the Amenities
'The amenities itself was not visible
except possibly as a suspicion The
new canals were recorded in independ-
ent drawings by assistant E C Slipher
and the director. and shortly afterward
spicuous canals in the images.
subsequently, examinations Of the
records showed that Mr.. Slipher had
drawn one of them the day before but
not trace of them was to be founc
in the drawings Of August, July June
or May. That they were indeed new
was then conclusively established by
examination Of the records of previous
years.
THE records of the observatory go
back TO 1894 Nor had any observer
previous 10 1894 recorded them. Schia-
parelli had never seen them, nor had
his predecessors or successors. This
determined definitely that no human
eye had ever looked at them before"
Canals All Modern.
The speaker took up the question OF
whether the canals might not have
been there all the time. but unseen
This may be answered definitely N
the negative he said when it is real
lied that canal of such size, while IL
might not have been visible elsewhere
on account of the character Of the air.
the improved instrumental means and
the long experience of the observers.
could not have escaped the directors
assistants"
The next point considered by the
speaker was whether the canals could
be due to the annual seasonal change
which affects all the features of the
planet
How can the observed phenomena"
continued DR.. Lowell ''be due to an
other cause which we have found op-
erative on the planet-the special polar
association of particular canals? There
are canals which are quickened solely
from the melting of the north polar
cap, such as the Thoth and others like
the Ulysses, which are beholden only
to the southern one But the present
canals are not Of that category, for
they did not appear in past Martian
years. which. had they been so condf-
toned they would have done.
''The records are decisive on the
point They do not belong to the
class Of unihemispheric seasonal canals.
for the records of Flagstaff covering
the seven or eight years needed to es-
taiblish the fact are able to give an
absolute verdict