San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-01
Photographs of Taken w. H. Wright of
Lick Observatory Which Demonstrate That the

dras is luxuriant and beautifully colored,
but it is separated from subterranean ice
beds only by the decayed growth of previ-
Gus years, which serves to protect it. In
midsummer this vegetation strongly alb
Serbs the rays of the sun and becomes
extremely hot by day, but at night it en-
dures a temperature that falls consider
ably below the freezing point.
1t is possible that the polar regions of
Mars may be even better adapted to sup
port life than the equatorial regions,
strange as that may seem. The short, hot
summers of the Alaskan peninsula, where
the temperature rises at times to ninety
degrees or over, and an abundant and
beautifully colored vegetational growth
springs up, are well known. For eighty
four days, from May 10 to August 8, in
north polar regions the intensity of the
light and heat received from the sun is
greater than it is at the equator.
On Mars this period of greater in
tensity of light and heat in polar regions
over that of equatorial regions is 16C
days. In the Marian summer in polar
regions there would be a less extreme
range of daily temperature than that at
the Marian equator; and in the long, in
tensely cold polar Winter Information
would insure the survival of life. On
Mars, as on our own planet, life would
undoubtedly adapt itself to its environ
ment. If we knew only of life in equa-
torial regions how inconceivable it would
be that life could exist near the poles!
One of the strongest arguments in
favor of the probable existence of life on
Mars is the decided greenish tinge that is
seen to spread over the dark markings of
the planets surface and deepen in color
with the advance of Spring. This beauti-
full color change on the surface of the
planet was noted and remarked upon at
the opposition of 1924 as at past opposi-
tons, and to attempt to explain it as due
to other than the seasonal spread of vege-
rational growth seems futile.
The problem of the canals of Mars we
jective reality? Are they strips of vege-
tation bordering waterways. made bv
intelligent beings to conserve scanty
water supply that is dependent on the
melting polar cap in the absence of large
oceans, seas or lakes? Or are they simply
optical Illusions" as some astronomers
sui maintain? Are they possibly vegeta-
tional growth lying in the path of
moisture-ladened air cure Is, as Prof.
w. II. Pickering, one of the most assidu-
GUS and noted observers of Mars, once
suggested?
There are, however, some astronomers
at the Mt. Wilson and Yerkes Observatory
and elsewhere who still fail to detect any
OF the fine thread-like markings that have
caused so much discussion, although these
astronomers find wealth of other detail
and color changes on the faces of the
rudy planet.
The transltory appearance of greatly
extended cloud areas, fogs, mists and
snowstorms on Mars are now so we'll
known and so generally observed that
there is no longer any question of their
existence. They furnish additional proof
OF the existence of moisture in the atmos-
phere of Mars which is also indicated by
the seasonal melting of the polar snow
caps and the appearance of the greatly
extended bright regions over the polar
regions in the ultraviolet photographs of
the planets atmosphere taken at the Lick
Observatory.
Here, then, is little world in space,
coming at times within a distance of
thirty-five million miles or so of our own
planet, that we have reason to believe
may be inhabited by as many varied forms
of life as is our own planet. Yet the
forms of life that exist on Mars may be
strange and weird beyond our power to
imagine, owing to the great difference in
the composition and density of their at
mospheres, which is as important factor
in the lives of growing organisms as the
light and heat that is obtained from the
sun.
The three essentials to the development
of life-air, water and temperature
above the freezing point for reasonably
long periods-are to be found on Mars
as they are on our own planet, Earth. 1t
is but reasonable to assume that under
such circumstances life would develop on
Mars as it has on our planet, though
adapted to its own peculiar environment