Part 7

4. EARTH CRACKS 10 FEET

5. CRATER CRACKS, MOON 55 MILES

6. _a._ MOON _b._ AFRICA 100 MILES 1500 MILES

NATURAL LINES

CRACKS, FISSURES, ETC.]

In Plate V, page 112, are given six figures representing various cracks and fissures. No. 1 represents the cracks in the glaze of Japanese pottery, magnified. No. 2 shows the mud cracks on the edge of a lake, to the extent of two feet. No. 3 is a series of cracks in an asphalt pavement, covering about two feet. No. 4 shows the form of cracks in the surface of a mesa in Arizona, the result of the summer heat, the length being about ten feet. No. 5 is a tracing from a drawing by Professor W. H. Pickering showing cracks in the lunar crater Eratosthenes, with an extent of fifty-five miles. The original drawing represented a much greater widening of the lines which Professor Pickering believes to be due to vegetation. I endeavored to trace the centre of each line and Professor Pickering said in regard to my tracing: "In one or two instances you have assumed that a crack went through the middle of a broad space, whereas, for aught we know, it may have gone along either edge, but otherwise the tracing obviously follows the outlines of my drawing." It evidently gives a _cachet_ of what appears to be veritable cracks on the surface, and it is interesting to compare this drawing with the cracks in the asphalt. In No. 6 are two drawings; one marked A represents cracks in a region of the Moon known as Flammarion's Circle, the other B represents the great rift in southern Africa, probably the most stupendous phenomenon in geological history. This rift has been traced from the Valley of the Jordan through the Dead Sea, into the Gulf of Akaba, thence into the Red Sea, which it follows the entire length, then turning southwesterly into Africa and branching, one branch takes in Lake Tanganyika, and the other branch Lake Nyassa. A portion north of Nyassa is still problematical. Here is a crack 1,500 miles long, most of it filled with detritus, water, or forest. It would be an interesting question whether such a fracture would be visible even from the Moon. A glance at these various figures will give one a conception of the similarity of cracks, their irregular contour, their indeterminate origin, and ending. Cracks arising from shrinkage vary only in the material in which the crack takes place; the conditions resulting from shrinkage or pulling apart are precisely the same.

Let us now glance at a series of figures on Plate VI, page 113; their artificial character may be recognized at once. They are all designed for channels or thoroughfares for the transportation of men, merchandise, or water. No. 1 represents a tracing from a railroad map of a county in Illinois. The convergence of lines to common centres, and, in one case, parallel lines may be seen. The length of the region represented is thirty-seven miles. No. 2 is a tracing of streets in a district of Montreal, covering an extent of half a mile. No. 3 is a tracing of a small region near Phoenix, Arizona, showing irrigating canals. The larger ones follow contour lines of the surface; the smaller ones are usually laid out in rectangular form to correspond with the original land sections and sub-sections, the boundary lines of which run north and south, east and west. No. 4 represents the canals converging on Groningen, Holland. No. 5 is a tracing from a hemispherical map of Mars made by Schiaparelli, and No 6 is traced from a photograph of a globe on which Lowell has carefully drawn the canals, oases, etc., of Mars covering a land extent of 7,400 miles. The remarkable artificiality of all these figures must be admitted. The lines on the first four figures are laid out by an intelligence for similar purposes. No. 1 for the conveyance of passengers and freight; No. 2 for the traffic of a city; No. 3 for the conveyance of water; No. 4 for purposes of navigation, and Nos. 5 and 6, according to Lowell's view, for the conveyance of water from melting polar snow caps for irrigation purposes. A simple, rational explanation, as their great width and geodetic precision forbid any other.

Let one contemplate these lines of Mars and compare them with the natural cracks on Plate V and he will appreciate the emphatic words of Lowell when he says: "The mere aspect is enough to cause all theories about glaciation, fissures, or surface cracks to die an instant and natural death." Consider any other possible tracing of lines on the face of the Earth as the result of Nature's forces, such as river beds, cañons, chasms, fissures, faults, rifts, precipitous valleys, fiords, the results of sharp folds in the strata, parallel chains of mountains, and none of these lines would be straight, none of them would be of uniform width, and few of them would have the enormous breadth of the Martian lines, they would begin nowhere and, with the exception of the rivers, end nowhere. This definition holds good as the result of natural forces from the microscopic crackle on a dinner plate, to a crack in the Earth's crust fifteen hundred miles long.

Having briefly alluded to some of the theories advanced to explain the geodetic network of lines encircling Mars--theories in one case so puerile, and in another case an interpretation so monstrous, though endorsed by astronomers of standing--we turn to the suggestion that these various lines are artificial, that they were designed for a definite purpose, namely, to conduct water from those regions alone where water is found for the purposes of irrigation. We shall call attention to a parallel case where the great ice caps and glaciers of the Himalaya Mountains supply water, by their melting, for thousands of miles of irrigating canals. Let us ask ourselves whether if the snows of the Himalayas gradually failed, the crowded millions of India would not if necessary reach out to the farthest North for this precious fluid? Our great centres of population at the present time are reaching out in every direction for water supply. How long would it take New York City to decide in case of water famine to tap the Great Lakes to the north, or to establish pipe lines to the north pole, if it were necessary to go that distance for water?

From the foregoing it is seen that the question of water supply has engaged the energies of man from pre-historic times. These great irrigating works are found, however, in regions of sterility, or light rainfall, from the rude irrigating canals of ancient Peru and Arizona to the marvellous accomplishments of the hydraulic engineer in India and Egypt. This demand for more water is not, however, confined to regions of sterility, the reaching out of cities for supplies of water for potable purposes and for the wasteful disposal of sewage was inevitable. What shall we say, however, of the notes of warning in regions of rain?

England is considered a land of humidity and copious rains, and yet the alarm is already sounded that in the no distant future an appalling catastrophe may threaten her in the failure of her water supply. In a special despatch to the "New York Herald," Mr. Bently, president of the Royal Meteorological Society, is quoted as saying at its Annual Meeting, "So enormous now is the drain upon the country's available supplies, so much have the growth of cities, the disappearance of forested areas, the extent of street surface impervious to moisture, and the diversion of the rivers, lakes, and other natural fresh water reservoirs from their natural function of irrigators and distributors of the all essential moisture to the land interfered in England with nature's arrangements, that English engineers and meteorologists at no distant date may find a task of almost insuperable difficulty awaiting their endeavors."

Dr. Mill, a rainfall expert, on being consulted by a "Daily Mail" correspondent regarding this alarming statement, was of the opinion that the question would require early consideration. We quote his words as follows: "Legislation is needed in the immediate future for the regulation of the rivers. The great question is how to store the water which at present runs to waste on the coasts."

"The planting of trees on the high water-sheds is one of the first solutions of the problem. The chief difficulty lies in the scarcity of suitable land available for building large reservoirs, and at some future date the services of engineers will be required to reform the present arrangement of reservoirs."

"In Austria the government issues an annual report on the condition of the Danube and detailed statistics of the rainfall, with a view to storing all the available water supplies. The work done by the Austrian government I am doing in regard to the British Isles on my own responsibility, but the rainfall and the river conditions are only a portion of a much larger problem."

The above quotations indicate that even now an alarm is felt in countries of fair rainfall regarding the possible failure of the water supply in the near future and is perhaps a premonition as to what may be absorbing our energies in centuries to come. Such possibilities as here suggested may offer an additional clew to an interpretation of the Martian markings.

The unnatural straightness of these interlacing lines on Mars, many of them following the arcs of great circles, their uniform width throughout, their always starting from definite areas, their convergence to common centres, and their varying visibility synchronizing with the Martian seasons finds no parallel in natural phenomena.

If in the mind's eye we were to survey the Earth from Mars the only feature we should find at all paralleling the lines in Mars would be found in the level regions of the West, where, for thousands of miles, the land extends in vast level stretches. In these regions would be found lines of railroads running in straight courses, starting from definite places, converging to common centres, their sides, in certain seasons, conspicuous with ripening grain fields, or again the work of the United States Reclamation Bureau running its irrigating canals in various directions through that great region. Both these kinds of lines would be artificial and both designed for purposes of conveyance--in the one case, merchandise and passengers, in the other case, water.

If the Martian lines are not artificial some other theories must be offered than those thus far advanced to explain their origin and purpose.

The phenomenon of the extraordinary doubling of the canals when first announced was immediately disbelieved; when, however, other observers confirmed Schiaparelli's discoveries, and it became evident that these double lines had a veritable existence, the phenomenon was regarded as an evidence that profound physical changes were going on in the planet. Thus in 1887 Mr. Stanislaus Maunier, in "La Nature,"[6] in alluding to the remarkable discovery of the doubling of the canals, says: "Mars at this moment is the theatre of phenomena of stupendous grandeur which will be adequate in a few years to impress profound changes in its aspect." This was written in 1887, and continuous observations of the planet since that time have shown no profound changes, or changes of any kind beyond those which periodically occur with the seasons. Since Mars is a much older planet than the Earth, it seems reasonable to believe that it is more stable, that volcanoes and earthquakes have long ceased to manifest their activities, that erosive action by water is no longer in evidence, subsidence and elevation of continental areas no longer occur. From this condition of the planet it is impossible to believe that the curious phenomenon of the doubling or gemination of the canals can be due to any physical changes now taking place.

Schiaparelli said that many of the ingenious suppositions advanced to account for this doubling of the canals would not have been proposed had their authors been able to examine the gemination with their own eyes; he further says: "It is far easier to explain the gemination if we are willing to introduce the forces pertaining to organic nature; here the field of plausible supposition is immense," and in this field of suppositions he suggests "changes of vegetation over vast areas." Let any intelligent mind soberly consider this rational suggestion of Schiaparelli's and compare it with other theories that have been advanced, and he will be compelled to admit that vegetation alone gives us at least a clew to the extraordinary behavior of these parallel lines. To understand the symmetry, the suddenness, and the vast extent of this phenomenon, the further explanation of vegetation superinduced by artificial methods will alone complete the answer.

Sir Robert Ball cannot conceive how Mars, a much older planet, should develop synchronously with the Earth creatures of intelligence, an event which he insists should have occurred ages earlier in its history. In this supposition he is quite right, for if there are creatures of intelligence in Mars these should have appeared much earlier, and that is probably what has happened. The problem is one parallel to that urged by Sir Boyd Dawkins in regard to the evidences of man in the Tertiary rocks. Dawkins argued that since the mammals in the Tertiary had changed so profoundly, many types becoming extinct, if man had lived at that time he also should have been affected by the same influences, and should have changed accordingly. It has been clearly pointed out by Cope and others that the moment intelligence became a factor in natural selection it was seized upon to the relative exclusion of physical characteristics, hence but little change, otherwise than an intellectual one, has taken place in man since his progenitors took to the trees and made up by agility, cunning, and alertness what they lacked in physical strength. In the same way, if, in the past history of Mars, an intelligent creature appeared he must have survived under precisely similar conditions, and long after favorable environments had passed that were implicated in making him what he was.

Admitting that there is an intelligent creature of some kind in Mars, is it reasonably conceivable that he should have caused such changes in the surface features of that planet as to be visible from the Earth? Professor Newcomb concludes, in a recent article in "Harper's Magazine," that "we cannot expect to see any signs of the works of inhabitants in Mars, if such exist." Let us, however, reverse the proposition and ask ourselves if man has been implicated in any changes in the surface appearance of the Earth that would be visible from Mars? And I think the question can be answered in only one way. The vast cities such as Pekin, Tokio, London, and New York, with their great expanse of tiled and slated roofs, and sterile streets, would certainly have a different albedo from the grass and trees in the immediate outskirts of such places. The tracts of land reclaimed from the sea, and still more the enormous areas which have been rendered green by irrigation, must, of all contrasts, be markedly conspicuous. To realize the extent of this work, it is only necessary to state that in Egypt 6,000,000 acres depend upon irrigation, and this area to be vastly increased in a short time; the Western states of America with 10,000,000 acres, and this area being rapidly augmented by the work of the United States Reclamation Bureau; in India 25,000,000 acres under irrigation, and this being continually added to; above all, however, the vast extent of territory from which the dark forests have been removed in this country, and more particularly in China, must make a visible landmark. If one can recall the appearance of forests in the southern and middle part of Maine, say from Bethel or Bangor, fifty years ago, he will remember that from the top of any hill a stretch of dark blue forest was to be seen as far as the eye could reach, and now from the same elevations one can see only an occasional clump of blue forest, while the remaining surface is, according to the season, either bright green, yellow with ripening vegetation, or white with snow, out of which the dark clumps of forest growth are most conspicuous. Considering the contrasting colors in one year covering hundreds of thousands of square miles in various portions of the country, the question naturally arises which of these contrasts would be most conspicuous,--the colors just mentioned of solid land surfaces of vegetation, snow, and desert, or diaphanous clouds with their gray shadows. We are told that Jupiter, with the mean distance at opposition of nearly 400,000,000 miles, shows its clouds, its red spot, and the shadow transits of its satellites. Surely if these conditions are seen from the Earth, the changes in the Earth's appearance above described might be seen from Mars, which at its nearest opposition is only 35,000,000 miles away, and, conversely, any change of similar character in Mars would certainly be visible from the Earth.

X

COMMENTS AND CRITICISM

_Nothing is more difficult and requires more caution than philosophical deduction, nor is there anything more adverse to its accuracy than fixity of opinion._

FARADAY.

It will be of interest to examine the writings of certain astronomers, and writers on astronomy, to appreciate the unreasonable conservatism, not to say narrow-mindedness, which color their opinions. It ill becomes students of science to ridicule the honest and persistent labors of such men as Schiaparelli, Lowell, Perrotin, and others, unless they can show an equal devotion to the work. They do not recall the deluge of essays, reviews, and sober treatises which followed Darwin's great work, viewing the evidences of Darwin not thoughtfully, nor based upon any knowledge of the subject, but with contempt, and, in many instances, with vituperation. So rapid, however, was the recognition of Darwin's interpretation of Nature's facts that most of these writers lived long enough to see their protests entirely discredited, or to become enthusiastic advocates of the theory.

In their own domain of astronomy these writers are equally forgetful of the earnest and even bitter controversies regarding the demonstration by Chandler of the oscillation of the poles, and consequent variation of latitude, and the final establishment of Chandler's views, in the teeth of opposition, by the greatest astronomers.

The character of this irrelevant and adverse criticism may be appreciated by subjoining a few examples. The most amazing of all these expressions is to be found in the report of the British Astronomical Association, for 1892. It seems that a committee had been appointed by the Association to report on the surface features of Mars. E. Walter Maunder was made Director of the Committee. Twenty-six observers, of whom twenty-one were inhabitants of Great Britain, sent in the result of their work accompanied by drawings. A summary of this work was published in the form of memoranda accompanied by a Mercator projection map of Mars, individual planisphere drawings, as well as colored plates; these together represented twenty-eight single canals, five double canals, nine oases, as well as the dark regions so long familiar to astronomers. This was a somewhat remarkable contribution considering the complaints from the different observers in regard to the weather, and the prejudiced, and negligent part played by the man at the helm. That I am not unjust in these statements may be understood by quoting from the report showing the conditions under which the English observers labored, the delinquent part which Mr. Maunder, the Director, played in the matter, and the conclusions which Mr. Maunder arrived at after this unsatisfactory performance. He says: "The opposition of 1892 proved on the whole a very disappointing one. Although Mars at opposition was almost at its nearest approach to the Earth, it was far from being well placed for observation by European astronomers owing to its great southerly declination, and consequent low altitude.[7] The weather during the autumn of 1892 was for the most part very unfavorable for observation of so difficult an object, and several members who joined the section at the beginning were unable to contribute either drawings or report."

Now I beg the reader to carefully note the part the Director played in this important work. Here are his words; there is no need of italicizing them. "None of the few evenings which the Director was able to give to the examination of the planet was really suitable for the purpose, and as the pressure of other duties rendered it impossible for him to supply any detailed help to the members, the section was at a very serious disadvantage." He certainly is frank enough to state the disadvantages the section was under with such a man at the head. Realizing the conditions of seeing in the fog and soot-begrimed atmosphere of England, the low altitude of Mars, and the loss to the committee of the assistance which a Director might have given to the work had he been able to approach the subject in a broad and unprejudiced manner, one is naturally led to ask what this committee would have accomplished if each member in turn had had an opportunity of observing Mars at a high altitude with a twenty-four inch refractor of remarkable definition, at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the sea-level, in an atmosphere so clear and steady that stars of the third and fourth magnitude may be seen to set at the horizon line.