Part 8

Mr. Maunder in speaking of the nomenclature used in his report says, "The term 'canal' has also been retained, though 'canals' in the sense of being artificial productions, the markings of Mars which bear that name, are certainly not. It is difficult, indeed, to understand how so preposterous an idea obtained currency for a moment even by the most ignorant." It is impossible to repress one's amazement at these expressions after the confessions he makes as to his official functions on the committee, and I appeal to any honest and unprejudiced mind if a more incompetent person of the class to which he belongs could have been found in England for the Directorship of such a body. In this connection we cannot refrain from giving a few paragraphs from a paper entitled "Can Organic Life Exist in the Planetary System?" by C. A. Stetefeldt. The author says: "We must, however, acknowledge that if other suns in the universe have planets--and there is no reason why they should not--many of them may present physical conditions identical with, or similar to, those existing on the Earth, and that therefore their organic life may be similar to our own. Further, I am far from denying that, under favorable circumstances, creatures may be evolved upon planets which revolve around other suns, whose mental capacity is as much superior to man's as that of the latter is to the lowest form of vertebrates." Having made these liberal admissions in regard to the universe at large he attempts to show that none of the planets outside the Earth could sustain life, and finally closes in this extraordinary manner: "In concluding this investigation we cannot help admiring the inductive acumen of the theologians who considered the Earth the most important of the planets, and the centre of creation. Although their opinions were not based upon scientific facts, they _arrived at the truth nevertheless_." (Italics ours.) Familiar as every one is with the attitude of theologians for the last several centuries concerning astronomical discovery I think it may be safely said that this is the first instance on record where they have been credited with an induction not based on observed facts worth quoting in an astronomical paper. And this contribution also appeared in the publications of the "Astronomical Society of the Pacific," Volume VI, No. 25, without a word of comment! How different was the behavior of the "Journal" when a report of Percival Lowell's lecture on Mars, written by Dr. Edward Everett Hale, was reproduced in its pages. The following comments were made by Edward S. Holden, then Director of the Lick Observatory: "Something is seen, no doubt, but I may add that nothing has been observed at the Lick Observatory during the years 1888-1895, so far as I know, which goes to confirm the very striking conclusions here described." It may be added that during the years 1888-1892 nothing was seen of the fifth moon of Jupiter. The discovery of this satellite with the Lick telescope was not due to any special efforts on the part of the Director.

The Rev. E. Ledger, "Nineteenth Century Magazine," Volume LIII, 1903, p. 773, in an article entitled "The Canals of Mars--Are they Real?" presents an excellent account of the successive observers of Mars, and the results of their work, and the objections of those who could not see the canals, or saw them imperfectly. He recalls Maunder's childish experiments, and is greatly impressed by them. He then says: "Astronomers are no doubt very well acquainted with the laws of optics as applied to the eye. They have made, and may yet make, many experiments connected with their action. They are accustomed to allow for individual peculiarities in observation, as, for instance, when what is termed personal equation affects the rapidity with which different observers touch a key to record what they see. They may therefore skilfully judge of the effect produced in observations of Mars by such processes of the eye, or of the brain, or nervous system as I have referred to." He strongly thinks it would be well "if some skilful nerve specialist and oculist could work in conjunction with some of these practised observers who have seen the canals. They might both assist in observing, and at the same time carry out careful researches into the optical delusions which brain or eye may experience in connection with telescopic observation." This is certainly a happy thought of the reverend author, only it would seem in this case that a larger and more diversified corps of specialists, including alienists, is needed to attend to that class of astronomers who are suffering with mental strabismus. It might be advisable to call in the services of a bacteriologist to make cultures of new forms of microbes which may be involved in rendering a man incapable of estimating the value of evidence.

It is the exception rather than the rule in astronomical science that one finds such unfounded and prejudiced utterances as those above commented upon. The glamour of astrology still lingers, in the public eye in its respect and awe for the astronomer's work. Every eclipse seems in the nature of a prophecy. The public contributes liberally for the support of eclipse expeditions, observatories, and the like, and these contributions would be still more liberal if the public could realize the profound significance of the researches now being carried on by Director Pickering at Harvard, Director Campbell at Lick, Director Hale at the Solar Observatory, Mount Wilson, and many others. Their observations are received without question. The thoughtful man would only ask that like credence should be given to the work of every earnest student unless disproved, even though the field of investigation covers regions hitherto but little explored, and yet of the very greatest interest to the human race.

XI

ATMOSPHERE AND MOISTURE

_If in any planet we could detect the traces of vegetable life it would at once be a strong argument for the existence of animals there and vice versa._

HENRY DRAPER.

Schiaparelli points out that "the polar snows of Mars prove in an incontrovertible manner that the planet, like the Earth, is surrounded by an atmosphere capable of transporting vapor from one place to another." Mr. E. E. Barnard, in the "Astrophysical Journal," Volume XVII, No. 4, in speaking of the polar caps, says: "There seems no definite proof that they are not as much ice and snow as that which we have to deal with in our own terrestrial winters. So much is at least suggested by the great seasonal changes they undergo from winter to summer. There seems to be a general belief now that Mars certainly has an atmosphere. This atmosphere seems to be very much less than our own, and yet it is of sufficient density to produce the phenomena of the polar caps by condensation and evaporation and also to produce, though rarely, some form of clouds."

Among those who have claimed to have established the existence of water vapor in Mars by the spectroscope are Rutherford, Secchi, Huggins, Janssen, and Vogel; and these declare the existence of a Martian atmosphere similar to our own in composition. Mr. Campbell can find no spectroscopic indication of an atmosphere charged with water vapor. Lewis E. Jewell says: "The spectroscopic proof of the presence of a fair amount of water in the atmosphere of Mars must be regarded as unattainable." Professor Lowell, despite the aid the admission of water vapor in Mars would give to his position, also doubts whether the spectroscope is able to detect the evidence through our own moisture-laden atmosphere.

After a minute and exhaustive study of the polar snow caps by the combined observations of Lowell, Douglass and W. H. Pickering, Mr. Lowell says: "It is interesting that the cap should so simply tell us of these three important things: the presence of air, the presence of water, and the presence of a temperature, not incomparable with that of the Earth."

Seasonal changes on Mars have long been recognized and admitted by astronomers, and these changes are on so vast a scale as to be distinctly visible from the earth. Without an atmosphere the surface of Mars would be inert. Schiaparelli was the first to notice that at successive oppositions the same regions showed different degrees of darkness and accounted for these variations by seasonal change. Mr. Denning believes that certain changes in the appearance of the markings to be due to vaporous condensations. Sir Norman Lockyer believed he saw the obscuration of a large region by clouds, this obscuration continuing for some hours. A bright spot on the terminator of Mars, discovered by Douglass at the Lowell Observatory, and which led to the newspaper excitement that signals were being made, was seen to move and finally disappear and its appearance, drift and disappearance is interpreted by Lowell as a cloud illuminated by the Sun and carried along by the wind. The presence of clouds, judging from my own brief experience, was certainly suggested at times by the peculiar way in which a large region known as Syrtis Major disappeared and flashed out again. This behavior might be expected of the tenuous lines as a result of refraction and other disturbances in our own atmosphere; when, however, a large, dark region at one time stands out firm, clear and sharp-cut as the stroke of a Japanese brush, then gradually fades out and remains obscure for some time we are inclined to believe that Sir Norman Lockyer's interpretation is true and that in such a case drifting clouds or sudden vaporous condensation produced the obscuration.

From an article on Mars by Sir Robert Ball, republished in the "Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution" for 1900, we quote the following: "The discussion we have just given will prepare us to believe that a planet with the size and mass of Mars may be expected to be encompassed with an atmosphere. Our telescopic observations completely bear this out. It is perfectly certain that there is a certain shell of gaseous material investing Mars. This is shown in various ways. We note the gradual obscuration of objects on the planet as they approach the edge of the disk, where they are necessarily viewed through a greatly increased thickness of Martian atmosphere. We also observe the clearness with which objects are exhibited at the centre of the disk of Mars, and though this may be in some measure due to the absence of distortion from the effects of foreshortening, it undoubtedly arises to some extent from the fact that objects in this position are viewed through a comparatively small thickness of the atmosphere enveloping the planet. Clouds are also sometimes seen apparently floating in the upper region of Mars. This, of course, is possible only on the supposition that there must be an atmosphere which formed the vehicle by which clouds were borne along. It is, however, quite obvious that the extent of the Martian atmosphere must be quite insignificant when compared with that by which our Earth is enveloped. It is a rare circumstance for any of the main topographical features, such as the outlines of its so-called continents, or the coasts of its so-called seas, to be obscured by clouds to an extent which is appreciable except by very refined observations."

Professor W. H. Pickering made seven photographs of Mars on April 9, and within twenty-four hours made seven additional photographs of the same region. The second series of photographs showed an area of white extending from the polar snow cap far down toward the equator, covering a surface which he estimated to be as large as the United States. It afterwards slowly disappeared. How shall we account for this sudden apparition of a vast area of white which the photographs of twenty-four hours before did not reveal. A boy of ten, as well as the philosopher would simply say a snow-storm had taken place in Mars. Is it, then, unreasonable to picture whirling snowflakes, snow-drifts, and dazzling whiteness from the Sun's rays, and in the rapid melting of the snow, broad rivers and turbulent brooks with water areas frozen at night? But why should we be compelled to imagine as naked the surface through which these waters find their way? Soil there must be from the continual erosion of running water. The character of the rock exposures we cannot guess at, but a picture of bare rock and lifeless ground is unthinkable. Such wide-spread storms without an atmosphere could not occur. The seasonal appearance of these snows and their slow disappearance not only indicates an atmosphere, but an atmosphere disturbed by established currents which convey the moisture-laden air to regions of congelation.

A number of observers who have detected clouds in Mars described them as being yellowish in color. What more probable than that these yellowish masses are simply dust-storms such as one may often see whirling along over our American deserts? When the gusts of wind are fitful like squalls at sea, the obscuration would be fitful, to clear up again. The vast areas of desert land in Mars renders this supposition very probable.

Since the above was written, my attention has been called to an early "Bulletin of the Lowell Observatory," in which Mr. Lowell, in discussing the appearance of a certain large projection on the terminator of Mars, says: "Finally, its color leads me to believe it not a cloud of water-vapor, but a cloud of dust. Other phenomena of the planet bear out this supposition."

XII

NOTES ON IRRIGATION

_Your theory of vegetation becomes more and more probable._

SCHIAPARELLI in a letter to Lowell.

Let one stand on some peak of the Verd Mountains, northeast from Phoenix, Arizona, overlooking the Gila River as it follows its course across the desert, and after the river is lost to view he will notice that the foliage along its banks marks its course. If one takes this view in winter time, the uniform gray of the plains, unbroken by a single shade of color blends with the light blue of the distant Plomas and Castle Dome Mountains on the southwest horizon. In the early spring when the water is first let into the irrigating channels with their innumerable divergent ditches, a shade of green may be seen emerging from the monotonous yellow-gray of the hot and sterile plain, first conspicuous near the source of the water supply, and then following along to Phoenix, Tempe, and other regions till in full efflorescence these cities stand out like great green carpets spread upon the Earth. From this mountain top not a trace of an irrigating ditch, large or small, would be discerned, except here and there a glint of reflected sunlight, but the effects of the life-giving waters can be traced in broad bands to the remotest limits of the water channels, when they would end as abruptly as they had begun.

If we examine railroad maps, the lines of which represent the road-beds utilized to convey passengers and freight to various places, we shall observe that in mountainous regions the lines run very irregularly, often paralleling mountain chains, or following rivers. On level areas such as Iowa, Texas, and other states, the railroads run for hundreds of miles in straight lines, at times converging towards large centres of population. Their occasional parallelism and radiation from centres, all present a certain _cachet_ in angles of approach and alignment that reminds one strongly of similar features in the markings of Mars. If each railroad were bordered by a wide growth of trees with sterile desert between, these broad bands as seen from Mars would be identical with the appearance of similar lines in Mars as seen from the Earth. In Mars, however, there are no high elevations since the terminator of Mars stands out clear cut and not jagged as in the Moon. The planet being devoid of hill ranges, and large oceans, the canals can run in straight lines for hundreds of miles. If it were possible to conceive by analogy a creature on Mars furnished with a telescope, he would undoubtedly correlate the irrigating regions of Arizona as similar in nature to his own canals. The irregularity of the rivers running through such regions would puzzle him quite as much as we are puzzled by the absolute straightness of the Martian canals. He would, of course, observe that in our winter the irrigating areas became invisible, to appear again as our summer advanced. His own experience of vegetation arising from irrigation alone and starting from the north when the first water from the melting snow cap animated the growth of plant life, and proceeding slowly towards the equator would prevent him from understanding the reverse condition on our planet, with the shade of green being perennial at the equator and spreading slowly north with the advance of summer.

The marvels of irrigation are impossible to conceive of without first seeing a parched land before the water channels are dug and the exuberant vegetation springing with the water's advent. The illimitable stretches of arid plain, no green, rarely an evidence of life, and then usually in hideous shapes like the hissing and purple-mouthed Gila monster; hot pale dust; blinding sunlight; ragged clumps of gray sagebrush, rebuking by their hopeless color and dishevelled appearance, the intolerable condition of their existence; angular cacti, surviving because of their vicious needles, and then literally a step only from this sterile waste, and one finds himself wading through rich, soft alfalfa, under the deep shade of cottonwood trees, glistening threads of water when the overhanging vegetation does not hide the channels, brilliant flowers, singing birds, fat cattle and vociferous children.

In this apparently irreclaimable desert of Arizona, have sprung up prosperous cities, great farms and fruit orchards. About Phoenix, more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres are under the richest and most profitable cultivation, and all due to a little narrow canal which conveys the water from Salado River, and distributes it by narrow ditches, so narrow, indeed, as to be invisible except on the nearest approach. There have already been constructed in the Gila Valley alone, two hundred and fifty miles of ditches, and four hundred miles of parallels. Mr. Ray Stannard Baker, in the "Century" for July, 1902, presents in a graphic way, the marvels of irrigation. Major J. W. Powell, during the later years of his life devoted his whole time and energy to urging the reclamation of desert lands in the West by irrigation. In his reports on the subject he estimated that a region equal in size to New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia could be recovered from the desert sands of Arizona and other regions in the West. In India, millions of pounds have been spent for irrigating canals and ditches. A single canal with its tributaries drawing water from the Ganges measures 3,910 miles in length, bringing into cultivation one million acres of land at an expense of fifteen millions of dollars. The idea of irrigation is not due to the advanced intellect of man; it has been the result of dire necessity and is of great antiquity. Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing discovered evidences of the most extensive irrigating canals among the ancient Pueblo Indians of Arizona.

Sir C. Scott Moncrief, in his address as president of the engineering section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, describes the various forms of irrigation. The primitive method consists in raising water by human labor. Early Egyptian sculpture depicts laborers raising water by means of buckets, and along the banks of the Nile the same method may be seen to-day. Other methods of raising water are by pumps driven by windmills. In certain regions Artesian wells furnish water for irrigation. The importance of irrigation is best shown in the fact, that, while the rainfall in Cairo is, on an average, one and four tenths inches a year, yet in the immediate neighborhood land brings $750 per acre; this value being due to irrigation alone. In speaking of water storage for supplying the irrigating canals the author says: "When there is no moderating lake, a river fed by a glacier has a precious source of supply. The hotter the weather the more rapidly will the ice melt, and this is just when irrigation is most wanted." (Judging from this dictum, the condition in Mars is ideal.) In speaking of the great Assouan Reservoir in Egypt, he says: "The sale value of land irrigated by its waters will be increased by about $125,000,000. The increase in irrigation areas in our Western States may be appreciated by the following figures. In 1889 it amounted to 3,564,416 acres; in 1900, to 7,539,545 acres. Now it is at least 10,000,000 acres. Without irrigation this land sold for four or five dollars per acre; with irrigation it brings forty dollars per acre.

XIII

VARIETY OF CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH LIFE EXISTS

_Not only does life but intelligence flourish on this globe under a great variety of conditions, as regards temperature and surroundings, and no sound reason can be shown why under certain conditions which are frequent in the universe, intelligent beings should not acquire the highest development._

SIMON NEWCOMB.

The argument most often urged against the idea that life exists in Mars is that there is no atmosphere in that planet, or if there is one it is so rarefied that it could not sustain life as we know it. According to Proctor, we have heretofore been led to consider the planet's physical condition as adapted to the wants of creatures which exist upon our own Earth rather than to ascertain the conditions which might obtain to enable life to exist on the surface of other planets. It is highly probable that if an air-breathing animal of our earth were instantly immersed in an atmosphere as rare as that of Mars, it would perish in a short time. Precisely what a species through thousands of generations of selection and survival might adapt itself to, is an open question. Leaving this contention for a moment, let us consider the almost infinite variety of conditions under which life exists on our globe, and we shall find that any and all conditions which the surface of Mars may offer, if experienced gradually through successive generations, would not be inimical to terrestrial life from the lowest to the highest, including even man.

Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, in discussing the question of life, in his book "Other Worlds," said: "Would it not be unreasonable to assume that vital phenomena on other planets must be subject to exactly the same limitations that we find circumscribing them in our world? That kind of assumption has more than once led us far astray even in dealing with terrestrial conditions. It is not so long ago, for instance, since life in the depths of the sea was deemed to be demonstrably impossible. The bottom of the ocean, we were assured, was a region of eternal darkness and of frightful pressure, wherein no living creatures could exist. Yet the first dip of the deep-sea trawl brought up animals of marvellous delicacy of organization, which, although curiously and wonderfully adapted to live in a compressed liquid, collapsed when lifted into a lighter medium."

One has only to make himself familiar with the wide range of conditions under which life in various forms exists on the Earth, to realize that the introduction of Martian conditions here would not be such an overwhelming calamity, and if these conditions could be introduced by minute increments covering thousands of centuries, it is not unreasonable to believe that myriads of forms would survive the change, and among those that survive would be precisely the kinds that thrive under the most diverse conditions here--namely, man and the higher hymenoptera, the ants.