Marsabodeoflife 00 Loweiala

THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
MARS
AS
THE ABODE OF
LIFE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK
BOSTON CHICAGO
SAN FRANCISCO
ATLANTA
MACMILLAN &
LONDON
CO., LIMITED
BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
CO. OF
TORONTO
THE MACMILLAN
CANADA,
LTD.
MARS
AS
THE ABODE OF LIFE

BY
PERCIVAL LOWELL,
AUTHOR OF "MARS AND
ITS
A.B.,
LL.D.
CANALS," ETC.
DIRECTOR OF THE OBSERVATORY AT FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA; NON-RESIDENT PROFESSOR

OF ASTRONOMY AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; FELLOW OF
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES! MEMBRE DE LA SOCIETE
ASTRONOMIQUE DE FRANCE; MEMBER OF THE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA; MITGLIED DER ASTRONOMISCHE GESELLSCHAFT; MEMBRE DE LA sociETfi BELGE D'ASTRONOMIE;
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE SOCIEDAD ASTRONOMICA DE MEXICO; JANSSEN MEDALIST OF THE SOCIET& ASTRONOMIQUE DB
FRANCE, 1904, FOR RESEARCHES ON MARS; ETC., ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1908
jdll rights reserved
COPYRIGHT, 1908,
Bv
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped.
J. 8.
Published December, 1908.
Xcrfaoofi tfrws
Berwick & Smith Co.
Gushing Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Engineering
Mathematical
Science
fe
ICo
MY BROTHER
PROFESSOR ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL, LL.D.

WHO
AS
TRUSTEE OF THE LOWELL INSTITUTE

PROPOSED THESE LECTURES
THIS PRESENTATION OF
IS
AFFECTIONATELY
INSCRIBED
THEM
PREFACE
IN 1906 Professor Lowell was asked by the trustee
of the Lowell Institute to deliver a course of lectures
there
upon the
planet Mars.
since, at the invitation
done the
like.
When
Eleven years had elapsed
of the former trustee, he had

the time
came
for their delivery
unusual interest was manifested, the course proving

the most thronged of any ever given before the Insti-
So great was the demand for
tute.
seats that the hall
could not contain the crowd, and the lectures had to
be repeated in the afternoons, to audiences almost as

large.
The
eight lectures were then published, with slight
changes, in six papers in the Century Magazine, and
were subsequently wanted by Macmillan and
pany
for issuance in
Though
Com-
book form.
dealing specifically with
Mars, the theme
of the lectures was that of planetary evolution in general, and this book is thus a presentation of something
which Professor Lowell has long had in mind and of

which his studies of Mars form but a part, the research into the genesis and development of what
call a
world
we
not the mere aggregating of matter, but
PREFACE
viii
what that aggregation inevitably brings forth. The

subject which links the Nebular Hypothesis to the
Darwinian theory, bridging the evolutionary gap between the two, he has called planetology, thus designating the history of the planet's individual career.
It
is
in this light that
came
to be
what
Mars
is
and how
it is
here regarded
it
came
how
to differ
it
from
the Earth in the process.
The
object of the founding of the Observatory at
Flagstaff was the study of the planets
system
its
a subject
it
abling
than
is
it
the
specialty,
has
site,
now
for fourteen years
chosen
for
made
the purpose, en-
to prosecute this study to
possible at
of our solar
more advantage
any other observatory at present.
From
the data thus collected, light has been thrown
upon
the evolution of the planets as worlds, resulting
in a thesis
of which the present book
is
a preliminary
presentation.
As
upon
in all theses, the
cogency of the conclusion hangs
the validity of each step in the argument.
vital that
each of these should be based on
we know of
all
It
is
that
natural laws and the general principles
underlying them.
Their truth can only be adequately
appreciated by those able to follow the physical and
mathematical processes involved, and for this the general reader has not the necessary technical education.
Yet there
are
many, professional and unprofessional
PREFACE
alike, capable
are
made
ix
of comprehending provided the steps
sufficiently explicit.
It has
seemed, there-
worth the trying to attempt to write for both

classes of the community in a single volume.
To do
fore,
the general text has been printed complete in
this,
itself,
while the demonstrations of the several steps
have been collected
in a part
by themselves with
refer-
ence to the places in the text where they severally
should occur.
are
All illustrations of the planet
by Professor Lowell.
MAY,
1908.
Mars
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
.........
PART
c*
I.
THE
GENESIS OF A
PAGE
i
.....
......
.......
......
...
WORLD
Catastrophic origin
Meteorites
Meteorite worship
Meteoric constitution of
solar
system
Analogy of cataclysm
new
stars
to
(Novae)
The meteorites gravitate together, generating heat

Amount of heat depends on the mass of the body
4
5
...
.....
Substances vary with heat and pressure
Mass
.........11
the fundamental factor
Cooling
Life-history depends
Planetologic eras
on
size
Present aspects of the planets our guide
Geologic part of planetology .

Landscape the result of cooling
Mountains
in
proportion to mass
Volcanic phenomena .
Relative roughness of Earth,
Moon, and Mars
Mountains absent on Mars
Slant illumination
Importance to astronomers
Applied
Not
to
Mars
indicative of mountains
Two
or three thousand feet limit of elevation
1 1
.12
on Mars
13
.14
.16
1
16
.16
.17
.17
.18
.21
22
CONTENTS
xii
CHAPTER
PAGE
Internal heat of the three bodies
Darwinian theory of lunar origin

Confirmed by lunar surface .
.23
26
...
Probable comparative internal heat of earth and Mars

Continental and oceanic areas formed
.
.
Their distribution determined
True Martian message

Their
II.
relative size
on
different planets
Earth's oceanic basins permanent
Their flooring
THE EVOLUTION
it
OF LIFE
attests
The
.
.
origin of organic life
Life an inevitable phase of planetary evolution
Water
essential to life
Seas the earliest
home of mundane
Uniformity of paleozoic
Carboniferous plant
Light
on the
Earth
itself
earth
and heat. more then than
less
Effect
now
'.'."
responsible for paleozoic heat
27
30
.30
.32
-33
-35
26
.28
.28
35
.
37
-39
.42
.....
fossils
life
life
45
46
48
49
.50
Earth, not sun, the motive force in evolution in the

paleozoic era
once cloudy Mars
Life outgrows the sea
Effect of environment
Deep-sea
life
upon evolution
Phosphorescent organs
Lesson of the fishing fishes
.
THE SUN DOMINANT

Transition
fifty
.
years ago
52
57
-57
.58
60
.61
.61
.....
.
.70
Cosmic character of life

III.
.52
-53
.54
........
life
Blindness
thought impossible
Extinction of light
Deep-sea
"
64
70
CONTENTS
xiii
CHAPTER
PAGE
The
sun asserts
Mars
itself
betrays the same evolution
The thin atmosphere of Mars

The polar caps of Mars
The question of temperature on Mars
The dear skies of Mars
Summer and winter temperatures
.
Aspect of Mars corroborative
Summer
the
season
life
.....
.
Zones of vegetation of the San Francisco Mountains
Summer
temperature determinative of
life
Plateaux hotter than peaks at a like elevation
Water-vapor
in the air
Vegetation of Mars
Mode
IV.
of Mars
.
of manifestation of life
The
oceans
lost its
in
Lowering of the
Inland seas
sea-level
.
95
98
,103
.106
.107
.112
1 1
119
North America and Europe
93
oceans of earth are disappearing
Gain of land
90
MARS AND THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH

Mars has
.71
-73
.78
.80
-83
'85
.87
.89
1 1 1
.121
.121
.
Terrestriality succeeds terraqueousness
123
.124
.126
Egypt and Carthage
Palestine
.129
129
131
.134
Deserts
The
of Arizona
petrified forest
Subtropical regions chiefly affected
Planetary change far advanced on
The
How
opaline tints of
the earth will follow
Water present
The
Mars
Martian atmosphere
surface of Mars a waterless world
in the
high type of
The
Mars
Mars
life
probability of
probable on Mars
life
on Mars
at
the present time
128
135
.136
.142
.142^
.
144
,'
CONTENTS
xiv
CHAPTER
V.
PAGE
THE CANALS AND
MARS
OASES OF
and the canals
...
Canals in dark regions
Canals superposed over main features

Oases
.
.
.
Width
differs for different
Area of zones
The
doubles
canals are subject to change
New
method of research
Search for clew to decipherment
Quickening of canals according to
Quickening
The
starts at polar
cap
Melting first necessary on Mars

Speed of spread of vegetation
PROOFS OF LIFE ON
MARS
146
.148
.152
1
5 5
.156
1
60
.163
.167
.168
175
latitude
earth as witnessed from space
.146
Lines are straight
Schiaparelli
VI.
74
.176
.178
.179
.181
.184
Discovery of celestial truths similar to detective work

Review of the natural chain of evidence .
.
184
.186
Aspect of Mars corroborates principles of planetary

evolution
Animal
life
disclosed only
by mind
Canals confront the observer
.186
Not
rivers
Not
cracks
188
.188
.191
.191
Other natural explanations prove impossible
Oases equally inexplicable
.194
Artificiality suggests itself
...
Great-circle character of the canals
195
.196
.197
Circularity of oases
Note of water runs through

Its
locomotion explained
Mars' surface a
level surface
the action
.
..
Gravity incapable of water transference

Organisms evolve as a planet ages .
192
.
-
197
199
.200
201
.205
CONTENTS
xv
PAGE
One species supplants

To die of thirst
End foreseen
206
.......
207
208
all
others
Further phenomena
Speculation excluded
Our
not unique
life
Martian
life
nearing
its
end
PART
.211
.214
.215
.216
II
NOTES
1
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
On Moment
of
Momentum
Heat acquired by the

Surface Heat of Mars
Moon
8.
9.
Effect on the Earth of the Supposed Paleozoic
Boiling-point of
Paleozoic Sun
Water on Mars
.
On
11.
Atmosphere of Mars
12.
The Mean Temperature
13.
14.
Mars on
15.
Tidal Effects
the Influence
the Air
6.
17.
8.
Sun
Carbon Dioxide
the Climate of
upon
of Mars
the Cause of an Ice-age
229
'230
.231
.231
.232
233
in
236
238
.240
.265
256
270
the Visibility of Fine Lines
Position of the Axis of
220
271
Canals of Mars
INDEX
.225
Dust Storm on Mars
On
.219
........
......
......
10.
The
The
7.
The Connection of Meteorites with the Solar System

The Heat developed by Planetary Contraction
.
The Heights of Mountains on the Moon
.
279
Mars
.280
283
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
I.
On
Road
the
to the
Observatory
Frontispiece
.......
OPPOSITE PAGE
II.
Mars
1905
III.
Spectrogram of
IV.
Two
Moon
vapor Band
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
At
Photographs of London taken from a Balloon
the Telescope
The Lowell
Mars
in
Observing
Artificial Planets
Observatory in Mexico
1905
74
and Mars showing the Water-
Chinese Translation of Lowell's
"Mars"
.138
.
148
172
.208
.217
.
282
CUTS APPEARING IN TEXT
........
Morehouse Comet
Canon Diablo, Arizona

Meteorite from Canon Diablo, Arizona
Meteorite from
Cloud Effect on Jupiter
An
Apple shrunk
Phase
View of
nator
Phase
to
the
10
(surface polished)
for Proportion
Dust Storm on Mars
.12
.
15
the Termi-
......19
View of Mars, May, 1907
View of the Earth
by fusion)
(pitted
show the Effect of Contraction

Moon, Mountainous Surface on
.
PAGE
20
of Land and Sea
Two Views of the Earth as seen from Space

Two Views of Mars for Comparison with the Earth
A Part of the Moon's Face showing Ancient Sea-bottoms
.
zvii
21
.22
.22
.
23
...
26
View of Mars apportioning Dark and Light Areas

View of the Moon at the Full, in Like Manner
29
3
xviii
PAGE
Model of a Brontosaurus
35
Plant Life in the Coal Measures
from a Fossil Specimen

Plant Life of the Upper Devonian
from a Fossil Specimen
..........41
Trilobite
of Amphibia
Fossil Footprints
Deep-sea Fish
Challenger Expedition
Deep-sea Angler Fish
;
.
Deep-sea Fish ; Challenger Expedition
Two Views of the Solis Lacus Region on Mars,
The
.42
59
.62
.63
...
.
View
~-
Douglas Fir
Vertical Distribution of Climate
Land-masses
Diagrammatic Profile
from Southwest
79
80
8
Melting
of Mars
82
91
92
93
-94
'
on Mountains, showing
raise
76
of the San Francisco Mountain and Vicinity
Map
Francisco Peaks
Arizona Desert
One Hour Apart
The North Polar Cap of Mars at its Least Extent

The South Polar Cap of Mars at its Greatest Extent
Drawing of Mars with Dark Belt girdling Snow during its
Early Winter Snow Storm in the Northern Hemisphere
Merriam's
38
40
Deep-sea Fishes
The San
36
how
.98
.
*
.
Temperature
of the San Francisco and O'Leary Peaks
.
to Northeast
.*.
Chart of Effect of Plateau on Tree Zones
Less Elevation
Chart of Effect of Plateau on Tree Zones
Greater Elevation
.99
.
oo
oi
Diagrams of Two Craters with Axis of Greatest Cold N.N.W.

Comparative Sizes of the Earth and Mars with the Polar Caps
102
.
of Both in their Springtime
,
Lines in the Dark Areas of Mars, proving that the Latter are
1 1 1
not Seas
Two
Map
115
.116
Views of Mars with Parings on the Terminator
of North America, showing approximately the Area of Dry
.
Land at the Close of Archaean Time
.119
.
Petrified Forest
of Arizona
Another View of the
Petrified Forest
Effect of the Spring Mist around the
of Arizona
North Polar Cap of Mars
.125
.126
i
36
xix
PAGE
Section of the Canal
Eumenides-Orcus terminating
in
the
.150
.
.
.
Junction Trivium Charontis
Canals in Dark Regions connecting with the Polar Cap
Camera of the Lowell Observatory by which the Canals of Mars
.
were Photographed
Ascraeus Lucus, from which radiate
.
Single and
A
A
Double Canals
Mass of Double Canals
Many
Canals
Mass of Single Canals about Lucus Phoenicis
.154
.156
.160
.160
.161
from a Chart by Lowell

.
.
Time of Vegetation on the Earth
Sprouting Time of Vegetation on Mars
Cartouche of the Ceraunius
153
174
1 80
182
Luci Ismenii, revealing the Systematic Method in which the

.
Double Canals enter the Twin Oases .
.
.190
The Moon, showing
the Straight
Wall and
from a Drawing by Lowell,
Right of Birt
Rill to
May, 1905
191
Drawings depicting the Irregular Character of the

Lines on the Planet differing entirely in Look from those on
Mercury
Mars
193
.
Corner of Mars, June 10, 1907
.
.
.
Arethusa Lucus, April 15, 1903, with Converging Canals from
.
the North Polar Cap
.
.
.
Djihoun
.196
.197
.........
......
Canals from the South Polar
Differentiation of the
Cap of Mars
Ganges
Northeast Corner of Aeria, July 2-5, 1907.

.
.
The Carets of Mars
.
.
Mouths of Euphrates and Phison
195
203
205
209
.212
.213
PART
PLANETOLOGY
MARS AS THE ABODE

OF LIFE
FOREWORD
to the
UP omy
middle of the nineteenth century, astron-
was busied with motions.
of the planets
The
held thought to the practical exclusion of

cerning them.
wanderings
in their courses attracted attention,
It
was to problems of
all
this
and
else con-
character
names of the past

Newton, Huygens,
But when the century that
were linked.
that the great
Laplace
has gone was halfway through
came over the

advance
in
spirit
its
course, a change
of the investigation;
with the
physics celestial searchers began to con-
cern themselves with matter, too.
Gravitational as-
tronomy had regarded the planets from the point of

view of how they act; physical astronomy is intent
upon what they are.

One outcome of
is
the
this
more intimate acquaintance
new study with which the present papers
the evolution of the planets regarded as worlds.

research has to do not merely with
of material, but with
its
the
deal
Such
aggregation
subsequent metamorphoses
MARS AS THE ABODE OF LIFE
itself
come together. Planetology we may call

of the making of worlds, since it concerns
with the life-history of planetary bodies from
their
chemically inert beginning
after
it
has
this science
end.
It constitutes
to
their
final
inert
the connecting link in the long
of evolution from nebular hypotheses to the

It is itself neither the one nor
Darwinian theory.
the other, but takes up the tale where the one leaves
off, and leaves it for the other to continue.
chain
CHAPTER
THE GENESIS OF A WORLD

far as
SOof our
Two
thought
peer into the past, the epic
may
began with a great catastrophe.

What had been, ceased what was
solar system
suns met.
to be, arose.
Fatal
to both progenitors,
the
event
dated a stupendous cosmic birth.

It is more than likely that one or both of the colliding masses
now
we
were dark bodies, dead suns, such as
unseen in space amid the bright ones

Probable this is, for the same
the stars.
circle
call
reason that the

the
men who
men who have been

It
are.
is
far
outnumber
not to be supposed that the
two rovers actually struck, the chances being against

but the effect was as disso head-on an encounter
;
astrous.
Tides raised in each by the approach tore
both to fragments, the ruptured visitant passing on

and leaving a dismembered body behind in lieu of
what had been the other.
That the
stranger con-
shown by the present moment of

way
momentum of our system. For it is very small, and
tinued on
its
is
the fact can be proved to

ter its
matter
still
mean
lay massed
3
that after the encounfor the
most part
in a
catastrophic
single centre.
alone,
large
with
Thus, what had been a sun was
wreckage
and small made up
tered through space in
nucleus did
learn
from
it
about
strewn
its
outlying fragments, scat-
its
vicinity, while a
its
So much of
for core.
the tiniest of
meteorites.
To
importance;
for they are
its
meteorites
left
Masses
it.
its
constituents
thus attaches
shattered
history
we
now:
the
peculiar
Rosetta stones for the de-
cipherment of what went before.

Meteorites.
From
the sky
time unreckoned, rocks have fallen out of
Most of them
upon the Earth.
are of stone,
but some are nearly pure iron, mixed with a small
amount
of
nickel.
They are called meteorites.
known
have been found to occur
elements
Twenty-six
not
one
element
that is new.
in them, and
They
thus betray a constitution cognate to the Earth's.
In size these visitants
known
bodies
as
masses weighing
they enter our
one miles
air
shooting-stars
many
at
a second,
tons.
is
pitted
up
the
to
grain-like
ponderous
Coming from
space,
speeds of from eleven to forty-
and
friction,
velocities, fuses their exterior,
which
from
vary
and
due
to their great
eats the holes with
what remains of them when they
strike
the ground.
Meteorite
Recorded meteoric
falls
date from a far past, and
were deemed miraculous by early men. A stone that

fell in
Phrygia in pristine times was adored as Cybele,
" the mother of the

gods," and later, about 204 B.C.,
The fawas carted with great ceremony to Rome.
mous Diana of the Ephesians was probably none
other
than a meteoric stone, enshrined and worshipped as
Adoration of such
a goddess.
was
not
from heaven
arrivals
of local observance only, but
common
to
There was a stone so

peoples over the whole Earth.
at Mecca, and another in Tatar, Siberia,
worshipped
while even in our own
which homage was paid
iron
of
in Wichita County,
a
mass
found
country
large
to
Texas, was set up as a fetich by the Indians, who revered it as a body not of the Earth, but sent to it
by the Great
Spirit.
certain poetic justice invests this worship with a
grandeur of its own for these things are probably the

oldest bits of matter we may ever touch, the material
;
from which our whole solar system was fashioned.

They mark the farthest point in its history to which
we can now mount

they
commonly
morning
points
The
back.
the
fall
Earth looks backward over
take
it,
as its
their
oneness
own.
relationship to ourselves
Still
is
with
for in the afternoon the

its
traversed path, and
proves that they follow
and therefore that
same sense
to
curiously
the rest of the solar system
their descent then
time of day at which
afternoon rather than the
their
and over-
movement
has
more conclusive of
the
their
the speed with which they
Meteoric
arrive, or, to
come from
be precise, the lack of
it.
For, did they
the depths of space, were they ronins of the
sky owing attraction's allegiance to no one lordly sun,

they would have velocities exceeding forty-five miles a
second, and these should often show, not an instance
of which has ever been remarked. 2

Just
as,
chemically and gravitationally, they stand
confessed our kith and kin, so, physically, they betray

for they bear in them
occluded gases, which could have come there only
under great pressure, such as would exist in the inte-
the character of their origin
of a giant sun.
Thus they proclaim themselves
To the someclearly fragments of some greater body.
rior
time dismemberment of
Analogy of
cataclysm to
new
stars
(Novae).
this orb,
from which
disinte-
gration our sun and planets were formed, the little

solitary bits of rock thus mutely witness.
Of the cataclysm that thus occurred far down the
ot h erw i se unrecorded vista of time,
logue in the
Novae
that
we have an ana-
now and then
blaze forth in
the sky to-day, startling us from out the depths of
These new
stars, that suddenly appear, grow

then slowly fade to nebulosity,
and
brightness,
speak by such action of a like catastrophe by which
space.
in
they were born again.

The
meteor-
Not
otherwise was our
own
birth heralded in heaven.
ites gravitate
together,
Strewn thus about the scene of the encounter, the
31 '
heat"
pieces of the disrupted sun
would begin
to gravitate

The
together.
several
subsidiary swarms
fragments were of different
sizes,
but of
same substance, because of the general

their
the
similarity of
origin.
Cooled
by
with
contact
the
of these
much
cold
of
space, so soon
as the meteorites started to
fall
together,
they
gener-
ated heat,
warming one
another,
just
as the
rubbing
of two sticks
strikes
fire.
The amount
THE MOREHOUSE COMET
AS PHOTOGRAPHED AT
THE
LOWELL OBSERVATORY, 1908
of heat proBy E. C. Slipher.

duced depended upon the number of particles concerned, or, in other words, upon the mass of the body
the particles were busied to form.
Approximately we can compute what
this heat
would
Amount of
body be supposed homogeneous, and to J^J^!^

contract under its own gravity from an original ex- of the body,
be.
If the
tended condition to an eventually compressed
state,
the
work done, converted
into heat,
would be propor-
mass divided by the radius

The same would be the case if the body
tionate to the square of the

attained.
were heterogeneous and composed of concentric spherical shells, only that the numerical amount would be
the
according to
greater
However
of
distribution
the
mass.
body were constituted, its caloric would

be spread through the mass, and the resulting heat on
each unit of it would therefore be as its mass divided
its
by
the
The
radius.
ticular
planet
amount of
internal temperature of the par-
would
material
therefore
depend
that collected
the
upon
together.
Thus
each body was subjected to a different heat as well as

to a differing pressure, according to its mass from the
moment
began to form
it
and to
mass alone, for
its
that determined the radius to which
it
finally
stood
compressed.
Substances
heal and
pressure.
Now,
all
substances behave differently according to
temperature an d the pressure under which they

exist, both as to physical state and in their display of
t ^le
chemical action.
Diverse results ensue from diverse
The same element
conditions.
combines with another eagerly
melts or remains solid,

to
form a third utterly
unlike both, or coldly stands aloof from
all
association,
solely as the temperature or the pressure constrains

to that end.
unlike
its
Each, too,
is
a law unto
itself,
and
it
acts
neighbor as these compelling causes change.

To
them, therefore, diversity
is
due
and they
9
in their
turn are conditioned by the mass.
Mass, then,
the fundamental factor in the whole
is
evolutionary process, the determining departure-point,
Mass the
!?
what the subsequent development shall be.

Though the bodies were in essence the same at the
fixing
start,
their
initial
quality as time
become
quantity would
for the
started
gathering
body was the
into a single
particles
What
went on.
different
change their very

like
would
together of the
preface
to that
body's planetary career.
Not
we
until the internal heat
began to abate did what
Up to then the growing

or separating into
induced
a
devolution
temperature
simplicity of what had been complex. The time taken
call
evolution set
in.
by each planet to reach its maximum bodily heat

The larger the
differed as between one and another.
body, the slower it attained the greatest temperature of
which it was capable, both by reason directly of its
mass, and indirectly of the pressure to which that mass
gave
At
was
some
rise.
its
all
heat-acme the picture each planet presented

own. Some may have been white-hot,
its
certainly were red-hot,
some were merely darkly
warm; for one differed from another in self-endowment

of warmth or light, each with a glory of its own.
Radiation had, of course, been going on from the
Cooling,
io
At
time the impact of the particles began.

Jieat
gained
by
contraction
the
first
that radiated
surpassed
away, but at last a

time came when the
depletion exceeded the
generation of heat, and

the
its
to
began
planet
By
parting with
caloric
into space,
surface
fell
cool.
its
perature.
amount
in tem-
Unlike
of
acquisi-
tion, the bodies
no
in
were
unlike in the
less
manner of
their loss.
Each acted according

to its kind.
Those
that originally
tle, lost
for
volume
of
three
METEORITE FROM CANON DIABLO, ARIZONA

Pitted by fusion in traversing the earth's
surface
atmosphere.
and
that
had
lit-
little fast
is
a matter
dimensions,
of
but
two,
through their surfaces their volumes cooled,

the smaller got rid of their heat with relatively
as
greater
into
the
speed.
fire
Just
as
if
two
stones
be
put
and then taken out, the smaller
will
With
the
turn cold while the larger
is
yet warm.
ii
planets, contrast in performance was accentuated
from
the fact that the big ones were intrinsically hotter at
the
in the race
more
two reasons, the large lingered

they had more to lose, and they lost it
for
Thus,
start.
reluctantly.
In consequence the life-history of a planet was long

or
short
proportion to
in
gamut of change
its
through
itself brief;
and those
its
if
large,
it
fast,
larger
in length
was
thus
it
Life-history
ran
several stages,
its
drawn
knew
out.
states the
in their heating had never reached.
both
little,
and that gamut was
tarried in
stages were themselves
addition to this, the
If
size.
But, in
smaller
Diversified age,
of years and in breadth of experience,
the
first
result of size.
Six
may
stages
Planetologic
eras.
conveniently be disthe
in
tinguished
progress of a planet
from sun to cinder,
all
of which
traversed
body,
if it
be
will
by
the
be
suffi-
METEORITE FROM CAÔN DIABLO, ARIZONA
be
ciently big.
If
of asteroidal
size, it
virtually
first
it
Surface polished.
Showing method of
crystallization.
knows none of them, remaining meteoric from
to last.
The
six periods
may be
designated
MARS
12
I.
ii.
in.
AS
THE ABODE OF LIFE
The Sun Stage. Hot enough to emit light,

The Molten Stage. Hot, but lightless.
The Solidifying Stage.
Solid surface formed.
Ocean
Age of Metamor-
basins determined.
phic rocks.
iv.
The Terraqueous
Stage.
of sedimentary
Age
rocks.
v.
vi.
Present
aspects of the
planets our
guide.
The Terrestrial Stage. Oceans have

The Dead Stage. Air has departed.
disappeared,
Though we cannot in our own ephemeral life watch

any planet pass through these several phases of its
career, we can get a view of the
process
by studying the present
conditions of the various planets
and piecing together the information

CLOUD EFFECT ON
JUPITER
As observed at the Lowell
observatory
in
1907,
indicating that Jupiter
we thus
end >
obtain.
conclusive
as
It
as
would be the study of
by
c
in the
is,
in
botany
a
wood
carefully noting the condition

*
j' *j
of the '"dividual
\
'
trees
in
^L
'
their
isinthesecondpLeto-
various
logic stage.
to patriarch.
Thus,
growths
at the present
from
moment,
seedling
in
Stage
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter

in Stage IV, the Earth; in Stage V, Mars; and in
Stage VI, the Moon and the larger satellites of the
II are found
other planets.

Each
internal heat
planet's
to
all
first,
to the fashioning of
evolution
upon
its
it.
its
While
this
surface,
still
motive-
initial
mode by which
power, and cooling the
worked,
was
13
energy
and then
molten
in the
mass was a seething chaos but little differenfrom any other equal agglomeration of matter.
state the
tiated
Yet even here the
substances had begun to
several
segregate, the heavier falling to the bottom, the lighter

rising to the top.
With
Stage III
career with which,
Though
we
enter the
part
of a
on our Earth, geology
specifically the story only
science has analogues elsewhere,
is
of our Earth, that
and to be best under-
stood needs to be generically considered.
many
planet's
concerned.
Local as
Earth-happenings are, with increasing light from
the heavens
it is
becoming
are of cosmic occasioning,
clear that the
main events
and that astronomic cause
presides over their manifestations.
planetary action occurs at the
first
Initial instance
stage of the Earth's
which geology mounts back

that
a crust began to form over the molten mass.
history to
uid metal in a furnace
upon which
of
in
which
The
liq-
the solidifying slag
has begun to float gives us an idea of this early state
of things.
Our metamorphic rocks were in action
akin to the furnace slag, rising to the surface because
of their lightness.
Proof of this lies in their present
density, which
is
only about one-half of the average
Geologic
P*
ane olo
density of the Earth, 2.7 times that of water instead of
Their constitution furnishes further evidence
5.5.
such they were.

The gneiss, mica, and hornblende of which they are composed show by their
that
crystalline
state,
and
form that they cooled from
a once
molten
were crum-
their foliation indicates that they
pled and recrystallized in the process.

In Stage III the body first acquires a physiognomy
of its own. Up to then it is a chaotic mass as unstable
and
shifting as clouds in the
surface
solidification
its
sky
but at the advent of
features take
form
form
they are in fundamentals ever afterward to keep.

face
is
then modelled once for
expression of
its
stage and of the
all
and
its
face
Its
is
the
Our knowledge of this

two subsequent stages IV and V is
character.
derived from study of three planets of our system, the
Earth, the
Moon, and Mars.
The
others contribute
nothing to our information of these mid-phases, either

because, like
Mercury and Venus, they
are too ad-
vanced, or because, like the major planets, Jupiter,.

Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, they are not advanced
enough.
Landscape
of cooling
simply the sculpturing due the fashAs the subioning cause of planet physiognomy.
stances composing the mass cool, some of them expand ;
Landscape
is
but most of them contract, and
in
consequence of this
the crust finds itself too large for what
it
encloses.

To
fit
the shrunken
These
into folds.
must needs crumple
it
what we know
moun-
as
long, low swells while the crust
tain ranges
thin, abrupt
and broken
The
thick.
kernel
folds are
valleys
fractures
when
it
has
is
yet
become
between mark the down-folds
of the squeeze.
Wrinkles
are
thus as inevitable
a
consequence of
planetary
as
aging
of man's, only
that while they

are
thought
disfigurement in
him, they are re-
garded as beautiful in a world.
Such crinkling
of
its
cuticle
greatest,
AN
APPLE, SHRUNK TO
and the surface
to
pletely the bigger the body.

therefore, the
when
it
SHOW THE EFFECT OF
CONTRACTION
is
Both conditions are
least.
in
proportion to
mass.
most pronounced
where the heat to
be got rid of
Mountains
is
radiate
fulfilled
The
more mountainous
it
the
is
relatively
more com-
larger the planet,

its
surface will be
reaches the crumpling stage of
its
career.
16
volcanic
manner
\\fce
is
volcanic action relatively increased,
phenomena.
and volcanoes
portion
by which the molten

This
these are vents
since
violent and widespread, in pro-
arise,
matter under pressure within finds exit abroad.

is
shown
in their positioning.
They
occur where the
most permeable, and so are found along the

of
continents, as these are weakened by dipping
edges
crust
is
down
into the sea.
Three bodies
Relative
'
Earth "MO
and Mars.
in S
exist near us in space
effects
comparative
With
of the Earth's surface we are

tains,
loveliest
volcanoes, and
and
its
its
This mass
large.
hills
as
familiar.
go
to
Its
moun-
Its
make up
its
mass fashioned
they are because
mass
its
nine times that of Mars, and
is
eighty-one times that of the
than that of the
its
the accidented character

all
grandest features.
them, and fashioned them
was
and
thus be studied: the Earth,
may
Mars, and the Moon.
its
where the work-
inevitable action stands displayed,
Moon
Moon.
Being greater
or Mars, our globe should
have crumpled more, and those other two bodies

should have smoother contours than the Earth shows.
The
order
general
Earth, Mars,
NO
mountains
of
their
roughness should
be
Moon.
Now, when we come to scan Mars with nicety, we

made aware of a curious condition of its
are gradually
surface.
It
The more
proves singularly devoid of irregularity.
minutely
it
is
viewed, the more
its
level-

Finally, calculation
ness grows apparent.
17
shows that
heights, even of very moderate elevation, should be

visible if such existed, and none show. Thus we are con-
fronted by the fact that there are no mountains on Mars.
Second only in* interest to the fact itself is the

method by which that fact has been found out. To
appreciate the problem,
of a road lighted by
we may
recall
electric arc-lights
slant
mumination -
the appearance
placed at such
considerable distances apart that the illumination
falls
All of us who, on dark nights in the country,
aslant.
have trudged along such pikes, have started at the

mammoth sharp-cut shadows of its ruts, so that we
have
lifted
our
feet to
surmount what threatened
to
stub our toes, only to find the obstacles not there.
To
such delusion were we
led
by the monstrous
length of the shadows thrown with unexpected vividness across our path.
the fact of such projection,

as Cowper puts
of his legs under the rays of a rising or a setting
Now,
it
sun, "spindling into longitude
ing as
it is
to the
immense,"
midnight pedestrian on
bother-
arc-lit roads,
proves to the astronomer of inestimable use.
without
its
aid he
For
had forever remained incapable of
gaging the inequalities of the terrene of the heavenly

bodies to any fine precision.
When
set,
an object stands on the sunrise, or the sunedge of a planet, the slant illumination it then
important to
astronomers.
MARS
i8
receives throws
its
foot.
THE ABODE OF
AS
its
shadows to
LIFE
a great distance
from
tapering finger searching the plains
the sun changes position,
height of the object casting
as
be a hundredfold the
may
it
The
it.
effect
is
well seen
photographs of the moon.

Deprived of this natural kind of magnification, the
astronomer would be forced to measure the object
in
itself for
just
what
it
was, as
it
showed
in profile
on
the limb, the fully illuminated rim of the planet where
the sight-line of the observer grazes horizontally the
and shows heights
surface,
With shadows he
for just
may be any number of
derived
what they are.

For the
has a vernier to his hand.
times longer than the
original.
On
the same principle, by noting the distance off
the general sun-lightened edge at which
peak
first
latest his setting
The
some fortunate
catches the rays of the rising sun, or holds
beams,
its
principle has been
may be
loftiness
employed
found.
to determine the
By the help
heights of the mountains in the Moon.
of trigonometry the shadows and the star-like tips of
peaks, standing isolate beyond the general edge of
light,
have been made to
tell
their tale of elevation.
In consequence, we know the heights of crater walls

there, to within a few hundred feet, as accurately almost
as
Applied to
Mars.
we know them on Earth by our
The same
aneroids.
procedure applied to Mars results in a

negative outcome.
Moon
of the
eye,
as
is
While the
19
sunrise or sunset edge
palpably notched, even to the naked
any one may see who scans
it
carefully
PHASE VIEW OF THE MOON, SHOWING THE EFFECT OF A MOUNTAINOUS

SURFACE ON THE TERMINATOR (THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN THE
ILLUMINATED AND THE OBSCURED PART OF THE FACE)
few days before or after the
Mars
half,
the similar edge of
One may
wonderfully smooth and even.
armed
with
the most powerful glass, night after
gaze,
night, and never detect the least irregularity in its
is
20
elliptic outline.
slight flattenings
happens
at the
here and
moment
most, he will notice
at
Commonly,
there where a dark area
to be passing over the
boun-
dary of sunlight and shade.

rare
is
it
So
perceive any other
to
indentation or excrescence
the smooth rim of
its
upon
disk where
the light fades away, that to do

so
is
something of an astronomic
The
event.
VIEW
PHASE
MAY,
1907,
OF
SHOWING
A SMOOTH TERMINATOR
(THE CURVED LINE AT
THE LEFT), WHICH IN-
but
ne g
ast
three
oppositions
DICATES THAT THERE ARE
NO MOUNTAINS ON THE
PLANET
there
phenomenon
,
of the
very rarity
MARS,
has
i
ne at each
been
r
f the
i
proves
the projections not to be due to
what causes them on the Moon,
an accidented surface.
In short, they cannot indicate
mountains, for a mountain
is
permanence, which under
similar conditions should either always or never show.
Now,
for
together,
many nights in succession, indeed for weeks

Mars presents us his disk under substantially
the same conditions night after night; so that
if
the
obstacle that caught the light were part
the surface, however

face's
customary
it
level,
as the planet's rotation
that
it fails
and parcel of
above
tower
that surmight
should be seen as regularly
brought it round. The fact
it
of such continuity of expression

it is of no such
origin.
conclusive that
is
proof
VIEW
OP*
21
THE EARTH, SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF LAND AND SEA
Sporadicity, then, far from raising the slightest pre- Not
sumption
in
favor of mountains, or indicating their
uncommonness,
phenomenon
is
absolutely fatal
being a
mountain
at
to
all.
the
Now,
observed
as
none
of these projections seen on Mars are of permanent

appearance, we perceive that there are no mountains
on Mars.
Such impermanence testifies not only negbut

For, from
atively
positively to their character.
the fact that when detected two nights running they
prove to have changed their place in the interval, we
indicative
22
have witness that they are unattached. Thus they

come from something floating in the planet's air to
;
wit, clouds, and, furthermore,
from
their color, clouds of dust.
From
the evidence as to scale
by the Moon, we can

what height we ought to be
able to detect in this manner on
afforded
tell
DUST STORM ON MARS,

FROM A DRAWING,
MAY
We
Mars.
to be
28, 1903
two
find
Nothing, therefore, higher than this

exists there,
which leaves us
face singularly flat,
From
"
Old and
New
by
us.
calculation
thousand
feet.
modest elevation
for contemplation a sur-
according to the idea with
Earth has furnished
Two VIEWS
it
to three
which our
Martian landscape would
Astronomy," by R. A. Proctor, Longmans, Green
& Co.
OF THE EARTH, 180 APART, SHOWING THE POLAR CAPS AND

GENERAL FEATURES AS SEEN FROM SPACE
remarkably peaceful and tame,

scenery
chiefly noticeable for the lack of everything that with
seem
to us
us goes to
make
it
up.
Contemplating now the
Moon
in the light of
what

we have thus
is
learned, the
first
thought that strikes us
the glaring exception seemingly
made by
theoretic order of smoothness, Earth,
above
laid
down.
The
23
lunar surface
it
to the
Mars, Moon,
is
conspicuously
rough, pitted with what are evidently volcanic cones
of enormous girth and of great height, and seamed by

ridges more than the equal of the Earth's in elevation.
Two VIEWS
OF MARS, ABOUT 180 APART, SHOWING THE POLAR CAPS AND

GENERAL FEATURES FOR COMPARISON WITH THE EARTH (AS ABOVE)
Many
lunar craters have ramparts 17,000 feet high,
and some exceed
diameter 100 miles; while the
in
Leibnitz range of mountains, seen in profile on the

lunar limb, rises nearly 30,000 feet into space.
On
the principle that the
heat to cause
internal
contraction was as the
deduction
is
body
mass,
this state
sounder,
surface of our satellite
is
should have a surface like a frozen
one that surpasses the Earth's

ceive this
more
definitely
and no physical
of things on the
unaccountable.
we
sea,
The Moon
and
in shagginess.
will
make
it
shows
To
per-
that not unin-
teresting thing, an evaluation of the heat evolved
internal
heat of the
by
24
Moon
both the
and the Earth, supposing
We
the same.
will
it
express
in
Unaccountable
impossible
at a first view, the
when we
terms,
The
ures, that are comprehensible.
not in
if
result
is
fig-
startling.
event proves actually
subject the heat evolved by a like
If the Earth con-
genesis to numerical computation.

tracted
their origin
homogeneously from an
present state, and none of
its
infinite
expansion to
its
heat were lost meanwhile
by radiation, calculation shows that the energy evolved

would be sufficient to raise the temperature of its entire mass to 146,000 F., if that mass were composed
of iron, which represents about
is
probably not far from the
posed
of other
for
Thus
heat.
much
reduced
(sp. ht.
in
present density and

If
were com-
it
temperature
different, according to
its
of that
capacity
quartz has a capacity nearly
that of iron (sp. ht. 0.20)

as
the
material,
would be
material
its
fact.
i.oo).
and water one of
The
five
twice
times
temperatures would be
proportion.
body homogeneous, we
it is, and treat it
by
the simplest law consistent with physical principles and
If,
instead of supposing the
consider
it
heterogeneous, as
an approach to
from surface
fact, to
to centre
in proportion as
it
assumed by Laplace,
of heat generated.
indeed
wit, that the density increases
and that
it
resists
stands compressed,
we
compression
the formula
get an even greater
amount
25
We
do not know the law of parting with this heat,

though the greater portion of it was certainly radiated
But we may make some approxthe several planets conbetween

imation,
cerned, by assuming the heat near the surface to have
been, at its maximum, what a body contracting from
away
in the process.
at least as
the density of
its
constituents, the meteorites, to
We
eventual density would generate.
do
this
its
own
because
the heat thus begotten proves in the case of the Earth

to
have been more than
sufficient for all the volcanic
and erogenic phenomena displayed.
common
physical knowledge that a small
quicker than a large one,
making Mars'
same principle
for the
23,000
we
internal heat too small if
to
When we
it.
Earth and
5
Moon, we
F. and 80
like the
not even have
that
"if"
it
came
will
kept
of space.
if its
body cools
we apply the
get results as follows:
in a
own
its
vide for the features which
we said "
is
so evaluate the heat
was able to amass
it
amount
sufficient to pro-
surface shows.
its
itself
from
Now,
it
will
could
be noticed that
own
itself alone.
In
by
It
freezing amid the
genesis was like our
into being
If the
quandary.
account, as the Earth
and Mars were, the internal heat
terrible cold
it
F.
was generated on
was never anything
as
not err on the side of
shall
Here, then, we are landed
Moon
Now,
"
;
that
this
is,
saving
be found the explanation of the dilemma.
26
Darwinian
iuna7ori g in
Some
years ago Sir George Darwin
ca ^Y that
t ^le
when
system,
From
traced backward, lands us at a time
when
a photograph taken at the Lowell Observatory.
PART OF THE MOON'S FACE, SHOWING ANCIENT SEA-BOTTOM
Moon
body
analyti-
of the tides in the Earth- Moon
act i n
might have formed

mass, the two rotating together
the
showed
in
about
five
hours.
what might have been.

our present heat inquiry
Earth's
as a single pear-shaped
His
Now
is
a part of the
analysis
pointed to
the pregnant point in
that the face of our satellite
indicates that the

might-have-been actually was.
Confirmed by
The
erupted state of the Moon's surface speaks of
lunar surface.
such a genesis.
For
in
that event the internal heat

which the
Moon
carried
that of the parent
had been able
dowed from
amount of
to
away with
the
body
Thus
amass.
the start of
its
it
amount
the
27
must have been

the
Earth-Moon
Moon
was en-
separate existence with an
heat the falling together of
own mass
its
Thus its great craters

could never have generated.
and huge volcanic cones stand explained. It did not
originate as a separate body, but
had
its
birth in a rib
of Earth.
Far from disproving the law, the seeming lunar exception, therefore, really upholds
We
may now go on
less interesting a
If,
it.
to apply the principle to
determination
no
the case of Mars. 6
taking into account the radiation which has cease-
lessly
gone on from the time when
first
the
matter
we allow 10,000 F. for the effective

of the Earth, we shall be making it a
started to collect,
internal heat
liberal
allowance.
Now, computation shows
internal heat of 10,000
that an
F. for the Earth would cor-
But the meltrespond to about 2000 F. for Mars.

ing-point of iron is 2200 F., so that iron would not
have fused, and we should have in consequence virtuFurthermore, there could
ally no volcanic action.
have been but
little
crinkling of the crust.
the direct pressure was less, and then the heat,
For,
its
first,
indirect
was correspondingly small ; so that Mars cannot have contracted much, and so must largely have
effect,
Probable
C
^7ht
of earth and
28
What
escaped crumpling.
the contraction was
inferred from comparison of
The mean
meteorites.
4.,
and that of the Earth
density with that of
density of meteorites which
some
are mostly stone with
its
may be
iron
5. 5,
is
Mars
3.5, that of
The
water being unity.
planet should show, therefore, a remarkably smooth and

level surface
and this is precisely what the telescope
;
reveals.
The
crust, to the folding
of which a planet's physi-
due, was forming during all the time the

ognomy
took
to cool on its surface from the temperature
planet
is
of the fusion-point of gneiss to the boiling-point of

2000 F. down to 212 F. In
water, or from about
some
places
inasmuch
as
gathered thicker than in others
it
it
and
floated, stood up higher, to which height
crumpling contributed.
Up to the time when its
liquefaction-point was reached, water existed only in the
form of steam, but on the
212
F. the steam
fell
fall
of the temperature to
it,
condensing into water.
with
Into the troughs already there the water, as soon as
Thus
formed, proceeded to run.
the oceans
it
came inta
being.
We
may
apply
this
important consequent
to the
detail.
Earth and consider an
The
fashioning cause of
the depressions that gave rise to the distribution of
what we know
terest,
for
it
as continents
seems
to
and
seas
have been
is
of great in-
determined
in

way by cosmic
general
map
If
we
scan a
of the globe, we shall mark a significant
that in
is
considerations.
29
all
fact
the continents a certain apexing to the south
Witness North and South America,
discernible.
VIEW OF MARS, SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF DARK AND LIGHT AREAS

The dark
Mars
areas are probably old sea-bottoms, and the light ones, desert land.
here given of its true relative size as regards the Earth on page 21
is
so that the actual surface of

to the land areas
its
former seas as well as their
may be compared
Greenland, Africa, and

north, they
is
all
relative proportion
with those of the Earth.
India.
Blunt-based
terminate in a tip southward.
to
the
Australia
the only one of the great continental masses that
fails
to
show the
peculiarity at
first
glance.
But a
30
bathymetric chart reveals the
which
really a part of
True Martian
Nor
it
does the
On
the subject.
planet, one
is
Major
north
ratio
on
map of that
The
Sabaeus
exhibit
instance
but
Sinus, and the
similar
propensity.
dark regions take the

apexing of them to the
reflect that the
on Mars,
as
picture presented
seas
Sinus, the
Charontis
stands
to say
the northern hemisphere.
the most conspicuous
is
Now, when we
place of seas
word
has a
casting one's eye over a
Margaritifer
Trivium
Mars
struck by the triangular projections of
the dark areas into

Syrtis
platform on
and making the detached tip.

Earth alone present us with such
curious conformations, for
the
fact that the
stands does indeed do so, Tasmania being
it
this
the negative aspect of the
by the Earth.
positive
Reverse the relative
of depressions to plateaux in order to get the

in their earthly proportions, with
and continents
the oceans preponderant, as on Earth, instead of, as on
Mars,
in abeyance,
to typify the
Their
size
on
relative
The amount
dif-
P artlcu ar
'
ferent
lanets
same
and the two distributions
are seen
action.
of surface the oceans covered on any
planet
was
again
consequence
c t_
or the
If the material forming the

was of the same general character
particular planet's size.
planetary
bodies
throughout the
fields
to a certain extent,
the
planets
stand
they severally swept clear, which,

is
probable, and the
neighborly
near,
the
more
so as
amount of

water each possessed would be as
it
collected
into
if
seas, these,
its
mass, and
31
when
equally deep, would
cover more of the surface in the larger planet, since
it
VIEW OF THE MOON AT THE FULL, SHOWING THE PROPORTION OF DARK

(SO-CALLED "SEAS") AND LIGHT AREAS
Only the darkest patches are thought
Moon
to
of true relative size to Earth (page 21)
has less cuticle for
its
ever, that this cuticle
contents.
be sea-bottoms.
and Mars (page 29).
We
have seen, how-
would be more crinkled and of
greater accentuation in the
larger
body, owing to a
greater contraction in the kernel within
we may perhaps take
as
the folding
being roughly proportionate
to the radius of the

globe.
The
larger
body would,
32
born with but
with larger oceans, even
life
therefore, begin
its
share of water
would have more than

on
better able to hold
to
because
share
its
its
if it
but, as
were
fact,
it
of being
gaseous elements, and

condense to water
thus retain more of what was to
when
the time arrived.
Now
Moon,
bodies, the Earth, Mars, and the
the three
have, or had, in
Earth having the most

the
all
probability, judging
from
present look, oceans in this order of size, the
their
Moon
amount, Mars the next, and
in
the least.
In the case of the
when
by the fact that
Moon
it left
the matter
the Earth
is
complicated
took probably
it
not only a greater amount of light constituents than a

solitary genesis
would have permitted,
but even
greater proportion than the Earth retained since
born
of the
unchanged.
It thus
lighter
started
layers
was
of
more pro-
to oceans than
size warranted.
On
Earth's
oceanic basms
and therefore
endowed with the wherewithal
fusely
its
outer
Earth-Moon mass.
the
it
all
p rovecj
*
three planets their primeval topography has
On
persistent.
both the
Moon
and Mars the
dark areas are apparently the lowest portions of the

surface, while their
held
seas
once
character
upon
their present occupancy,
than water, that
tells
points to their
time.
having
With Mars
it
is
though by something other
the tale
with the
Moon
the fact

that rays
and
rills
33
run athwart them discloses
be-
it,
speaking their age.
Turning
we
to the Earth, according to the best evidence
possess, the great ocean basins have remained un-
changed in place from the period when they were laid

down. Not that the areas marked out as land and
water at any epoch have not greatly altered since the
beginning of geologic time; but the abyssal depths on

the one hand, and the continental platforms on the
other, have not substantially varied
ages.
If
we examine
during
bathymetric
several oceans, giving their
body by
chart
all
these
of our
registering their
depth, instead of a superficial one which marks simply

where the water laps the land, and consider the one
hundred-fathom line, the ocean bottoms and the continental plateaux
other.
It
shelf wider in
edge
stand well differentiated
then seen that each continent
is
some
places than
falling abruptly
the
to
in
from each
is
set
on
others, but at
its
marine abysses, which,
though themselves uneven, stand, with the exception

of a few islands, projecting and submarine, at a generally
much
lower
level.
This indicates that they have
always held such attitude.
But the character of these ocean bottoms furnishes

the best testimony that they have not changed during
geologic time.
Their flooring
ganic clay, globigerina,
is
organic ooze or inor-
radiolarian,
or diatom ooze,
Their
floor-
in s attes
34
according to locality and depth, and red clay formed of

the decomposition of volcanic stuff.
clay, spherules
substance to that of falling

in perceptible
In
this
ooze and
of metallic iron, identified as similar
amount, and
stars, are still
as they
in
recognizable
must accumulate
with exceeding slowness, their patent presence asserts

the absence there of sedimentary
These
the
silt
from any shore.
abysses, then, have always been abysses from
start.
That astronomy should
tell
us
this
is
strikingly suggestive, while of peculiar planetologic interest
is
it
that meteors again should be our inform-
ants of the fact.
CHAPTER
II
THE EVOLUTION OF
LIFE
V
fall of the
temperature to the condensing The origin
r8a
of
occurred
another event in the ife
water,
point
evolution of our planet, the Earth, and one of great
UPON
the
import to us
life
For with the formation of
arose.
water, protoplasm (the physical basis of
animals)
first
became
possible,
all
plants
what may be
and
called the
MODEL OF A BRONTOSAURUS, A FIRST POSSESSOR OF THE EARTH'S LAND,

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY*
The
life
fossil
skeleton
is
molecule then
15
ft.
and 2
in.
coming
high and 66
into
ft.
and 8
IN
in. long.
existence.
By
it,
starting
simple, lowly way, and growing in
complexity with time, all vegetable and animal forms
in
* This illustration and those

succeeding it to page 41 were kindly furnished the
author for the purpose, by Professor Osborn.
35
36
have since been gradually built up.

In itself the
a
molecule
is
more
intricate
chemical
organic
only
combination of the same elements of which the inor-
^BBnHHmEBIieMB
~"
'
substances
ganic
which preceded
are
composed.
it
It
'
is
thus carrying on
the
building-up
process begun by
the inorganic be-
fore
the
j
Between
it.
and
organic
the inorganic, in-
creasing
knowl-
edge, by pushing
back
to
greater
and greater simplicity the
of
life
has
forms
discovered,
tended
break
barrier
to
down the
man had
assumed
to exist.
There
1M.AN-,
I.H.K IN
THE COA,
two-thirds
its size.
in the
now no
MKASU^
American Museum of
Natural History, found in Illinois, here shown
From a fossil specimen
is
QOUDt that plants

r
grew out of chem,
THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE

ical
affinity
than to doubt that stones did.
taneous generation
tion,
of which
But
it is
sense.
By
37
as certain as
is
it is,
in fact,
Sponspontaneous varia-
only an expression.
not spontaneous generation in the popular
term
that
many
persons
think of
flies
suddenly born of decaying meat, and this they know

has been shown impossible.
But this is simply because flies are far too advanced a product to be thus
For them
suddenly evolved.
would
produced
proper conditions, the lowest rudiarise.

That even the latter
as that, given the

life
be so
we know of evolution
as directly controvert all
ments of
to
would not
may nowhere be evolved on
earth at the present time
does not invalidate such origin for it when the conditions were other than they are to-day.
From
all
we have learned of
one hand, or of
distribution
constitution on the
is
and
quartz or feldspar or
all
Each
soil.
nitrogenous
of them are only manifestations of chemical
affinity resultant
oneness of the
on condition, and considering the

stuff,
have to investigate
if
it
is
the
we would
conditions alone
learn
what
is
Virtually only six so-called elements go to

the molecule of
life.
It is the
number of its
to
we
come.
make up
constituent
atoms, and the intricacy of their binding together, that

give
it
the instability to
Life an in-
on the other, we know ^Llta
to be as inevitable a phase of planetary evolution
life
as
its
its
produce the
vital
actions.
evolution.
"*
38
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and

If a
sulphur are practically all that are required.
be
of
these
under
suitable
capable
furnishing
planet
^___M_B1^________
temperature con-
seems
it
ditions,
as inevitable that
ensue
life will
two
that the
as
ele-
ments sodium and

chlorine will unite
common
form
to
salt
when
the heat
and the pressure
Now,
are right.
on
its
face,
it
is
suggestive of the
u ni versality of life
that the elements
that
go
to
form
it
are of all elements
the
most
widei
spread.
the
PLANT LIFE OF THE UPPER DEVONIAN

From a
fossil
specimen
in the
of Natural History, found in
one-half
silicon,
the
a large
American Museum
New
Brunswick.
substance
constituent
of
of
the
Oxygen,
chief
factor
in all Organisms,
ma k es by
earth's
shells,
weight
surface
comes next
in

amount
and the others follow
39
in the constitution of
about in the order of their natural abundance.
life
For proof of the continuity of the processes of both

structure and change in the inorganic and organic alike,
nothing at once more conclusive and more interesting
be recommended than the books of the great
can
Haeckel, couched in language every educated person

can understand.
Of all
the conditions preparatory to
life,
the presence
of water, composed of oxygen and hydrogen, is

the most essential and the most world-wide.
once
at
For
if
water be present, the presence of other necessary ele-
ments
is
probably assured because of its relative lightFurthermore, if water exist, that fact
ness as a gas.
bail for the
goes
life
necessary temperature, the
gamut of
being coextensive with the existence of water as
such.
It
so consequentially,
is
Whatever
without water.
sity true.
within which
life
But the absolute degrees of temperature

life can exist vary
according to the mass
of the body, another of the ways

tells.
On
at the top,
being impossible
is of neces-
the planet, this
the earth 212
which mere
size
C.) limits the range
F. (o C.) at the bottom in the case of
and 32
fresh water, 27
F. (100
in
F.
C.) in the case of
salt.
On
smaller planet both limits would be lowered, the top
one the most.
On Mars
ably be about
10
the boiling-point would prob-
F, (43 C.).
Secondly, from the
Water
ntl
40
oneness of their constituents, a planet that

possesses water will probably retain the other sub-
general
still
initial
stances that are essential to
TRILOHITE, ONE OF
From
the fossil
specimen
life
gases, for the reason
THE EARLIEST FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE PRESERVED

in
Niagara shale,
History, here
shown
in the
American Museum of Natural
two-fifths natural size.
next to hydrogen, and helium the

their weight
lightest of them all ; and solids because
that water-vapor
would
still
is
more conduce
to
keep them there.

whole problem.
Water,
indeed, acts as solution to the
Water
plays a protagonist part in the
origination
and the development of protoplasm by constituting

at least
with,
nine-tenths of
it
drama of
could
life
substance.
by providing
and
evolve
This
function.
its
furnished the
actually
But, to begin
the
stage-setting for
medium
in
which
it
all-
important use of
water
living
by
J
o
organisms is shown
both by the present state of
ani-
all
mals and plants and
by what science
is
discovering of their
past
history.
There
never
a time,
never
apparently
will
was
and there
be a time,
when
plasm can do without that indispensable ingredient of

life.
At
first,
in
FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS OF AMPHIBIA
From a
the lowest unicellular plants
and animals,
slab reproduced in Professor Edward

Hitchcock's " Report on the Sandstone of the
Connecticut Valley."
it
forms the whole environment,
completely enveloping the organism.

cells are
found
in the sea, in
Thus the simplest
ponds, and even in hot-
spring geysers nearly at the boiling-point.
In
fact,
42
far
from
warm
this last habitat
baths
Protophyte and protozoa
would have been

Seas the
earliest
home
Here
it
being peculiar,
in such
is
plasm undoubtedly took
that
lived in a
rise.
its
sea that to us
fatally hot.
the reason for the contemporaneous ap-
is
pearance of oceans and of life the one was the necesThat it was so in fact
sary home of the other.
:
of mundane
life.
geology
states.
The
geologic record proves that
life
originated in the oceans, and lived there for long eons
before
it
much
so
as crawled out
were the nurseries
upon
of mundane
the land.
Seas
Whether
life.
life
might have gen-
on
erated
land
we do not know
on earth
it
did
tainly
cer-
not,
possibly because
seas were intrinsically the better
habitat in
SPECIMENS OF DEEP-SEA FISH
and
These specimens were obtained by the Challenger Expedition from a depth of about 500 fathoms
(3000 feet).
They illustrate
life
formerly thought impossible.
the
place
time for
uniformity
of the conditions
possibly because they were
they offered
there was.
For the land was a sorry
days.
in
all
the
home
spectacle in those
Granite fringed by mud-flats pictures but an in-
hospitable sight.
The
seas were
much
as they are
now,
43
only warmer. Their equable temperature for wide
and
ties
their slow
accommodation
locali-
to climatic
change
rendered them places of easy livelihood to simple organisms. In addition to which, food, inorganic at first, was
floated past the 'baby plants or animals,
stantly renewed.
then,
life
is
To
its
actually, if not
seas
and
as
con-
and oceans our planet,
necessarily, indebted
for the
which now teems everywhere upon its surface.

once started, continued the course of advance-
Life,
ment thus
aquatically
begun just
as
itself
was the
continuance of the inorganic development which had

gone before. And the deus ex machina was the same
a gradual lowering of temperature.
Cooling was
what occasioned increasingly high forms of life, and in
two ways this was simultaneously brought about
by
of
habitat
of
and
the
preparation
by prompting
organ-
ism to appropriate
The
it.
record written in the rocks of our
own
earth
permits us to trace the history of the spread of life.

With the gathering of the waters into their place
began a new stage in the world's physiographic career

the stage of sedimentary formations.
Until the
seas were,
their
no
strata
could be laid
down
advent both motive force and suitable
but with
sites
were
present, and,
consequence, what the welkin-born
torrents tore down of the naked earth was deposited
in
over the edges of the continents,
now
here,
now
there,
44
according as upheaval or subsidence slightly changed

the
continental
altitude
toward the sea-level.
One
another was thus made, until they were several thousand feet thick in places, each being tucked into
bed
its
after
long repose by later coverlets superposed upon
Entombed
in
these strata are the skeletons of
it.
all
those animals that a not too flimsy structure permitted

to survive the casualties of flood
the long disintegration of time.
and commotion or
The
softer ones
have
no
The
necessarily vanished, leaving as a rule
rocks are thus vast graveyards of
life
trace.
that once inhab-
They give us the only direct record

of the past, and a record which from the necessities of
ited the earth.
the case
is
perforce imperfect.
Especially
the
are
earlier chapters effaced for the gelatinous character
primeval protoplasm and the forms
Thus
it
the earliest preserved remains of
somewhat advanced
trilobites
being the
first
life
of
built up.
are already
types, Crustacea in the shape of
most primordial specimens
that
From
have come down to us in unquestionable state.
this lowly start the line can be followed upward, unfolding through the strata, the marvellous thing being
not the paucity, but the fulness, of the record thus

written
plants,
by the animals themselves. For animals and

too perishable to endure, have left their stamp
behind, and even footprints of past reptiles confront

us, legible
still
on the hardened sands of time,
as if

made yesterday
45
traversed hundreds
in the spots they
of centuries ago.
According to their age, the rocks are designated by

geologists as primary, secondary, or tertiary formations,
and oenozoic
representing paleozoic, mesozoic,
eras,
meaning the old, the middle, and the new lifetimes, so

called from the remains embedded in them.
For our purpose, the most remarkable
characteristic
of the primary rocks consists in the world-wide uniformity of their contemporary

fossils
of the
life
as exhibited in these
In the earliest beds existent
far past.
species prove to have been coevally widespread.
In
the Cambrian, the lowest of the primary strata exhibit-
ing unmistakable organic remains,
we
find
identical
species of seaweeds and trilobites appearing, regardless

of latitude, in France and Siberia; and indifferently on
both sides of the equator, in the Argentine Republic,

In the beds above
as in Europe and North America.
these, the Silurian,
genera and
the
it is
same
even some identical
Some of the
story.
species
have been
Europe and North America and in TasEvidence of a

mania, Australia, and New Zealand.
found alike
in
like latitudinarianism
deposits that followed
is
forthcoming in the Devonian

in the early
stages of
them and
the succeeding Carboniferous.
The
fauna so distributed was a warmth-loving one,
an attribute betrayed by the
fact
that
their
nearest
Uniformity
46
relatives
now
extant live wholly
within
the
tropics,
Coral reefs,
were about the equator.
now not found outside of the warm equatorial seas in
huddled
as
it
a temperature not less than 68
now covered with
spots
were reared then in
F.,
perpetual
ice,
within
eight
degrees of the pole.
species of polyp coral, Lithostrontion by name, has been found as a fossil between
At
Kotzebue Sound, and others
Barrow and
Point
Grinnell
Land
first
in latitude 81
45'
in
north.
the fauna was wholly marine, but gradually
Wings of
the land grew less impossible.
insects
have
been found in the Lower Silurian, and in the Upper,

insects themselves, scorpions both aquatic, apparently,
and
shadowed
The
carboniferous
Vestiges of plants in the Devonian fore-
terrene.
the superb plant
flora
life
of the Carboniferous,
of the coal measures corroborates the tes-
timony of the animals of that day
warmth which then

high
others,
more
existed.
to
the
climatic
Gigantic ferns, fifty feet
lowly, thirty feet in spread
marsh-
loving calamites, horsetails,
and club-mosses, dignified
dimensions of
spread their incipient leaves
to the
trees,
from well-nigh woodless stems, and grew, flourished,

and decayed with almost Jack-and-the-beanstalk rapidity
between 33
and 70
of latitude.
humid foothold and lambent
Only
warm,
could have given them

such luxuriance and impressed them with such speed.
air
In the vast marshes which constituted so
large a
47
portion of the continents this vegetation was singularly
Not
same.
pretty, but profuse
dense, but not varied,
greater part, attesting by the

cryptogams composed
habit of the ferns of to-day to the shady half-light in
its
which they must* have lived.

Grotesque rather than
no
with
flowers
touched
color the sombre
beautiful,
No
stems.
with song.
mammoth
birds
Only
wing,
made
the air about
them
half sentient
shade-affecting insects, May-flies of
through the gloom of those old

heavy stillness they were power-
flitted
forests, accentuating a
less to dispel.
The
twilight their character thus reveals
is
shown
by the details of their structure to have been continu-
No seasons
ous.
diversified the
work of wood-making,
uniform stems of the few gymnosperms then

No annual rings of growth encircle
present attest.
as the
them, witnessing to intermediate times of rest. They

minded not extraneous things, but grew right on not
;
to delight the world, but to
make
industrious end, to which in their
coal
own
measures their
blind
way they
Blind in their habit they may

excellently conformed.
be said to have been, for they were flowerless and
much
restricted of leaf.
Two
attributes of the climate this state
of things
was warm everywhere with a warmth

probably surpassing that of the tropics of to-day and,
second, the light was tempered to a half-light known
attests.
First,
it
48
now only under heavy
And
clouds.
both these con-
ditions were virtually general in locality
For such vegetation
in time.
was
ideal.
No
and continuous
as existed the climate
enforced hiemal torpor brought on by
stalking delegates of frost compelled the workers constantly to stop.
It
is
their less fortunate descendants
by nature's imposings to labor

but six months a year.
Thus the records of the paleozoic rocks bespeak two
both less light and
seemingly incongruous things
only that are limited
Light
less
tiTnToT
and
more heat than

hypotheses
is the Earth's lot

nowadays.
Many
have been invoked to account for this
warm dawn of
are locally geologic,
by
Some of them
the early geologic ages.
some broadly astronomic, advanced
But of the two kinds
geologists.
all
a different distribution
Thus, merely
sea will not explain
it,
because
it
alike
fail.
of land and
was general, not
local;
and, secondly, because this leaves untouched the prob-
lem of
less light.
Equally impotent
position in the axis of the Earth

far
changed
as
to point directly
for
is a
change of
were the axis so
toward the sun,
this
would not do away with the seasons, but would accen-
Nor
tuate them.
will
an altered eccentricity in
Earth's orbit, which has also been
more
suggested,
the
prove
effective.
Not
less
impossible
Blondet, and
to
which
is
the suggestion due
De Lapparent
has
to
M.
lent
the
49
weighty indorsement of his name, that the sun was

then so large as to be able to look down on both poles
of the Earth
at once,
and so
to give our globe equal
day and night everywhere and, as he supposes, a substantially even temperature in consequence throughout.
Here the beauty of that to many people deterrently

and awe-enshrouded subject, mathematics,
austere
comes
For
in.
enables us to do that most impor-
it
of investigation
to subject it
any
not simply to qualitative, but to quantitative, reasoning.
When we thus calculate what this paleozoic sun must
tant thing for
line
have been and what
its
effects,
we
are
brought up on
both counts against impossibilities.
The
it
to
first
do
impossibility relates to the sun
as desired
inside the orbit of
pendous
On
size there
Nor
at a
Mercury.
is no
place
the other hand,
tenuity, only
is
this all.
time
when
must have
it
For
in
filled
itself.
For
the space
all
a sun of such stu-
modern cosmogonies.
would have been of incredible
it
as dense as hydrogen gas.

must have been thus uncondensed
one-fifth
It
the Earth had already solidified.
conception evolutionarily
is
quite incredible.
Matters are not bettered for the theory
by the results consequent on the
The
if,
Sun, we
passing
calculate
those ensuing to the Earth.
We
perceive, in the
first
place, that the exposure to
the Sun's rays in the arctic regions would have been
Effect
on the
50
by no means uniform, but would have varied greatly
At
with the time of year.
latitude 82
would have been
the exposure
N., for instance,
nothing at
would be now at
virtually
midwinter; 25 per cent of what
it
the equator, at the vernal equinox, and 1.24 per cent
of
that, at the
summer
Secondly,
we
find that at the arctic circle the solar
heat in midwinter
tude 60
So that the play of

as now.
solstice.
would have been much
the seasons
would equal
N., and even
times would be no
midwinter.
at the
that at present in lati-
more heated than
Quebec
N.
equinox 82
is
in those
now 46
N.
in
winter six months long does
supply an adequate temperature for the

bringing up of a polyp coral family within ten degrees
not quite
of the pole.
So
when
that,
subjected to mathematical treatment,
the supposed paleozoic sun turns out to be quite im-
potent to the work demanded of

as regards the
Earth
as
much
as
The
it.
it
theory
fails
does with reference
to the Sun.
Earth
Planetology, however, can offer us a clew to this be-
itself
r
paleozoic neat.
clouded hothouse state of things.

heat, not
directly
on the
water, and thence through
The
its
atmosphere, might
be responsible for paleozoic conditions.

the
warmth we know must have
cently precipitated seas
still
Earth's
crust, but directly on
own
the
well
For consider
existed while the re-
were hot.
Their temper-

ature
would furnish an agreeably heated
51
for
habitat
organisms such as even the tropics fail to supply today, and one which from its genesis would be much the
same from the equator to the poles. Simultaneously,

a vast steaming must have gone up from the still
warm
waters, resulting in a welkin of great density.
This would act in two ways to explain the phenomena.

First, the
welkin would keep the Earth/ s
in; and, secondly,
We
light out.
ical
summer
own
heat
would keep the Sun's heat and
it
should have a sort of perpetual tropof cloud; a climate superior
in a twilight
to seasons because screened
on the elevation of the sun.
from direct dependence

This is perfectly in ac-
cord with the half-light the vegetation vouches
for,
while the luxuriance of that vegetation
the
warmth and even suggests

chief,
reason for
dioxide
air.
10
its
in
in
though not the
amount of carbonic
the great
existence establishes as then present in the
For carbonic dioxide
sage of heat.
dark
it
a further,
testifies to
So
is
is
a great bar to the pas-
water-vapor.
was dank and
It
those old carbonic forests because so seeth-
ingly steamy overhead.
That the oceans should have

long
is
not surprising
when we
capacity that water has
which means the

degree
in
relative
temperature,
is
for
retained their heat so

reflect
heat.
upon
the great
Its
specific
amount needed
to raise
five times that
heat,
it
one
of stone, and
52
So that
ten times that of iron.
Earth, not
motive force
in evolution
in the pale-
ozoic era.
it
would have more
to
surroundings, and would still be

warm and steamy after they had cooled.
In paleozoic times, then, it was the Earth itself, not
part with than
tne sun >
its
which plant and animal primarily stood

This gives us a most instruc-
...
beholden for existence.

tive
planet's
own
internal heat
the beginnings of
is
To
glimpse into one planetologic process.
life
is
upon
the
due the chief fostering of
its
surface.
Thus
a planet
capable of at least beginning to develop organisms
without more than a

sun.
it is
real
We
modicum of help from
talk of the sun as the source of
the central
life
and so
of being its sustainer but the

source was the Earth itself, which also raised it
to-day in the sense
its
babyhood.
Something of the same history probably
Several circumstances render
lot of Mars.
through
A
once
If
its initial
fell
to the
this likely.
surface temperature was in the neighbor-
hood of 2000
F.,
it
was well above the production-
So that a cloud canopy would be

possible when a general volcanic 'fervor of the surface
was not. Then the apparent presence in those early
point of steam.
days of seas would furnish the wherewithal of clouds.
Thus Mars would seem

sary substance
ditions to
bring forth
to
its
that end.
life,
it
to
have possessed the neces-
veiling,
and the
requisite con-
If a planet be big
may
enough
to
well provide a set of atmos-

in which that
pheric swaddling-clothes
its
life
53
goes through
early days.
Under such
eons of
its
paleozoic conditions
earthly existence.
the need of such
careful
life
passed the
Gradually
life
first
outgrew
housing, water within the
necessary as before.
Organic
from
amoeba to fish, attaining
development proceeded
no mean height in the process. But at last a better
as
organism remaining
habitat offered
of
and was speedily appropriated.

land and constantly changing
itself,
the
Weathering
chemic processes prepared the continents for organic
use.
Plants, as we have seen, at last found foothold,
and
insects an abode.
the
sea.
We
may
Then came
picture
the exodus from
some adventurous
spurred blindly from within, essaying the

preference
to the main.
Tentatively
fish,
shore
in
he must
at first
became such bold endeavor.
have ventured,
as
ing the
not inhospitable, the pioneer reported
littoral
Find-
and was followed by others whom mutation

had specially endowed. This impulse toward the new,
his exploit
from the promptings of altered character, which we

spontaneous variation, is the motive principle of
It
call
life.
probably derives from the instability of the plasmic
molecule, forever
and finding
Thus
itors
itself
rearranging
thus
its
constitution
adapted to
novel
afresh
relations.
arose the amphibia in the Carboniferous era, vis-
only to the solid ground.
From them came
the
Life outgrow*
54
in
reptiles, their descendants,
the
the Permian, who, from
their
temporary sojourners
fathers
were, devel-
oped into permanent denizens of the new abode.
From
aboriginal crawling out
this
the organism progressed until finally
and
erect
call itself
Changed
habitat
gence possible.
upon terra firma

it came to stand
man.
made
The
all
the later strides in intelli-
very sameness that rendered the
sea so inviting a habitat to simple souls,

tion
beyond
Change might develop

find
little
made evolu-
a certain point difficult, if not impossible.

in the
encouragement
organism, but
to survive in
its
would
it
surround-
ings.
evoiution.
was the variety of conditions possible on land

j
L
ave nse to var y m g environment, and this in turn
It
Effect of
environment
tnat
that
conduced
to organic differentiation.
Life
would
have remained forever of a low, cold-blooded order

it
had been constrained to continue
made
it
in the sea.
if
What
the broad ocean so excellent a nursery curtailed
as a field for action later on.
To appreciate how unsuited to high development

of organism the sea was, we need only think how poor
a place it is for bringing up a family.
Fishes cast
spawn upon the waters, and leave the hatching
of the eggs to chance.
If one in a million survives
their
this unparental treatment,
The
fish
it is all
has done well, and
its
that nature expects.
tribe increase.
This
is

taking but
55
thought for the morrow. The poor

homeless as well as parentless from the
little
little
egg
start,
lacking even that attenuated appreciation of
is
home
mal du pays,
since
surroundings Gallicly expressed as
one tract of ocean so dishearteningly resembles another.
different
Very
is
the care of their
young exhibited
by the higher land inhabitants, the mammalia.
them the mother begins by carrying the egg

way, as a part of herself, until
safest possible
become
own
to all intents
account.
of fostering
it
is
It
in the
it
and purposes an animal on
then sees the
light,
able to
has
its
but not the limit
She keeps it by her, suckling it

Even then
procure food for itself.
till
not in the highest forms foregone.
In
care.
is
guardianship
man
With
parental help continues
up
to the point
when
its
the
on through
young
till
the
next
has
become
the
dominant
life,
generation
one of its day.
is
To
career
And
first
full
grown, and even
say the least,
was an arduous, adventurous
amid the inhospitable homelessness of the sea.

this is shown not only by the leaving it at the
opportunity by those
degenerates
relatives
returning to
of the mammalia
are
to
stress
through
better
ground by
it
who
could,
again.
but by only
Only
the
poor
the porpoises, dugongs,
now
and whales
it
life
after that,
to be found there, having taken

of circumstances, elbowed off the
their stronger associates.
56
That
the outcasts still exist, however, proves the

and
It goes everywhere,
tenacity
adaptability of life.
takes up with what it can get, and turns the least propitious milieu to
sal
than
is
its
own
For
ends.
more univer-
life is
our usual conception of
Our
it.
limited
personal experience we take as measure of the whole,

and say, " Thus far and no farther." But nature
knows no such
we
limit to her
own
possibilities.
And
one may almost say reluctantly,

them
of
her.
Go where he will upon the
learning
life
of
man
finds
some sort there before him.
earth,
are
He
gradually,
discovers
new continents or
seas merely to find
out that they had been discovered by some poor relatives
long ago, and appropriated by them.
burning Saharas to polar snows no spot
From
is
exempt
from colonization, though some teem with immigrants
more than others. In altitude it is the same story as
in latitude.
life
too,
If
man
ascends, he meets with forms of
that rise with greater facility than he,
what they explore.
In descent
and
inhabit,
was until
re-
One
region was supposed

of such intrusion and to have remained as virginly
cently thought otherwise.

free
it
azoic as
when
originally
formed
of the vast oceanic basins,
all
the unstirred abysses
that constitutes the great
deep beyond the immediate vicinity of the shore and

No life existed, man
below the hundred-fathom line.
was sure,
in the
depths of the
sea.
57
Fifty years ago the absence of both flora and fauna Deep-sea life
from the deep seas was not only taken for granted, but
'^JJ^
believed on the most conclusive grounds to have been y^" agoinevitable.
proved
mous
The
first
of these was the enor-
which any organisms resident there

pressure
would be subjected. From the weight of the superto"
incumbent water the pressure would increase at the

rate of one ton per square inch for every thousand
fathoms of descent.
Consequently, at the bottom of the Atlantic, it would
be from two and a half tons to three and three-quarters
tons per square inch, and in the greater depths of the
Pacific
On
from three and one-half to nearly
bodies at the earth's surface, living only under the
ocean of
From
one
five tons.
it
air, it is
fifteen
but
pounds
fifteen
pounds
staggers imagination
only too
easily
there,
argued
it was
as
to the square inch.
thousand
to ten
to
is
a far cry,
understand.
prohibitive to
life.
It
and
was
Any
thought, would simply be
organism
crushed out of existence.
The second
bar was the total extinction of light.
Below two hundred fathoms no sunlight could posSo it was calculated from the rate
sibly penetrate.
at
which
light
is
absorbed
at
lesser
depths, and the
amply borne out by observation.

Experiments by Fal and Sarasin have fully demon-
calculation
strated
the
was
unassailability of this
deduction.
On
Extinction
1
lfc
58
minutes
ten
for
plates
March they exposed
in
sunny day
at
fathoms without a trace of reaction.
know by
room,
experience
this
how
bromo-gelatin
depth of two hundred
To
those
who
quickly plates fog in a dark-
immunity speaks
for the
more than Stygian
darkness which must there prevail.

Now, the lack of light is distressing enough to any
fauna, but to
light
is
flora
it
is
absolutely preclusive, since
the necessary stimulus to chlorophyl reaction,
But if all plants

to the growth of the plant.
be absent, animals, it was confidently concluded, must
and thus
be absent, too, since they could not live without plants,

being unable to fashion their food out of inorganic
They must
substances.
that have eaten plants.
eat
plants or other animals
Therefore, after the stronger
of these abyssal depths, supposing any

had eaten the weaker, they must themselves die
inhabitants
there,
of starvation.
These arguments seemed unanswerable, to say nothFor the temperature falls as

ing of the abyssal cold.
the thermometer descends until at a depth of a few
hundred fathoms
in
the unbarriered
reaches a temperature of
further brings
it
to
29
34
F.,
ocean basins
whence
F., or actually
it
a slow falling
below the freez-
ing-point of fresh water.

Deep-sea
When
life.
no
life
it
had thus been conclusively proved that
could exist at the bottom of the sea, deep-
59
and no sooner were they

they came up teeming with
sea dredges were invented,
down
let
than, behold
Fish and
life.
Crustacea,
mol-
lusks and echi-
noderms
in
short,
life,
of
all
SPECIMEN OF A DEEP-SEA FISH
the usual pelagic
This specimen was obtained by the Challenger Expedition from a depth of about 500 fathoms (3000 ft.) and
kinds from protoplasmic mole-
illustrates life
cules to marine monsters
formerly thought impossible.
were found to inhabit the
What
could not be, just was.

abysmal depths.
The abyssal fauna thus disclosed proved to be in
comfortable circumstances, in
impossibility of
no
visible
its
spite of the
existence at
means of subsistence, but
supposed
It had,
all.
it
it is
true,
subsisted, never-
theless.
It was as widespread as it was abundant, enThe same
joying a distribution unknown on land.
were
off
the
coast
of
found
species
Europe and about
New
Zealand, in the arctic seas as well as under the
tropics.
This was because of the uniformity of the
habitat.
Only seven degrees of
another.
difference in temper-
huge domain from

There was therefore no bar to migration
ature distinguished one part of
its
indeed, the sameness of the surroundings

insidjously led the inhabitants on.
must have
species
was thus
induced to become world-wide, while on land, even
60
supposing a pathway to
exist,
the journey from one
to the other involved enduring a shift of
hemisphere
100 F. or 150
be from winter
F. of temperature,
in the
made
one to summer
in
as
it
would
the other.
No
such temporalities as seasons disturb the abyssal

pelagic denizens, nor can locality have meaning to
them, even though they be associated with the botooze, the burialtom, which is only ooze or mud
ground of protozoa, and mud, the siftings of volcanic

One place is like
lava mixed with meteoric dust.
no
a
fish
and
earmark,
another, bearing
returning to
the very spot of
Time and
sense made
its
nativity
would not know
space are alike annihilated there,
it
Blindness.
limitless.
it
again.
and both to
If any creatures can feel infinity,
must be these abyssal denizens of the deep
sea.
The supposed
impossibilities of their abode Nature

The pressure permeates
has contrived to surmount.
them, and their parts are constructed to stand the

Yet so little change has been needed to adapt
strain.
them
eye.
it is
virtually imperceptible to the cursory
In another way Nature has accommodated them
that
to the illumination of their habitat.
She has
let
them
get on without seeing or she has provided them with

By supplying senses other than the eye, and
lamps.
allowing the animals to become blind, Crustacea and

fishes alike, she
darkness.
Or
has
made them independent of
the
man
has
she has done for them what
61
accomplished for himself

supplied artificial illumination.
That a blind fauna should exist in a vast do-
main with not so much
as a one-eyed specimen for

and
interesting
suggestive of what Nature can
king,
contrive to do without, but that she should undertake
is
to light the region,
themselves,
But
is
and that by means of the creatures
yet more
surprising.
what she does, and with some-
this is precisely
Phospho-
thing akin to electricity, each animal carrying with it

Whole tracts are brilliantly lighted
its own machine.
up by the inhabitants
they must resemble
till
London
or Paris seen by night, only that in these thoroughfares
of the abysses of the sea the passers-by provide the

illumination, each, as
it
swims about, swinging
lantern as in old Japan,
rescent arc-light, as one
when
evident even
the
own
a phosphothough better
These
devices are
may say.
fish,
the surface in the dredge
must be
its
no longer
living, reaches
much more
in their native wastes
brilliant
they
of abysmal water, where
all is
cold and dark and silent round about, as impres-
sive
as
mountain top
con-
at midnight, standing
fronted with the stars.
How
thoroughly the living by

c
artificial
,
a part or their everyday existence, the
light
is
now
r
occupation of
angling practised as a means of livelihood by certain
of the
in
fish
themselves
consequence
as
fish that fish
angler-fish
will
are
known
serve to
show.
and
Lesson of the
fishing fishes.
62
On

the surface the genus given to this profession are
furnished with a long tentacle which, rising from the

the
into
one, seems a forthright step in
terrestrial
The
63
when the
comparison.
descendants of the upper relatives of these animals
swim-bladder, discarded
emerged, leads to some curious experiences at the

ones that induce new outlooks
bottom of the sea
on
life,
us
who
and yet
live
the solid crust, pulled
upon
constantly by gravity, danger

pices or
less
down
To
are the result of conditions alone.
holes.
lies in
Abyssal
falling
fish are
downward
over preci-
exposed to no
a risk, but of precisely the opposite character
Within
of tumbling upward.
that
limits,
the
fish
has control of his

swim-bladder, but
if in
the excite-
ment
of the chase
SPECIMEN OF A DEEP-SEA FISH

Obtained by the Challenger Expedition.
he gets Carried by
impetuosity farther up than he intended, he
may
reach
no
regions where, for the lessened pressure, he can
longer control
will
its
higher and higher
released
killed
As
strain.
by the
The
till
and
swept against his

his organs burst from the
distention,
fish
is
tumbles upward, and
is
fall.
for the flora,
it
simply does not
exist.
theless, the absence of a local food supply
to these denizens of the deep.
It
Nevernot
fatal
would seem
that
is
what descends to them from the waters above

enough, meagre
as
it
may
be.
They
is
feed off the
64
crumbs that
littoral
from the better-spread table of
fall
as
relatives,
shown
is
by
still
their
the
being
For most of them
descendants of emigrants thence.
have relatives
their
living in shallow water, the oldest
abysmal species not dating farther back than Cretaceous

times.
Cosmk
From
char-
Earth
such world-wide distribution of
under
we
unlike,
realize
experimentally,
which
conditions
if
its
we may
so
put
of
life
it
over the
antagonistically
cosmic
essentially
Modifications
theoretically.
are
it,
character
well
as
as
any and
follow
every change of environment, but nature strives to

the
last
gasp
to
forth
bring
this,
her
highest
product.
Each planet
sets a different stage
for the play
of
In no two is the scenery the

spontaneous variation.
same, but this is not essential to organic origin and
Nor are many of the environmental circumgrowth.
stances prohibitive,
though
our particular species of
at first
life.
they seem
Because a man,
denly transported to Mars, would gasp and

beside
the
of
there as the fact that no
life
point
in
fatal to
if
sud-
die, is as
any inquiry into the existence

woman ever was the
mother of a monkey is irrelevant to a discussion on

the origin of man.
We have here been evolving in
keeping with the shapings of a certain environment.
To
suppose that we could instantly prove adapted

another
to
quite diverse
is
65
mistake the process
to
upon which life depends.

Indeed, our most commonplace actions would there
seem phantasmagoric. Personal experience of Mars,
on the surface of which gravity is only three-eighths
the
would take on
Earth's,
grotesque.
rally light
character akin to the
Everything there would become unnatuwould weigh no more than stone with
lead
us, stone than water, each substance appearing to be
transmuted into something other than itself. It would

prove at once a world imponderable, etherealized.
Our
actions
effort
would grow
grandific.
we should accomplish
endowed with an
For with
little
the apparently impossible,
effectiveness
increased
sevenfold.
Water would
Lastly, everything would take its time.
flow with hesitant and lazy current, and falling bodies
sink with graceful moderation to the ground.
our
After
paranoeac wonder, it would certainly impress

a world as slow as it was flat.
first
us as
Our
very
senses
would seem estranged.
Sight,
indeed, and taste would be the only ones not to be

shifted in their point of view.
smell,
would
all
Touch, hearing, even

and prove quite
suffer a space-change
We
should be anywe know them now.

not
but
at
home.
But
this
does
imply that life
thing
of some form would not.
For consider how our
other than
own world must seem
other than
we know
it
to every
66
animal upon
its
To
face.
the ant
stands a very
it
from what the elephant conceives it.

The grass-spires which tower as trees to the one are
Nor is it
trodden unnoticed underfoot by the other.
different habitat
The
matter of mere magnification alone.
former
feels
both strength and limitations the latter quite ignores.

The ant scales his grass-stem with an ease and assur-
we should not know on
ance
and
trees,
falls
off to the
need be, completely unscathed from a relaground,

tive height that would terminate our careers forthwith.
if
But though modified in feeling by size of habitant

and modified in fact by size of habitat, life would go
on superior to such detail were the planet only sizable
enough
So
to furnish
far
as
it
with
we have
its
necessities.
life
evidence,
a globe,
globe be sufficiently large.
For
it
No
from without.
this earth
life
an inevitable
is
outcome of the cooling of
provided that
not reach
did
bore
fanciful meteorite
the seeds which have since sprouted and overrun
Meteorites gave
surface.
more fundamental way
in
are done,
it
by supplying
by evolution life arose.
certain
upon
the
it
full
their
from the
in
it
life,
which
its
indeed, but in the
all
nature's processes
with matter only from which
Of this we may
fact that
be absolutely
while meteors were falling
any numbers, they were forming
its
mass,
heat of which had not yet been evolved by
impact and subsequent condensation.
The
heat

that thence ensued was excessive,
than sufficed to
to
it
housed
action
kill
many
that
any germs
fold
annihilated any organic
after
Thus
the
they came must have

they
possibilities
Those
greater
might have come
in the meteorites themselves.
due the meteorites
67
may have
the heat
brought with them.
had waned enough to make survival possible found
life already started, since protoplasm formed the moarriving after
ment cooling permitted of it.
The proof
that
life
was here spontaneously evolved
every stage in its history, not only in its

but
at
origin,
every step of its progress upward where
a marked departure occurs from its previous course.
appears at
It
and the environment are observed
together.
Two
to
have changed
short parallel columns, the one show-
ing the changes that have occurred in the habitat, the
other those supervening in the
habitant, will
make
but striking. As effective as

the well-known deadly parallel of oratorical utterances,
this life-giving one reaches the same certainty through
this
not simply
clear,
the probabilities disclosed.
Occasion of
start.
this vital parallelism occurs at the
Indeed, we
may go back of
this
very
and note
For until the conditions

agreement before the start.
were such as could support life, no life appeared.
This is the first coincidence. Another follows on its
heels with the
dawn both of conditions
fit
for
some
68
existence
were
its
and of that existence
No
birthplace.
could then have offered

cept in the sea is
The
waters
other portion of the surface

it
home, and nowhere ex-
then found.
it
simultaneity of each
cradle crops
The
itself.
up again
when
new
a
As soon
making of the land.
birth
new
field
as this
and each new

arose by the
was
suitable,
appeared to take possession of it, and from

that time on neglected more and more the sea.
plants
The
fourth parallel
that the edible plants
is
found
in
the significant fact
and the plant-eaters made
their
debut on the scene together in Miocene times, the

world having got along without both before that
This entry, hand in hand, so to speak, De

Lapparent, the great French geologist, does not hesi-
epoch.
tate
to
link
and
logically,
to regard the
necessary complement of the other.

the case, there
appear
at the
is
certainly
same
one
as the
If this were not
no reason why they should

Food evokes its
instant of time.
eater in fact as definitely as in phraseology.
The
last
of
this
procession of coincidences, man,
time when the cooling of the

his
rendered
own
extension
globe
possible at the least
came on the scene
at the
expense to himself.
His brain allowed him
to take
advantage of conditions less intrinsically favorable

than other animals could endure.
His mind clothed
his
body and gave him
fire,
and with these two prod-

ucts he sallied forth into a world where
were chiefly climatic, with which he was
Thus
its
to
all
69
antagonists
fitted to cope.
along the line we perceive that life and

The second is necessary
domicile arose together.

the
first
occasion.
and the
The
first
is
coincidence of the possibility and
seizure, of the posse and the

eral principle
always sufficient to the
of evolution.
stantly in progress,
and
its
esse, seems to be a genEndless variation is con-
this variation takes
advantage
of any opportunity so soon as it occurs.

Life but
waits in the wings of existence for its cue, to enter
the scene the
moment
the stage
is
set.
CHAPTER
III
THE SUN DOMINANT

Transition.
The
passing of the supremacy of
the entrance of the Sun

inant
power
in
its
life,
own
its
heat,
upon
mark the next
and
dom-
the scene as the
in
stage
planet's history.
On
Earth the transition from self-support to solar

dependence began with the first symptoms of atmos-
The
pheric clearing in the time of the great reptiles.
elouds that had veiled the whole Earth in the paleozoic period then
began to dissipate
probably not until
much
the pellucid character
we know.
cooling thus
the Sun.
first let in
though
later that the
The
Earth's
That such must have been our Earth's

gather from the other planets
we discover from
from the
when
fossils
that
it
embedded
in its rocks
more
Sandstone, were
familiarly
laid
own
history
we
actually was so
the records of the Earth
the Triassic strata,
New Red
was
it
sky approached
itself.
we
For
learn that
known
as the
down, gymnosperms,
cycads, and conifers had replaced the cryptogams of
the primary age.
than
ferns.
These plants require more
Though
technically
70
called
light
flowering
THE SUN DOMINANT
71
plants, they yet lacked flowers to catch the eye.
demanded more sunshine than
they
and thus
testify
to the
Still,
their predecessors,
purifying air caused by the
gradual cooling of the surface and the consequent less

abundant generation of cloud. That the Sun had not
grown more
insistent,
but the Earth more open-eyed,
the latitudinal character of the cooling shows.
For
it
was not the absolute lowering

warmth, but the
zonal differentiation of temperature that then set in,
in
which
the noticeable thing.
is
before; the climate was
tropics were as
changing slowly toward the
Climatic zones began to belt the Earth.
poles.
In
next mesozoic
the
division,
by dropping down
corals,
on,
The
the Jurassic, the
the latitudes as time went
speak of continued refrigeration.
and
perate,
frigid
regions
Tropic, tem-
began to belt the Earth.
But zones were not yet well
established, as the pres-
ence of the same cycads in Mexico and Franz Josef
Land
suffices to attest.
Corals
still
grew
in latitude
N.
55
With
this the
Tertiary times came in the seasons.
Before The
Earth knew them not, though its axial tilt was

Their advent is registered for us
the same as now.

in
the changed vegetation they induced.
presence
trees,
ing
is
which make
strata,
For
their
witnessed by the coming in of deciduous
the
their first appearance in its preced-
lower
Cretaceous,
and
spread
and
sun
72
flourished in the Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene eras.
The
northern zones had
tation
had to hibernate
while
we mark
parallels
in
limit
months.
Mean-
palms successively descend the

In the Eocene
the
already they are lower than in
recent
epochs
northern
so cold that vege-
of heat.
search
dawn of the
earlier
the
now grown
in the winter
in the Oligocene, the next age, their

is
rarer there in the
the
smaller
Miocene
and
fifties
in the
they
become
Pliocene they
have virtually disappeared from northern Europe.

With increase in light went hand in hand decrease in
warmth, which shows that the Earth

source of the earlier torrid climate.
had been the
Its seas
and con-
tinents were both cooling off.
The Sun was
slowly asserting his position as the

of
both
light and heat, and the world as we
great giver
know it was beginning to be. I/
This change in dependence from Mother Earth to

distant Sun ushered in the reign of beauty in the
world.
We live in the colored supplement of our
globe's history, the time
on; and
this
the Earth.
gorgeous
when
the pigments were put
because as fashioner the Sun has replaced
Though
tints
they bear no relation to us, the
of blossom, butterfly, and bird that so
delight the eye were called into being by the
themselves
sunbeams
while the descendants of the plants that
were beholden chiefly to the Earth
the fungi, mosses,
THE SUN DOMINANT

and
brakes
flourish
sombre
are
the
in
only
adapted themselves
greater part
which
still
browns
to
the
and
shade.
new
and
greens,
have
few indeed
conditions, but
world
the
to
pathetically cling
they were brought up
73
the
in
world (except in
corners) long since passed away.
Since a general clearing of

in a planet's
its
cloudless, transparent air "in the
eyes to the cosmos.
do
The
find.
very
aspect
of
its
to find a
body opens
its
Now, this is precisely what we

of Mars shows that it has thus
to the universe
first
a regular step Mars
of a planet as
case
For thus
Mars.
relatively old as
waked
is
sky
development, we should expect
about
it.
In
fact,
characteristics to be
such was the
made known
to
by which the others were rewe had never made acquaintance
the earth, being the one

vealed.
Without
it
with this other world in space.
Viewed under
compare
Mars
suitable
for instant beauty
as presented
conditions,
few
sights
can
and growing grandeur with
by the telescope.
Framed
in the
blue of space, there floats before the observer's gaze a
seeming miniature of
translation to the sky.
light
his
own Earth,
Within
its
yet changed by
charmed circle of
he marks apparent continents and
seas,
now ram-
one another, now stretching in unique exover

wide tracts of disk, and capped at their
panse
It recalls to him
poles by dazzling ovals of white.
ifying into
betray*
^^
74
his
first
lessons in geography, where
shown him
set ethereally
added sense of
amid the
Earth was
the
stars,
only with an
the apotheosis.
reality in
It
is
the
stamped with that all-pervading, indefinable hall-mark of authenticity in which the cleverest
thing
itself,
reproduction
somehow
fails.
In color largely lies this awakening touch that imbues the picture with the sense of actuality.
And
very vivid are the
tints,
so salient and so unlike that
words conveys scant idea of their connaming

Rose ochre dominates the lighter
cord to the eye.
in
their
regions, while a robin's-egg blue
colors
the darker
and both are set off and emphasized by the icy whiteNor is either hue uniform tone
ness of the caps.
;
relieves tint
some
alone
to a
further heightening of effect.
In
parts of the light expanses the ochre prevails

;
in others the rose
deepens to a brick-red, suf-
fusing the surface with the glow of a warm, late after-
noon.
No
less
various
is
the blue,
deeps of shading, now lightening into

in
places grade
now
sinking into
faint
washes that
off insensibly into ochre
itself,
thus
making regions of intermediate tint the precise borders

of which are not decipherable by the eye.
Superimposed upon its general opaline complexion
now and then to be seen ephemeral effects. At
are
certain
times and
in
brown has been known
certain
places
warm
chocolate-
to supplant the blue.
Often,
."
'
THE SUN DOMINANT
75
too, cold white dots are scattered over the disk, daz-
diamond points
zling
to a richness
that
deck the planet's features
beyond the power of
pencil to portray.
So minute are they that good seeing is needed to disclose them.

It is at such moments that color best
comes
out.
To
who know
those
sun only as
the
golden and the moon as white, even in its color

scheme Mars would stand forth a revelation.
thought over the strange

below
For though you
you.
displayed
still look down
into
the
sky, you
upon its
gaze up
or
follow
unconsciously the
consciously
ground, and
It
land
easy to travel in
is
thus
configuration of
its
surface with cartographic eye,
now
by some apparent bay to run with it up into the

continent, now witched by the spirit of exploration
toward some island, as it seems to be, set remote in
led
the midst of the sea.
But whether you purpose
it
or
not, nature, taking the matter out of your hand, de-
cides
for
it
you.
For presently you perceive your
point of view not to be quite what
it
The bay
was.
in question, as well as the island, has slightly

its
place
upon
mutual relation unaltered.
few minutes more and
the shift has increased, and then you
of what
is
taking place
this
become aware
other world
is
turning on
our own, rotating from west to east

along its orbit about the sun.
itself, as turns
it rolls
changed
the disk, while the two have kept their
as
76
over the rim of the disk
Up
swing
sight
rises a
marking, to
time across the centre, and then on out of
in
round the other limb.
The one
horizon marks
the planet, the other the sunset
the sunrise-line
upon
one, and in
course between the two the place has
its
Two VIEWS
OF THE SOLIS LACUS REGION OF MARS, ONE HOUR APART,

JULY 26, 1907 (THE ONE TO THE LEFT THE EARLIER), SHOWING THE
ROTATION OF THE PLANET. NORTH is AT THE TOP
had
Martian day.
its
potently for that, the act

the
curiosity
wearied had
it
it
What perchance might have

remained forever there, gains an added
fact that
it is
gone.
But,
more than
earnest of yet further fields to be
From
the circumstance of turning comes
promise that other regions will later be displayed,

as the observer watches, the predicted
One
less
an
gives
explored.
but no
more.
glamour from the

this,
Unsuspectedly,
of such withdrawal only whets
comes
and
to pass.
longitude after another turns the corner, rounds
into view,
and slowly swings into the meridian plane.
THE SUN DOMINANT

grown
Objects,
77
familiar, give place to others that are
new.
Sitting alone in midnight vigil in his silent

dome, the astronomer thus mutely circumnavigates
another world.
The
cloudlessness of the planet's sky alone
Were
such travel possible.
makes
not for the unobstructed
it
view, exploration of the sort would be out of the ques-
Were Mars
not an old planet, corroborating by

absence of cloud the general course of planetary develtion.
slight.
To
lack of covering enables us to
mark
opment, our knowledge of

begin with,
its
had been
it
the permanency in place of the planet's features, and
from such
permanently to time the planet's axial

This gives us knowledge of the planet's
This day
day and furnishes means to measure it.
proves to differ in duration little from our own,
rotation.
24 hours, 40 minutes long, instead of 24
being
In the next
hours.
apparel
pheric
the
discloses
the
planet's
orbital
the
seasons
of the year.
well
as
24
as
Martian
*
Still later
little less
the
plane,
Now
Martian
time
against
seasons
23 J
counterpart
measures at Flagstaff
than ours.
(See note 18.
make
)
this
Martian
the
of
rotation,
Earth.
ours.
axis
to
which causes
own, being,
the
for
of atmos-
of the
tilt
relation
be singularly like our
out to
*
as
scantiness
its
place
in
Thus
The
even smaller, 23
tilt,
turns
13',
year
fact,
the
of
or actually a
MARS
78
THE ABODE OF LIFE
AS
Mars, however,
twice ours in length, which, joined
is
to great eccentricity of orbit, gives
seasons.
lasts
Thus,
it
diversifiedly long
northern hemisphere, spring
the
in
199 days, summer 183, autumn 147, and winter

its southern
hemisphere the figures stand
158, while in
The numbers have more
reversed.
importance, for absolute length

season's
than academic
as vital a factor in a
of the season
itself.
brought to pass in twice the time
which
influence
Much maybe
is
as
the fact
could not develop in the shorter period.
not a
little
interesting that
And
it
is
precisely this possibility
actually turns out to be vital in the vegetative
economy
of the planet's year.

Absence of cloud speaks, too, of the thinness of
11
the planet's air, of which we have other evidence as
Perhaps the best proof of a relatively thin air

the lack of intrinsic brilliancy of the Martian disk,
well.
is
its
"albedo," as
This
called.
it is
is
only 27 per cent of
absolute reflection, as against 92 per cent for Venus.
Now,
a thick
would
due
its
even
air,
cast a
to dust or vapor, as
features.
Of
Such
is
veil
it
over the planet's face
does with Venus, dimming
not the case with Mars.
twilight, therefore,
there should
made
at Flagstaff in
certain observations
prove
Earth
indeed, because clear,
if clear,
luminous
this.
calls
The
refractive
the Sun
be
less,
and
1894 seem to
medium of air which on
earlier in the
morning, and keeps
THE SUN DOMINANT
THE NORTH POLAR CAP OF MARS AT
ITS
LEAST EXTENT
him up
case,
is
later at night than would otherwise be the

not so potent on Mars.
Day there enters with
greater abruptness, and lapses into
Then comes
an insistency
That some
more sudden dusk.
when the stars

unknown on earth.
a night
air exists is,
stand forth with
however, patent, both directly

circlet of the disk
from the limb-light that fringes the
8o
and
inferentially
from the changes that we mark in

For change of itself
face.
progress on the planet's

implies an atmosphere.
The
polar
-caps
of Mars,
First of the
^j^
phenomena
to betray this air
were the
tnat b onne t the Martian poles; for in the
ca p
person of these patches transformation was first recorded
upon the Martian disk. Their position, together with
s
THE SOUTH POLAR CAP OF MARS AT
ITS
GREATEST EXTENT
THE SUN DOMINANT
81
wax and wane, pointed them out
thîr seasonal
for
polar snows gathered during the Martian winter and
melting with the Martian spring.
That the polar caps

rather,
hoar-frost,- suggests
it
accompanies
when
on, a
stone to
its
As
the
seen
about
band,
than
green
it
prove
was not
by
touch-
character.
it
melts,
cap
be
to
which
turned
rightly
reasoned
is
to
or^
one who
any
Fortunately,
easy.
phenomenon
out,
to
itself
But
carefully scans the planet.
so
composed of snow,
are
girdled
dark-blue
DRAWING OF MARS, APRIL 8, 1907,

SHOWING THE DARK BELT THAT GIRDLES THE SNOW DURING ITS MELTING
deeper in tone
any other bluearea
on the
disk.
peculiar property of
This
latter
shrank, maintaining
post.
The phenomenon was
Madler, but
it
belt
developed the
retreating with the cap as the
was not
till
throughout
first
attendant
its
seen by Beer and
1894 that
its
significance
was seized.
Clearly the
outcome of the melting
it
disposed
of the suggestion that the caps might be
solid carbonic acid that freezes at 109
F. into a sub-
by that
stance
cap,
fact
not unlike snow.
For carbonic
acid,
under
8z
pressures of one atmosphere, or
less,
such as would be
the case on Mars, passes instantly from the gaseous

into
the
Not
solid state.
then, was a
telltale
bit
so
water-vapor.
of behavior.
proclaimed the presence of a liquid.
From
Here,
The blue belt

Thus carbonic
drawings, July 20 and 22, before and after the event.
EARLY WINTER SNOW-STORM IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE OF MARS,

MARTIAN DATES OCTOBER 22, LEFT1907 (NORTH AT THE BOTTOM).
HAND DRAWING; OCTOBER 23, RIGHT-HAND DRAWING
:
acid could not be concerned,
and the substance com-
posing the caps was therefore snow.

that
of
we know
of,
dons
their
For no
other,
snowy aspect with change
state.
The
behavior of the cap thus affords intrinsic proof
of its constitution.
Since this was determined, another
of argument has given extrinsic evidence of the

same thing.
This is the evaluation of the surface
line
temperature of the planet recently made for the

time with any approach to precision.
first
THE SUN DOMINANT
83
The
stronghold of doubt as to the habitability of The

Mars has always been the difficulty of accounting for
question
^^^
there
temperature
From
own
its
bodily
itself, like
surr.-e
our own earth, can contribute to the
temperature
must
necess;r. y caloric
heat at
to
support life.
the present time the
enough
high
The
no appreciable amount.
all come from the sun.
because the planet was half as
far
Now,
again from the sun
the earth, and because light and heat diffuse in-
as
versely as
feet
square of the distance,
ti;-
a candle
two
away giving only one-fourth the light of one a
foot off,
it
was suppc
that
Mars must
receive
only four-ninths the warmth that the earth gets, which
would render
But the
temperature terribly low.

receipt of radiant energy is not so forth-
right as this.
its
To
begin with, the bundle of rays from
the sun striking the planet
very threshold of
at the
subject to two adventures
planetary career.
part
once reflected back into space from the body

from the air first, then from the planetary
strikes
of it
it
is
its
is
at
surface.
warm
fact
the
But the
body
reflected light or heat does not
at all.
go to
Strange to say, this important
had never been taken into account
until
the
present investigation of the subject, which led to a
completely different outcome from what had previously

been supposed.
Too technical for exposition here,
one or two points
in
it
may be mentioned.
First, the
84
proportionate
amount of
the reflected light-rays which
reach an observer stationed on another planet measures

the relative brightness of that planet as seen by him.
This per cent per square unit of surface

unity is what is called the planet's albedo.
at distance
Now
the
albedo of the different planets has been found by more

than one observer from investigations unconcerned
with our present subject, the only gap in the series
The latest determinabeing that of our own earth.
tion by Miiller
is
Mercury
Venus
0.17
Mars
0.27
0.92
Jupiter
0.75
Saturn (Struve)
0.78
Uranus
0.73
Neptune
0.63
Our own
earth's albedo
is
lacking from the table
because we cannot see ourselves as others see us, and

are consequently
appearance.
By
as to
our own
suitable deduction, however,
from the
somewhat
in the
dark
brightness of sunlight at different altitudes above the

surface of the earth,
it,
and from
.75.
this a
it
is
possible to get
modest estimate puts
So that we are not so dull
Thus
some
it
idea of
as at least
as we thought.
of
radiant
we get the amount
energy received
THE SUN DOMINANT
85
of the sun's rays. There are also

rays too long to be perceived by our eyes, and these
must also be considered in a determination of the
from the
visible part
The bolometer
whole.
us to do
and so
this,
invented by Langley enables

to obtain the
of the
fraction
energy which goes to warm the body. ^'

In the case of the earth it proves to be 41 per cent
total incident
of the whole
and
in the case
Here, then, we have
at
of Mars, 60 per cent.
once a serious
modification
of a calculation based on distance alone.
But
this is
sky comes
not
The
all.
clearness of the
Martian
in to abet the greater transmission
of
From dawn
till dusk,
day after day in the sumin
and
season,
winter, the sun shines out
largely
of a heaven innocent of cloud.
No shield of the
air.
mer
sort,
and
beams
far
only a
little
of
screen
to the soil held
to
up
we have on
exceeds anything
it.
air,
tempers
its
Such an exposure
earth
for with us,
even in the tropics, clouds gather as soon as the

heating grows excessive, and cool the air by plumps
of
rain.
How
much
this
means
to
planet as far
we
away
from
the
what
in
Over
the earth as a whole, the proportion of actual
to
sun
this
as
Mars,
respect
possible sunshine
cent.
That
is,
is
for
the sky
will
appear
if
consider
the condition of the
the whole
is
The
clear
skiesofMarsits
earth.
year is 50 per
such that the sun shines
86
only half the time

screen
On Mars
the spring mistiness
the polar cap
with
might were there no clouds
it
to
it.
the
the borders of
at
the only veiling the surface knows,
is
the
that
result
sunshine
of
percentage
throughout the year is 99 per cent of the utmost

This is somewhat reduced by the fact
possible.
that
some
Taking
and heat of course
light
and
clouds
is
kept
by the
in
let
is
in better, too.
these different data,
and using the most
recently determined relation of radiation
to
temper-
ature (that of Stefan, which has been independently
deduced theoretically by both
we
litzine),
surface
air
of Mars
Boltzmann and Ga-
mean temperature of
the
that
find
should be about 48
must not place too much credence
the
We
F.
in the actual fig-
our knowledge of the laws of atmospheric

retention of heat is very uncertain, but the research
ures, for
is
enough
to
show
that
the above result
nearer the truth than the terribly cold
of the earth
is
only 60
F.
so
matic warmth of the two planets
that the
is
much
is
That
ones.
mean
cli-
not very unlike,

'
and
far
within the possibilities of
But the circumstances

Martian
mean
life
annual
than
this.
are even
in
for both.
alone.
more favorable
For man does not
temperatures
he nor other animals
life
In
fact
live
to
by
neither
our temperate zones pay so
THE SUN DOMINANT

much heed
to
yearly averages as
Much more
posed.
sometimes sup-
is
the point with
to
87
them
mean summer warmth they experience.

that is, all
Now, in the summer-time,
from some months after the winter solstice
the
is
the
to
way
some
Summer and
peratures.
months
the
after
summer
sorbed daily from the sun than
The
the stars at night.
constantly rising
think of
in
it
March, but
ceeds
The
the
fact
radiated
when one
way, since June
this
night's
is
surface temperature
a fact patent
means
that this
is
more heat
one,
loss
pertinent
is
to
is
ab-
is
out to
is
then
stops to
warmer than
that the day's gain exlost
commonly
sight
of.
For
our present inquiry.
the daily increment continues for half the year, and

the
Martian year
total
gain
in
twice our
is
summer over
own
in
Its
length.
mean would, other
equal, rise to something like twice our own.
things
Instead of a temperature
Mars
the
it
That
might
a
thin
well be
air
heat the latest and
is
50,
lift
of 30, as with us, on
in spite
of the thinner
compatible with
great
air.
surface
most authoritative measures of
the heat of the moon's surface during the lunar day
These measures
interestingly corroborate.
of Professor Very.
With
are those
great care and
thoroughon the
experimented
investigator
amount of heat radiated by different parts of the
ness this excellent
moon
at different times
of the lunar day.
He
con-
88
Langley had begun to a much

It used to be thought that
lunar midday the temperature of the moon's
work
the
tinued
of precision.
finer point
even
at
must be below freezing because of
surface
a retaining blanket of
air.
Very's
the matter put a quite different aspect
in
In a
When
no matter
the sun rises,
how
what
in
the sun has reached an altitude of
at
the end of the
first
equator the rock surface
proaches
at
regions
80
under a
sun
heated, the rocky surface retains
do
freezing-point.
Not
middle
does
latitudes
mounts rapidly
the heat
in
cold.
is
it
dry regions near the
As midday
as boiling water.
ap-
the scorching rocks attain
above the boiling-point of water
centigrade
vertical
in
Then
the end of the second week,
a temperature full
in
week of sunshine
as hot
is
latitude,
below the
cold, but
the temperature get above freezing.

until
it.
not venture to say

until
upon
of his to the writer he sums up his results
letter
as follows
lack of
its
latest conclusions
(356
Having once become
F. ).
heat to a great extent far into the
its
afternoon, the curve of falling temperature being perhaps a day and
Toward
a half of our time out of symmetry.
afternoon the
sets,
frost
fall
prevails,
wherever there
"
of temperature
is
or
at
least
water-vapor
to
the end of the lunar
very rapid, and before the sun
is
temperatures
make
the
which produce
article
which we
frost
call
hoar-frost."
And
this great heat occurs
no blanket of
its
and
temperature
a half after
air
and, what
maximum
its
is
where there
is
is
virtually
even more striking,
not attained
till
greatest receipt of sunshine.
a day
THE SUN DOMINANT

Now, when we
the
planet
some
89
turn from deduction to the picture

after
presents, which,
consideration
in
all,
statements
entitled
is
about
confront what certainly seems a body in
circumstances of temperature.
face lies fully
is
In
its
fairly
summer
exposed to our gaze, and
it
the reverse.
N.
and 87
easy
the sur-
assuredly
not suffering from wholesale glaciation.
contrary, the
to
we
itself,
On
the
to
phenomena point
something quite
For weeks its arctic regions up to 86
latitude are certainly
point, since the
snow
above the freezing-
Probably they are

it, for in the polar caps we then behold a
shrinkage much greater than anything we similarly
experience on earth, part of which is due to less
far
disappears.
above
depth of snow, but showing also that it is relatively

warmer there than here. Lower down the disk,
toward
the
equator, great
dust-storms, like
the
si-
mooms
of our Sahara, sweep over portions of it at

times, hundreds of square miles in extent, convey13
ing to the onlooker anything but a sense of chill.
In winter the opposite state of things prevails.

good sixth of the whole surface goes into winter
quarters as each
for
till
autumn draws
on.
It stays so, too,
some
eight of our months on end, not to emerge

the next Martian spring.
winter on Mars in
high latitudes has a polar complexion to

pleasing to contemplate.
it
not wholly
Aspect of
corroborative,
9o
But the idea that such a winter's counterpane betokens more than hibernation, and in any sense hazards
the existence of life, a moment's thought on our own
The
conditions of living will suffice to dispel.
great
nations of the earth, with scarce an exception, live half
the year in the earth's north polar cap, buried in
snow
and hidden the greater part of the time from visual

communication with outside space. If Martian philosophers are of the pattern of
must incontrovertibly prove
some
the impossibility of our existence.
the fairly successful
way
earthly ones, they
own
to their
which we manage to sur-
in
vive in open contravention of philosophy,

it is
be with insects,
beasts, in order to tide an animal over
of warmth to the next.
what we are pleased to

capable of submitting
the
we
see that
not necessary even to suppose hibernation,
sible as nature finds that to
Summer
satisfaction
Nevertheless, from
An
call
fea-
fishes,
and
from one period
organism with or without
human
intelligence
is
quite
which would,
if
permanent, prove destructive to life, and of biding

time to a more propitious season.
its
to conditions
For, thanks to recent research, we
now know
that
with animals generally it is the summer temperature,

not the winter one, that decides the question as to
whether
life shall exist.
An
able investigation of the
United States Government Zoologist, Dr. Merriam,

the region of the San Francisco peaks, in
made upon
THE SUN DOMINANT
;;;:]TIMBER LINE
ZONE
_SPRUCEZONE
MERRIAM'S
^^^DOOatAS FIR
[
] PINE ZONE
ZONE
91
PINON ZONE
1||
MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO MOUNTAIN AND
1|
DESERT
VICINITY, ARIZONA
"
North American Fauna, No. 3."
Published in
92
1889, brings this point out with great acumen.

pertinency to the
problem before us
commends
Its
it
to
reference here.
In geographic and climatic position combined the

San Francisco Mountains of northern Arizona are
among
the most interesting animal and vegetal habitats
of the globe.
They
are
what
is left
of a great crater of
Tertiary times, which, rising out of the plateau north
of the Arizonian desert, tower to 12,630

tude.
The
massif of this once volcanic
now many
feet
of
alti-
cone sup-
square miles of forest on its flanks,

and its plateau base is clothed with pine while girdling
it about, and
cutting it off like an island from other
ports
THE SUN DOMINANT
93
vegetation, stretch the arid wastes of the great
Ameri-
can desert.
This
remarkable for being banded by

successive zones of trees, each distinctive and exclusive,
floral island is
and giving place the one
to the other solely

according
ARIZONA DESERT VIEW
to elevation.
Starting
from the desert forty
miles
away, where sage-brush and cacti alone succeed in

managing an existence, the traveller enters at an elevation of a mile
zone of scrub.
per
and
a quarter
Stunted
above the sea the
at first,
clumps of dwarf juni-
make
cedars, as they are locally called
appearance, and grow
in size
initial
and vigor
as
their
he continues
Zonesofvege-
^F^J^
Mountains.
94
to ascend.
With them
form of juniper and
are soon
associated
another
the pinon, a small tree from twenty
to thirty feet in height.
At about 7000
feet
he en-
counters the Pinus ponderosa, to which the juniper and
pinons
then give way, and the whole aspect of the
THE DOUGLAS
tree vegetation changes.
Here
FIR
the stately pines pos-
sess the land alone, save for a few white oaks
on the
At 8500 feet the yellow pines

edges of the mesas.
disappear, to be succeeded by the Douglas fir, the
Rocky Mountain
At 9500
aspen.
pine,
and the beautiful trembling
feet this set
yet another, and the
of trees gives place to
traveller enters the western white
spruce zone, associated with which
is
the fox-tail pine,
THE SUN DOMINANT
95
the needles of which startlingly suggest a fox's brush.
At 10,500
dwindle to dwarf specimens
feet these trees
of themselves, until at 12,000 feet they entirely lapse,
and naked rock stretches supreme to the summit. A

climb of 8000 feet from 5000 to 13,000 of elevation
has carried the observer through six zones of absolutely
distinct tree
life,
counterparts of the tropic, the tem-
perate, the Canadian, the
Hudsonian, the Arctic, which
he would have traversed had he journeyed from the

foot of the mountains northward to the pole.
To
the higher slopes of the mountain every
summer
deer troop from the lower plateaux where they have

passed
the
winter,
to
stay
October's cold drives them

all
down
these
again
heights
;
while
until
upon
it
the year round are to be found bear, which also go
up and down with the change

to
at
these
are
wildcats
host of smaller
mammals,
In addition
in seasons.
and mountain
lion,
besides a
squirrels, gophers,
and the
like.
Merriam camped upon
the peak in July, 1889, and Summer
studied the habits of the animals at high elevations
during the
summer months, comparing
the
various
genus and species found there with those known

northward in the world. Among other interesting results he found that the survival of species is determined
not by the mean annual temperature of the locality or
by the winter minimum, but by the maximum temper-
ufe -
96
ature prevailing during the short

is
summer months.
in this season that the animals
young, and
warm during
ciently
forth
their
they were
suffi-
bring
study showed that
his
if
the reproductive season, cold dur-
At
ing the rest of the year mattered not.
weeks made
of
the worst
Here, then, the fact of a few
they hibernated.
thermore, what
warm
possible, outweighing the impossibility
life
the other long, cold, forbidding months.
all
It
Fur-
important to our present discussion,

Merriam found that temperature was more potent than
is
humidity, so long as they had any water at all.

This point in animal history has immediate bearing
upon the habitability of Mars for the Martian sum;
mer
is
twice as long as ours, and, as
probable acme of warmth

small.
It
not by
cold
that
its
its
its
is
by these
we have
attained in
attributes of
mean annual temperature,
it is
its
or by the great
surface very possibly experiences

ability to
support
life
seen, the
by no means
climate, and
in
winter,
must be judged.
Another point the presence of the animals on the

San Francisco Mountains serves to bring out
their
The creatures
indifference to thinness of the air.
which dwell on the peak, or which visit it as a summer
resort, are members of the same species whose natural
home
is
at sea-level farther north.
one finds
The
deer are such
northern part of the United States

the bear are the same as those inhabiting the forests of
as
in the
THE SUN DOMINANT

Canada and Labrador.
Altitude takes
97
the
place of
latitude in sufficiently cooling the habitat to their ac-
commodation.
On
But
does this at the expense of
it
air.
the peak they dwell at elevations of 10,000 feet,
where the barometer marks only 18 inches, instead of

30 to which their relatives are accustomed. Yet,
the
in spite
of living in atmospheric penury on the man-
sard roof of the world,
mountain here
for the
is
they suffer no inconvenience, and seem totally
steep,
unaware that they are doing anything peculiar. Nor

have they seemingly changed in organic or even in
functional development.
is
special adaptation
scious absence of
it,
the deer the lack of
equaled only by the lack of con-
and the animal
as in the timber of the
is
as
much
at
home
Minnesota woods.
That thinning of the

provided
With
air
proves no bar to a species,
other conditions are the
same,
is
shown on the high lands of the western United
further
States.
The meadow-larks
of the great plains rise with the

surface into the parks of the Colorado Rockies, with
an altitude of eight thousand feet, and are there as

much acclimated as at two thousand in the Kansas
prairies.
such a barometric range can be borne semiwithout

annually
special modification by the organism,
how much more may not be accomplished by accom-
Now,
if
modation, given a sufficiency of time
Men who
first
98
pitiably gasp, learn to endure,

life
of elevation.
population
Plateaux
hotter than
peaks at a
like elevation,
who
Quito,
and
finally,
embrace, a
thousand
at ten
has a
feet,
live as easily as their relatives at sea-
level.
to the thinness of the
Owing
has been cus-
air, it
ternary to liken the conditions on
Mars
to those
upon
HIMALAYA.
âtitude.
From
Geikie's
"
29
i6 3
North Latitude,
Elementary Lessons
in Physical
Geography."
South Latitude.
(The Macmillan
Company.)
VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CLIMATE ON MOUNTAINS, SHOWING

LAND-MASSES RAISE THE TEMPERATURE
our highest mountain tops, where

sible to exist.
with
its
Now,
level
life
finds
it
But the analogy is misplaced.

surface, is more like some vast
HOW
impos-
Mars,
plateau.
that the temperature of a plateau exceeds that
THE SUN DOMINANT

of a peak
make
at the
same
height, table-lands
Humboldt
evident.
cited the
99
on the earth
Himalaya.
On
the north side of this great range, both snow-line and

timber-line are three thousand feet higher than on the
side, a climatic lift brought about by the
Tibetan table-lands on the north; and this in spite
of the contrary effect of slope exposure.
south
But we may get instances nearer home.
In scan-
ning Merriam's chart Lowell was struck by a
.After
fact
a plate in " North American Fauna, No. 3," U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Division of
Ornithology and Mammalogy, by Dr. Merriam.
DIAGRAMMATIC PROFILE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO AND O'LEARY PEAKS,

FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST
life zones and the effects of slope exposure, but
unnoticed by the monograph, the effect of a plateau upon
location of the Lowell Observatory is indicated by the star.
The diagram shows

also
life.
shows what
The
the several
is
by Merriam. Superposed upon the

more evident dip of the zones down from the south-
unmentioned
ioo
west to the northeast a divergence in this dip
may be
recognized, the dip increasing as the zones mount.

at once occurred to
him
that this
mass of land upon which each
must be due
rested.
It
to the
That, in short,
the isoflors rose relatively to the north because of the
SHOWING EFFECT OF PLATEAU ELEVATION ON TREE ZONES

LESS ELEVATION
To test this he made a

higher plateau base there.
of camping trips this last summer, 1907, on
series
and about the peaks, measuring, with an aneroid

checked by trigonometric survey, the heights at
which the several species of
data laying
down
the isoflors.
trees
grew and from
his
The outcome was more
THE SUN DOMINANT

when thus
striking
carefully
done than
in
Merriam's map, and quite conclusive
It
is
101
it
had been
as to cause.
here presented to the reader in a series of charts.
In these charts not only does the dip decline
less
the nearer the tree zone stands to the plateau, but in
SHOWING EFFECT OF PLATEAU ELEVATION ON TREE ZONES

GREATER ELEVATION
the nearest of
northern
all,
plateau
the pine zone, the influence of the

is
actually sufficient
to
counteract
the opposite effect of slope exposure and cause the

isoflor to rise
The
toward the north.
explanation of the matter
is
not far to seek.
102
-AS/"//' -
\^
DIAGRAMS OF
Each
keeps
bit
Two
CRATERS SHOWING GREATEST COLD N.N.W.
of plateau helps
for the effect
warm
its
neighbor, and so
had radiated away. So much

If even a limof but a small plateau.
a heat that else
THE SUN DOMINANT

ited
area of high
temperature,
were
to
it
ground can so
become world-wide
That we do not
ameliorate the
far
how much more would
103
be accomplished
find animal
and vegetable life at

is due to other
the tops of our highest mountains
cause than elevation namely, to the restricted nature

of the habitat upon the pointed needle of a peak, sep;
arated by impassable gulfs from other equally limited
The
areas.
animal has no range of forage and no
chance of commerce with
son for the absence of
Yet even so
its
This
kind.
its
life
upon
is
isolated
presence proves surprising.
one rea-
pinnacles.
On
the
very pinnacle of the San Francisco peaks, at 12,630 feet,

the tracks of a chipmunk showed clearly in the snow
on the occasion of its ascent upon October 15. Another

exterminating cause is the wind that of necessity always
draws over a peak at the slightest provocation. The
consequent drain upon an animai's own heat when
made under low temperatures
is fatal
to
life.
Man
can
endure 70 below zero F. if the air is still, but perishes

at 40 below under the least wind. Even a breeze, therefore,
is
equivalent to a
fall
of 30 F. in the temperature.
By both temperature and
appearance, then, water-
vapor proves a constituent of the Martian atmosphere.
Now,
the vapor of water
the constituents of our
by the laws of
gases,
is
a light gas, the lightest of
own
among
air,
the
and, in consequence,
most
difficult for
water-vapor
'-J^J'
io 4
planet to retain.
Its presence, therefore, in a planet's
gaseous envelope
is
volatile
less
These,
in
of the nature of a guarantee that

are also to be found there.
associates
an increasing order of weight, are nitrogen,
oxygen, and carbonic acid
So we may con-
gas.
clude that these are probably also to be found on
Mars.
But we
are far
from having
to rely
ence, well founded in principle as
upon such
for
it is,
infer-
our knowl-
edge of the existence of these important gases in the

Modern observation of a
atmosphere of the planet.
quite unrelated class of features puts their
there
ises
fact
upon
a secure footing
a planting
presence
on the prem-
of both feet instead of one by the logical body of
and
air to
that, too,
by reason of
a descent
the solid surface of the ground.
It
from the
is
the
now
recognized constitution of one of the two great classes
of markings that diversify the disk which has given us

the
The
necessary information.
blue-green
regions
have proved themselves the sibyls in the case.

In form first, in color subsequently, the blue-green
areas commended themselves as seas and oceans to the
mind of the
early areographers.
considered them.
was
the
Nor
Even
at that stage
characterization
at
all
Schiaparelli so
of acquaintance
far-fetched.
But
as
these seeming seas were better scanned, differences of

tint
became apparent
in
them.
This should have
THE SUN DOMINANT

shaken belief
in their character,
an idea when once
it
spoken of
as if
but so tenacious
has taken root
The
covery awoke no doubt.

as shallower in
some
105
that the dis-
oceans were
merely
places than in others,
thousands of square miles of water so few
deep that the bottom showed through did not of

need explanation.
Next,
these
feet
itself
very differences showed variation.

as Great Britain, and often very
Areas
as
much
larger,
weeks
in a perfectly
large
is
would lighten
in
the course of a few
unmistakable manner.
Indeed,
the greater part of the whole southern hemisphere of
the planet would thus doff one tone, and even

to
don another
at surprisingly short notice,
tint,
and
this
without anything approaching a correspondingly sizable
darkening elsewhere.
When we
set ourselves to consider the matter in the
light of what was seen, we perceive that such absence
of reciprocity is fatal to the theory of a liquid film.

For were the transformation some subtle shift of substance,
what one part
another must have gained.
lost,
Either transferred as water elsewhere or wafted away,

to be deposited as snow about the pole, the thing
should
still
be somewhere
in
the
planet's
aqueous
Yet neither of these counterbalancing
economy.
fects was perceptible.
As
water
it
the polar caps were not increased.
ef-
had vanished, and
io6
Left, thus, without
Vegetation
we
3.
are led to inquire
marine character to their name,

what these patches, which both
form and color ape water, can in reality be.

If the
great blue-green regions be observed at intervals of a
in
few weeks, and the aspects they successively present
be recorded
make
are periodic,
The
in
drawings, intercomparison suffices to
evident that the metamorphoses they experience
and the period that of the
they depend upon
the
relation, their fading
when
planet's year.
That
changes, then, are seasonal in cause.
the
sun
out
least
is
sun.
evidence in midsummer,
is
And
is,
proof of the
found to occur in winter,
in
operative, and
when
the sun
their
is
greatest
locally
most
potent.
Now, there is only one thing, so far as we know,

thus obedient to the sun and indicative of its subserviency by a change of hue from blue-green to ochre,
and that
tory.
is
The
vegetation.
first
Both colors
speaks of verdure
are
in its
self-accusa-
prime, the
second of the change of the leaf to the sear and yellow

stage, just as it takes place in our own foliage on the
approach of autumn's
is
run.
Not
frosts, indicating that its
otherwise
could we observe
it
course
from
space, should we mark our own familiar earth change

color when its season's work was done.
Vegetation thus vouched

air
becomes more
certain.
for,
the constitution of the
Besides water-vapor, oxy-
THE SUN DOMINANT
107
gen and carbonic acid gas must both be present, and

undoubtedly nitrogen, too, since
holds an intermediate
it
density
that the Martian air
is
in
the matter
position.
made up of our
friends in the matter of gas
is
To
of
find
old familiar
an important step to
acquaintance with what goes on upon that other world.

Though we are indebted for our knowledge of its
existence to the vegetation, which
air is not, it is in fact
to
it
Of
for being able to
is
visible while the
the vegetation that
show
at
is
indebted
all.
Mode
organic existence there the main, or natural, fea-
>
11
tures or the planets race could not be looked to for
more
Indeed, the surprising thing
disclosure.
they should have disclosed so much.
is
that
That the com-
ing and going of vegetation should be visible across

the thirty-five million miles of space to which at
its
gap separating us from Mars is reduced, is

As for a direct view of any
short of marvellous.
least the
little
animal
life
the planet might support,
this reveal itself.
be ware of
it
would be out
In a very different manner would
of the question.
Not through
its
body should we
but through manifestation of its mind.

By
changes in the surface of a planet
the
of his mind over matter
dominance
wrought by
would the other world-worker stand confessed. This
the
we
shall
it,
material
realize
if,
from the point we have gained
establishing the probable existence of such
life,
of
manifestation
in
we go
oflife>
io8
on
to consider
its
Such can be
probable character.
done by reviewing the experience of our own planet.

From what has taken place on earth, we see that
cooling and complexity of organism have advanced toLife originated here as soon as the tempera-
gether.
ture
below the boiling-point, and
fell
started in
it
water, the liquefying of which out of steam gave
once an essential factor of
ment of the most
An
upward
out
stepped
favorable to
at
upon
when
evolution occurred
in
the
While
land.
less
life
directly
more posof
organisms capable
turning them to
the land was fraught with
Brain was needed, and brain evolved.
account.
Brain, indeed,
nature.
it
substance and an environ-
easily satisfying kind.
step
life,
for
sibilities
its
The
now became
the
character of the
chief concern of
habitat
undoubtedly
brought this about through the prizes it offered the
clever, and the snuffing out to which it consigned the
crass.
For long the animal remained thus the

of
its
environment,
and space.
Doubtless
its
view restricted
came
Greater possibilities
in
creature
both time
in with
man.
was no very dignified entry, though

Brain now finally
than on all fours.
better
something
distanced brawn, and even in his savage state man
became
his
a being that others feared.
ing primus
inter pares,
he soon
From
thus stand-
developed into
first,
THE SUN DOMINANT

" with the
him
Fire and clothes raised
nowhere."
rest
some independence of
to
109
and slowly
his surroundings,
His breechhe began to take possession of the earth.

the
on by the race of
toga virilis, was
ing, the putting
both an incident of
for
made him
it
his rise
and part cause of it

But the
as well,
superior to climate.
of brain, however humble
in its
fertility
beginning, which sug-
gested the means of protecting the body, devised the
methods by which he was to subjugate the earth.

For some centuries now this has been his goal, un-
The
conscious or confessed.
true history of
man
has
consisted not in his squabbles with his kind, but in his
steady conquest of
He
has enslaved
terminating the
all
earth's animals except himself.
that he could
all
From
rest.
this
he
is
recent and
to great things.
session of
its
in ex-
own
is
yet in its infancy,
As
brain develops,
it
This
ends.
but
it is
destined
must take pos-
world.
Subjugation
alters the face
man
busy
he has gone on to
turn the very forces of nature to his

task
is
carries its
of
its
telltale
habitat to
has begun to leave his
its
in its
own
mark on
train
ends.
for
it
Already
globe in
So
deforestation, in canalization, in communication.
far his
plete.
towns and
his tillage are
But the time
is
more
survive
what he
partial
than com-
coming when the earth
bear his imprint, and his alone.

will
this his
What
pleases, will lapse,
will
he chooses,
and the land-
io
scape itself become the carved
object of his
handi-
work.
Equally applicable is this deduction to planets other

than the earth.
Instead of its being true, as a recent
writer remarked, that " we cannot expect to see any
works of inhabitants of Mars
signs of the
the opposite
ist," precisely
mal
it
attain to
dominance of
would not be
show,
it
is
seen.
the case.
if
such ex-
Until the ani-
his world, his presence
Too
would be only when
on
small in body himself to

his
doings had stamped
themselves there that his existence could with certainty

be known.
Then and
not
till
then would he stand
would not be by what he was, but

His mind would
what
he
had brought about.
through
reveal him by its works
the signs left upon the
disclosed.
It
world he had fashioned to
his will.
And
this is
what
mean by saying that through mind and mind alone

we on earth should first be cognizant of beings on
I
Mars.
CHAPTER
IV
MARS AND THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH

of Mars proves
STUDY
earthwise
in
addition
in
to
some
the
that
planet to occupy
sort the post of prophet.
side-lights
it
For,
throws upon our
COMPARATIVE SIZES OF THE EARTH AND MARS WITH THE POLAR CAPS
OF BOTH IN THEIR SPRINGTIME.
past,
it is
us to no
It enables
by way of foretelling our future.
mean extent to foresee what eventually will
overtake the earth in process of time
from a scrutiny of Mars coming events

shadows, but their
It
of
is
seer.
inasmuch as
cast not their
light, before.
the planet's size that

Its smaller
fits
it
bulk has caused
than our earth, and in consequence
thus for the role

it
it
to age quicker
has long since
iiz
passed through that stage of

the earth at present
its
planetary career which
experiencing, and has advanced
is
to a further one, to which in time the earth itself
must
be not overwhelmed beforehand by other

come,
In detail, of course, no two planets of
catastrophe.
if it
mass repeat each other's evolutionary
different initial
history
Mars has
its
lost
but
in a general
way they
severally follow
something of the same road.

It is in the matter of water that Mars stands forth
oceans.
as a prophet,
and
this in
two ways
as polar ice
and
as
oceanic expanses.
The
epoch,
first
of these has reference to our
a geologic
phenomenon
own
glacial
the strangeness and
seeming unaccountableness of which has grown as

scientists have contemplated it with more care.
That
vast areas of the earth's northern hemisphere, and of
the southern, too, were at times covered by a continu-
ous ice-sheet
grown
still
is a fact remarkable
enough in itself, but
more curious from the difficulty experi-
enced in assigning it adequate cause.

Cosmic cooling
of our planet will not explain it, certain as that cooling
is
for the refrigeration
well.
his idea was,

ice
was
partial,
Croll tried to account for
in the
virtually
it
not hold water
will
form
in
which he put
abandoned by
considerable truth.
it,
and recurrent
as
but ingenious as
in the shape of
it,
and
geologists, although
it
it
is
now
contains
MARS AND FUTURE OF EARTH

Now,
it is
not a
little
interesting that
113
Mars should
have something to say upon the subject

something
which throws light upon the phenomenon as a general
planetary process, and specifically
on our
It
earth.
because
is
upon its occurrence

Mars happens to present
which form the
precisely the astronomic conditions

basis of Croll's theory,
and
at the
same time shows
the exact opposite of the prescribed results, that
evidence
The
is
relative length
mined by the
the planet
moving
of a planet's seasons are deterthe planet pursues.
elliptic orbit
is
If the
summer of one hemisphere
axis be so tilted that
when
its
valuable.
occur
nearest to the sun and therefore also
summer
swiftest, that
will
be short and hot,
while the corresponding winter will be long and cold.
This hemisphere
have seasons of extremes
will
the
have long, cool summers and

reversely
The greater
short, warm winters or seasons of means.
other
will
the eccentricity of the orbit the greater the accentuation between the two hemispheres.
Glaciation
hoar-frost
would
or
snow
from a greater deposition of
result
in
winter
summer's sun could melt.

at the expense of
to bring
it
about.
than
the
succeeding
lengthening of winter
summer would seem,
Now,
orbit of the earth than

past,
is
therefore, able
a greater eccentricity in the
the case to-day existed in the
and would produce just
this
effect.
So Croll
ii 4
argued that
had done
it
so.
Mars moves now
theory,
in
Unfortunately for the

an orbit more eccentric
than that of the earth ever can have been, and the
nearest approach of the planet to the sun occurs, too,
not
far
from the summer
solstice
of
its
southern hemi-
sphere, yet that hemisphere which should
show
gla-
not only does not, but comes farther from
ciation
For while the northern cap

doing so than the other.
diminishes from 78
across to 6, the southern
from 96
dwindles
to
This shows that
nothing.
while for various reasons the longer winter results in

deposition, the shorter but hotter
a greater
of
its
hemisphere more than melts
Now,
if
we
away.
increase pro rata the precipitation over
the whole planet,
southern cap
it
summer
we
perceive that the extent of the
at its
greatest will still
more outdo the
northern one, and as the melting capacities of the two
summers
will
are approximately constant quantities, a time
come when
the remains of the southern cap will
14
surpass that of the other, and glaciation ensue.
Such passing by one cap of the other in the race

is bound to occur, whatever the eccen-
toward glaciation
be anything at all, provided the precipitation

On the other hand, not only no glacibe sufficient.
tricity, if
it
ation can result unless the precipitation exceed a certain
quantity, but in want of

in the
it
the ice-cap
is
actually less
hemisphere where we should expect
it,
that of
Whatever the cause of
extremes, than in the other.

increased snowfall, the effect
the
amount of
115
is
the same.
however
precipitation,
It
it
is,
then,
be brought
about, and not increase of eccentricity, essential as

eccentricity
which
is,
is
the determining cause of an
ice age.
To
perish
by wholesale
the inevitable
doom
of a planet.
abundance, secular cooling

about, and Mars shows us
that a planet
glaciation
will
is
not therefore
Unless water be
not necessarily bring
in
it
may wholly
escape such a termination

to
its
career
by having pre-
viously parted with sufficient moisture,
and actually
enjoy an anti-glacial state

in
its
old age.
The thought
leads us to
DARK AREAS OF
MARS, SHOWING THAT THE
LATTER ARE NOT SEAS.
LINES IN THE
the second matter in which

the present state of
foretells the future
Mars
From a drawing made
July n, 1907.
of the
Not
15
preclude the
only does unhampered age
possibility of a death by frost ; it tends to a death by
earth.
thirst
by deprivation of water.
reasoning upon
had seas
To
As we saw when
Mars apparently
the blue-green areas,
in the past,
though
it
possesses none to-day.
the student of the planet the question at once
ii6
arises,
how
this
acquired, since
There
not wholly regrettable deprivation was

was not congenital.
it
two ways in which a planet not only may,

but inevitably must, be robbed of its water supply
from without and from within.
It may lose its oceans
are
November
September
5, 1907,
i,
1907.
PARING ON THE TERMINATOR (RIGHT-HAND EDGE) OF MARS WHERE

DARK AREAS CROSS INDICATING THAT THEY LIE AT A LOWER LEVEL
THAN THE REST OF THE SURFACE, AND WERE ONCE SEAS.
;
by absorption into its interior and by a slow depletion

While a body is yet molten, the conti-
into space.
nuity of
as
it
its
substance bars entrance to aught else
cools and shrinks, fissures and crevices
and into these the surface water sooner or

its
As
way.
cause
it
is
but
in
it,
later finds
its
very wrinkles must
one drain upon its surface
planet ages,
to dry up.
seas that
open
This
sure to occur.
is
The
other
is
equally sched-
It depends upon the fact that gases

uled to happen.
are composed of particles called molecules travelling at
great
speeds.
Temperature
is
the
expression
of

this
117
energy, varying, indeed, as the product of the
square of the speed by the mass of the particle.
motion
it
Such
In their
that causes gases to expand.
is
journeyings the molecules collide, and thus give and

take velocity.
In consequence, some are moving
some
swiftly,
The
slowly.
in all directions,
and
molecules are flying about

long as they do not go too fast,
as
the planet about which they act as atmosphere continues to control
them by
its
which
is
This
gravity.
continue to do up to a speed called
its critical
it
can
velocity,
the velocity the planet can impart to a particle
falling freely to
it
from
For the planet
infinite space.
can annul just the speed it is able to cause and no

more.
But if, in their give and take of motion, a
molecule gets to going

it
will
escape
travels of
to the
its
into
and
constantly
going on,
planet of
the gases
left,
it
it
and
will
critical velocity,
on
start
These molecules
own.
body they have

all
than the
faster
space
as
will
interstellar
never return
such desertion
eventually
deplete
is
the
once possessed.
Now, from any liquid surface evaporation is perpetso that an ocean is being slowly
ually taking place
;
and
fall
silently lifted into the air.
again in the
Ordinarily
its
particles
shape of rain, but not those which by
collision gain sufficient speed.
These from
their tip-
toe vantage-point take final flight into

interplanetary
space.
The
smaller the body, the sooner
must
it
lose
u8
its seas,
to
its
for the less can
water-vapor.
parting with
by the
earth,
it
hold on by
Three
stages
lesser gravity
the inevitable
hydrosphere are exemplified to-day
its
On
Mars, and the moon.
the sea-bottoms
the earth
hold seas, on Mars they only
still
nourish vegetation, on the

ing
its
in
moon
they contain noth-
at all.
Parity of reasoning points
to
the road the earth
Sharpened by science, we actually perceive the progress along it that our world has already
must
follow.
made.
The
oceans of
Attention shows that loss of water has been going
on tnrou gh tne eons tnat have passed, and that the

process is taking place under our very eyes to-day.
Once
laid
earth's oceans
down, the
disappearing since.
The
have been slowly
reason they have not wholly
departed is partly because there was so much to go,

partly because its greater mass has helped the earth to
The
hold on to them the better.

the earth can restrain
Mars
Thus
way by
speed of departure
more than double
that for
per second instead of 3.1 miles.
6.9 miles
the
is
the skies
other hand, the greater
is
initial
On
less available.
heat of
its
the
interior has
kept the water from sinking in to a degree beyond
what
is
possible in a smaller globe.
thus lagged in
that.
its
losings,
but
it
The
has
earth has
lost,
for
all

Withdrawal of water should show
in a
119
diminution
of the surface of the planet covered by the sea. Observation proves this to be a fact.
With research we
may
assure ourselves that the depletion
From Dana's " Manual
of Geology."
is
in process.
(American Book Company.)]
AMERICA, SHOWING APPROXIMATELY THE AREAS OF DRY

LAND (INDICATED BY THE WHITE SPACES) AT THE CLOSE OF ARCHAEAN
TIME.
MAP OF NORTH
The
late
Professor
Dana of New Haven
constructed
maps of North America from the evidence afforded

by the geologic sedimentary strata, showing what of it
had been
terra
firma
in
the
successive
periods of
Gain of land
Europe,
120
geologic
time.
of his
comparison
charts
gives
most interesting and conclusive proof that the land

in
North America has been gaining
the sea from the time the sea
first
at the
But North America was not alone

territorial
quest of terrain.
As
Europe
surface of the sea.
natural
temporarily fluctuating, con-
North America, the land
in
What we commonly
and farther southward.
regard as
its
and encroached upon the ocean
started at the north,

farther
if
in
Europe exemplifies the
aggrandizement.
same generally steady,
expense of
was.*
was, in paleozoic times,
Only
Had
Scandinavia protruded.
under the
the north of Scotland and

the present great navies
of the world been in existence then, they would have

found ample scope for their operations, but would
have missed their present bases of supply, since they

sites of London, Paris, or
could have sailed over the

Berlin.
Wherever
tell
geologists have studied them, the strata
the same
tale.
The
land has spread, the ocean
shrunk from the time they
first
partitioned
out the
a general universal gain of the sort can
Now,
mean only one of two
surface.
things.
Either the oceans have
If crumplings of
been deepening or disappearing.
the crust have caused increased depression in the
ocean basins, they should have been equally busied in
*See " Mars and
its
Canals."
Macnrillan.

elevating the continental plateaux.
There
is
121
no
evi-
For
dence of any widespread raisings of the sort.
have
mountain-chains
been
pushed up, they
though
are effects of local crumpling, not of broad buckler-
From
embossment."
like
the very fact that they are
fractures, they relegate long,
We
are
left,
Only
to this
in
same
volume.
effect
keeps cropping up.
the other day the Chagos Archipelago, a
known
past.
then, with the alternative that the seas
have been slowly reduced
Testimony
low uplifts to the
Lowering of
thesea - level
little-
congeries of coral reefs south of the Maldives,
was studied by Mr. Stanley Gardiner, of the Sladen

Expedition, who concluded, from the appearance of
the atolls, which, like oases in the desert, dot the
waste of waters, that an alteration of level has been
universal
throughout the Indo-Pacific coral-reef refrom

From
latitude 30 N. to latitude 25 S.
gion,
the fact that it was so widespread, there being evidence of
many
he inferred
it
local
to be
upheavals throughout the zone,

to a withdrawal of water rather
due
than to a change of level in the ocean
amount required
from
floor.
The
to account for the appearance varied
five to thirty-five feet.
Thirty-five feet
may
at
sound small, but occurring over hundreds of

thousands of square miles, it means a good deal of
first
water
lost.
What
is
exhaling in the oceanic areas
may be gauged
inland
seas.
122
by what
is
and the Great
the
as
Salt
the smaller cut-off bodies
in
transpiring
of water, such
Caspian, the
Lake.
of Aral,
Sea
For the drainage basins of
these inland seas are not only comparable with, but

actually larger in proportion than, those of the oceans.
Consequently they are fed the better of the two.

Nevertheless, they are all with one consent evaporat-
Most of them
ing at a very perceptible rate.
below the level of the
sea,
which
in itself
the depletion undergone since they were
by the retreating
fishes,
and
to
its
abandoned
its
now
main body of water.
seals, persisting in the
character.
to be gone, in spite of the

it
For
at present receives.
shells,
testify
Seals, indeed, witness to

its
haste
huge fresh-water drainage

in the
great
Gulf, on the Caspian's eastern

is
behind
still,
greater prototype in
its
distancing
left
Marine
Caspian
are
speaks for
Kara Bugas
side, the evaporation
so rapid that while a current sets into
it
from
its
narrow opening, with no compensating outward one,

it
is
becoming so
The
there.
salt that
is
Caspian
as the remains,
some
seals
can no longer live
disappearing before our eyes,
distance from
its
edge, of what
Even so is it
once were ports mutely inform us.*
with the Great Salt Lake, the very rate of its subsidence being known and measured.
The
earth, then,
is
going the way of Mars.
* See Huntington, recent examination of the shores of the Caspian.
As
123
there now, so here in time will be ushered in a phase
of planetary evolution to which the earth as yet
present terraqueous, character of
must
it
of scene.
be like we must study Mars to know, since
will
Mars
presents us the picture of a world
reached
that
To
pass.
of us
all
this
For while we
not with space alone, but with time.

directly scan the planet for
we
thing to
what
has to say about
it
are indirectly reading a story

tell
own
of our
has
that
cannot but
one concerned
offer a certain exploratory incentive
itself,
Much
What
surface.
its
surely follow such a change
raqueousness.
the
to
the purely terrestrial, as opposed
stranger
is
which has some-
future career.
If
we can
succeed in separating in this the particular from the

generic, what is local to Mars from what is cosmic in
character,
we
shall
do on a broad
astrologers thought to
do on
what the early

narrow one, and inscale
stead of reading in the skies the fortunes of individuals,
decipher there the fate of the whole earth.
Something further of this sort we may indeed do,

and this by help of the same principle that led us to
the loss of seas.
The drying up which causes their
extinction
is
no
less
general deprivation
active
common
two kinds of surface must

effects, however, are
What
in
the
much
on the
to the
land.
Being a
whole planet, the
suffer synchronously.
less bearable
on
The
terra firma.
withdrawal of water lowers oceans
to
124
affluence, reduces tracts of vegetation to penury.
once
fertile fields
become
The
deserts.
Deserts already exist on the earth, and the name-
Deserts.
less
of
horror that attaches to the word in the thoughts
who have had
all
experience of them, or are gifted
with imagination to conceive,
is
greater than
in truth
we commonly suppose. For the cosmic circumstance

about them which is most terrible is not that deserts
are,
but that deserts have begun to be.
Not
as local,
evitable evils only are they to be pictured, but as the
general unescapable death-grip on our world.
mark
the beginning of the end.
What
and thence
depauperates the forests to grass-lands,

must in turn attack the sea-
to wastes,
bottoms when they

Last of the
salts
the
They
deserts are
First steps they are in the long retreat of
growing.
water.
For these
fertile
shall
spots
have parted with their seas.

the planet because of the
upon
the streams have for ages washed down, and of
remnant of moisture that would
still
drain into
them, eventually they must share the fortune of their

predecessors, and the planet roll a parched orb through
space.
The
picture
is
forbidding
but the
fact
seems
one to which we are constructively pledged and into

which we are in some sort already adventured.
Girdling the
earth
with
what
personification to liken to the
pent's coils, run
it
takes
but
little
life-extinguishing ser-
two desert-belts of country.
The

one
125
Tropic of Cancer,
northward
from
the
it;
other, the Tropic of
extending
Arizona is in the northern band, as are
Capricorn.
follows, roughly speaking, the
the Sahara, Arabia, and the deserts of central Asia.
Now,
these desert-belts are widening.
In the great
desert of northern Arizona the traveller, threading his

*
PETRIFIED FOREST OF ARIZONA.
way
across a sage-brush
and
cacti plain
shut in by ab-
rupt-sided shelves of land rising here and there
hundreds
of
fracture
strew
in extent.
minded
Trunks of
forest.
petrified
So
trees
in
all
stages of
ground over a space some miles

perfect are their forms, he is almost
the
to think the usual wasteful
been by and
some
higher, suddenly comes upon a
feet
left
littered confusion
wood-chopper has
the scattered products of his art in
upon the scene of his
exploit.
Only
their beautiful color conveys a sense of strangeness to
126
the eye, and leaning

that
are
they
Form
down and touching them, he
stone.
Chalcedony,
not
finds
carbon!
has outlived substance and kept the resemblance,
while the particles of the original matter have

spirited away.
Yet so
can hardly believe the
perfect
fact,
is
all
been
the presentment, one
and where one
fallen
giant
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE PETRIFIED FOREST OF ARIZONA.
spans a barren canon, one almost thinks to hear the
The
petrified
forest
of
Arizona.
sound of water rushing down the creek.

But it is some millions of years and more
catastrophe befell, and the torrent, uprooting
prone, with limbs outstretched in futile

the other side.
as
conifer
it
since this
it,
left it
grasp
upon
was, cousin only to such
grow to-day, and flourished probably in the Cretafor the land has not been under water here
ceous era
since the advent of Tertiary times.

Nowhere
near
it,
except for the rare cottonwoods
bank of the
along the
Little Colorado,
The land which once
to-day.
127
grows anything
supported these forests is
Yet nothing has changed

Dur-
incompetent to do so now.
there since, except the decreasing water-supply.
ing
Tertiary
been growing
and Quaternary time the rainfall has

and less. Proof of this is offered
less
by the great pine
oasis that caps the plateau
these petrified forests form a part, and

the San Francisco peaks.
The
is
of which
kernelled by
height above sea-level
of the spot where the chalcedony trunks are strewn is

about 4500 feet the lower present limit of the pine
;
is
6500 feet. Two thousand
upward the verdure-line has retreated since the
in its full
feet
development
former forests were.

for
upon
And
this is
no
local alteration,
the other side of the plateau petrified remains
of trees are similarly found.
The
line
of perpetual green has risen because in

the moisture is found most plentiful
desert regions
nearest to the clouds from which
ing earth.
it falls
upon
a parch-
Streams, instead of gathering volume as
they go, are largest near their source, and grow less
and
less
with each fresh mile of flow.
The brooks
descending from the Anti-Lebanon, in Syria, water

the gardens of Damascus, and, thence issuing upon
the plain, lose themselves just beyond the threshold of
its
gates.
So
in
the Arizona desert, though in a less
28
degree

and those who
on the mesas, not
know
live there
It is desert craft for Indians or

at their base.
it
cow-boys
To
but too well.

to seek water
ascend after
it
is
one of the footnotes of their trade.
The
Egypt and
evidence here brought before us of a secular
parching of the land
North America.
is
not wholly confined to western
Crossing to the other side
world, we come upon
like remains.
of the
the plateau
Upon
above the Nile, near Cairo, the traveller goes to see

It is prehistoric,
another petrified graveyard of trees.
for paleolithic and
contemporaneous with man
yet
implements have been found not far away,

in the morning of his race man lived and
that
showing
hunted in these forests, where neither hunter nor
neolithic
^.,.
hunted could
Upon
exist to-day.
the southern coast of the Mediterranean, at
the edges of the great Sahara, are to be seen to-day

the ruins of vast aqueducts stalking silently across the
Fallen into decay now, they attest something
plains.
more than the passing of the
force of those
them from the scene they once made

has crumbled again
to
arches alone remain to
nance
it
earth,
great.
who
and these sentinelling

tentacles of suste-
show what
formerly thrust out.
Still
architecturally im-
pressive, they span not space alone, but time.

testify to
to
something to be carried
which to carry
it.
built
Carthage
They
as well as to a city
This, now,
has
disappeared

as
completely as
its
drinkers.
At
129
the present day the
streams are incompetent to supply the aqueducts, the
very presence of which attests that in the past this was

The land has parched since times so recent
not so.
as to
be historic, recorded by the monuments of man.
Nor
are
we
left to
monuments
for sole light
upon
The
very fauna has changed. Animals

that once inhabited the land are unable to live there
the subject.
now because of
Thus they add
the increasing aridity of the habitat.

their testimony to that
of the mute
purveyors of water whose occupation is gone. The

surprising thing is that it should all have happened so
In a startling manner it brings before us the
speed with which the desert is gaining on the habitable
recently.
earth.
Palestine
tells
the
same
story.
The
land which
Palestine.
once flowed with milk and honey can hardly flow bad
water now.
Nor is this because the folk who made
its
greatness have since been scattered over the face of
Much
the earth.
is stilled,
goes to ruin when the master hand
but no rich country ever lapsed to desert for

was irrigation-made. Con-
this cause unless its fertility
clusive
and convincing
is
here the evidence that the
land itself has changed.
comparing the places where this desertism Subtropical

"
will be found that all occur in a band about
appears,
^'^j
the earth not far from either tropic, and extending
Upon
it
130
north or south from
it
according to the hemisphere
Now, when we
concerned.
turn to the tables of the
rainfall for different parallels,
we
find this localization
explained.
It is precisely in these belts that the
is
except, indeed, far north, where the steppes
least,
attest to like aridity.

is
average rainfall
thus an
affair
and from that
The
occurrence of the deserts
of the circulation of the atmosphere,
fact is lifted at
once into the region of
For atmospheric
general planetary evolution.
circula-
is a
necessary consequence of a body having an
atmosphere and being exposed to the action of the
sun.
The general effects of it are as follows The
tion
most continuously heated

air
above it rises and flows
the
beams,
equatorial region, being the
by the
solar
over at the top, necessarily poleward.

the tropics flows in to take
its
place.
The
air
about
Meanwhile the
lower portion of the equatorial emigrant, finding the

space below less
occupied, descends to earth in the
forties, causing the prevailing winds in those regions.
The upper
part proceeds
more
or less spirally
round
This general circulation is independent in

Areas
its main action of the character of the ground.
of sea and land modify the motions, but do not nega-
the pole.
tive the results.
Now, keeping
this circulation in the
mind's eye, we
note that, other things equal, those winds that descend
131
from colder regions to warmer ones must be dry.

For, on being heated, air becomes capable of taking
up more moisture than
and
before,
strained from depositing the water
form of
in the
with
it
is
such moisture as
it
this re-
already contains
it
snow or dew.
rain or
by
has or as
It thus
it
keeps
its
and
acquires,
instead of being a bountiful dropper of fatness
from
clouds, courses over the surface a scorching sirocco.
Such
is
the fundamental, uncomplicated process, and,
consequence, desert-belts are bound to form in time,

and just where we find those of the earth to-day, barin
ring
locally explained.
exceptions
For adventitious
bodies of water over which these winds pass

ply them with water which mountain-chains
may
may
suppre-
cipitate again on their windward side by the cooling of
the winds due to rising
up
these accidents of surface
their flanks.
Either of
thus modify the effect
may
without affecting the principle.
Turning now to Mars, we

infancy on earth, there in full
the desert-belts in
find
what
control.
existence, but the
but in
its
Not only
are
is
whole
surface,
except for the sea-bottoms, has gone the same way.

Five-eighths of
it all
is
from
sterility
Bare
itself, it is pitilessly
protected by
by
now an
held
up
any shield of shade.
That such
is
arid waste, unrelieved
surface moisture or covering of cloud.
the
to a brazen sun, un'
case with our neighbor certain
Planetary
^"êd
Man.
132
points
The
about
it
fiery color
indicate.
The
just the tint our
own
down on them from

thing
hue.
This
dashed with red.
deserts
show when one looks
The
mountain peak.
their unalterableness.
is
is
from which Mars was named turns out
in the telescope to be an ochre

is
of these
first
Except
for
next
seeming
ruddier at times, they change not, the seasons that so
transform the blue-green areas passing over them in

vain.
Thus both
look and deed they bespeak
in
themselves vast Saharas, these great ochre stretches of

the disk.
Their positioning
tells
the same
pared with what
it
should be for such
Absence of moisture should not
This we
story.
perceive on considering what their situation
is
as
com-
state.
alter the
general
and we should expect

to find, whatever the planet, the wet and dry zones
much what they are on the earth, if trace of them still
wind
circulation sketched above,
To
existed.
mark whether
the
map
of Mars we therefore turn to
In such envisagement, one

antedating circumstance must be allowed for the local
for an ocean, by
positioning of the oceanic basins
this
be
so.
reason of
its
original
dinal time-limit.
Its
supply, would
outlast
its
latitu-
marine constitution would defy
the law.
Now,
the oceans of
sphere of the planet.
Mars
This
lay in the southern
hemi-
qualifies the action in that

hemisphere, and makes the southern
one of verdure to-day.

proof of the general law
133
subtropic zone
is
This, therefore,
no
dis-
but an added argument

;
that these present blue-green areas were seas at some
former epoch.
Otherwise
with
it
is
it is
the
of the
surfaceography
northern hemisphere, since in the beginning that was
probably
fairly
from land-and-water distribution
free
of a sufficiently pronounced type to hinder the play of

the desert-making tendency.
Here, then, we should
look for confirmation of the principle that the subtropic
zone should be more
arid than the temperate
one, and here we find something which is suggestive.

The southern subtropic zone is destitute of blue-green
areas
that
Not
planet.
latter are
is,
areas
of vegetation
found
these are approximately

tude.
The Lucus
stretch
from latitude 29
be due to chance
the
hemisphere
the Propontis, and the
pontis from 37
from 35 to 56.
In the
it.
the larger blue-green regions in the
all
planet's northern
round the
all
so the temperate zone above
Wedge
upon the same
Niliacus,
to
48
Mare Acidalium,
N.
;
parallel
of
all
lati-
and the Mare Acidalium

to latitude
and the
55;
Wedge
That such consensus

is
And
of Casius.
the Pro-
of Casius
in situation can
certainly unlikely.
Here, then,
linger the last vestiges of vegetation of the northern
hemisphere.
134
The
opaline
As important
Martian deserts.
planet look,
the
is
present
great extent of the
Beautiful as the opaline tints of the
down
the far vista of the telescope-tube,
they represent a really terrible reality.

eye, the aspect of the disk
but to the mind's eye,

rose-ochre enchantment
is
lovely
the bodily
beyond compare
That
;
import is horrible.
but a mind mirage.
its
is
To
expanse of arid ground, world-wide in
its
A vast
extent,
girdling the planet completely in circumference,
stretching in places almost
from pole to pole,
those opaline glamours signify.
is
and
what
All deserts, seen from
something of this charm of tint.

Their bare rock gives them color, from yellow marl
a safe distance, have
through ruddy sandstone to blue slate. And color

shows across space for the massing due to great extent.
very color, unchanging in its hue, means the
extinction of life.
Pitilessly persistent, the opal here
But
this
bears out
To
is
let
its
attributed sinister intent.
one's thoughts dwell on these Martian Saharas
gradually to enter into the spirit of the spot, and so
comprehension of what the essence of Mars consists.

Without such background always omnipresent
in the picture, the lesser and more pregnant features fail
to gain
of effect in their true value for want of setting off. To

conceive of this great buckler of brazen sand and
rock, level as a polished shield, and stretching to the
far distance, to
stand sharp-cut there by the horizon

of a sky, unrelieved by so
of
its
mean.
Where
as
mountain-notching
what life on it must
days and months of travel would bring
one no nearer to
And
the mind.
much
to realize in part
is
blue,
135
edge, despair might well settle on
its
the sun in
its
from
daily course rises
out the stony waste only to set in
it
again.
Pitiless indeed, yet to this condition the earth itself HOW
must come,
if it last
stride, Saharas, as
we have
ing themselves of
its
less yet far off,
morrow's sun
but
it is
the
It
manner of our
only with the
fact,
now
The outcome
possess-
is
doubt-
as fatalistically sure as that to-
will rise, unless
anticipate the end.
steady, if stealthy,
seen, are even
surface.
is
some other catastrophe
perhaps not pleasing to learn
death.
But science
and Mars we have
to
concerned
is
thank
for its
presentment.
Before the
planet
a time
is
final
stage in the long
thus brought to
when
its
lingers for a little in the air.
life
left
of
its
still
hover up above.
withdrawal, a planet mustTose
From
its
is
Insufficient
to leave a surplus
quantity will
still
For the atmosphere
on the ground
of
or
even
lakes
and ponds, a
oceans,
shape
in
come
the surface,
the pathway the water takes to the sky.
amount
drama of
close, there will
the water, having
the
in
the
certain
mode
surface water
aqueous vapor from its air, so

that the absence of the one argues nothing against the
long before
it
loses the
the
fol ~
With
so long.
j^J^
136
Now
presence of the other.
there are physical reasons
connected with evaporation which
more water
in the air
would make
for
of Mars than of the earth, and
yet not permit of precipitation.
In Chapter III we marshalled the evidence we have

that water exists on the surface of Mars
in the polar
:
caps and practically nowhere else.
what proof there
see
The
air.
is
that
it still
We
have now to
exists in the
evidence on which this rests
is
Martian
twofold: the
EFFECT OF THE SPRING MIST AROUND THE NORTH POLAR CAP OF MARS
Drawn January
first
25, 1905
telescopic, in the aspect
as such,
(Martian date, June 23).
of the disk.
Water- vapor,
of course, we could not expect to
invisible constitutionally.
see, as
But when, suspended
it is
in the
condenses into drops or spicules, we might hope
air
it
foi
detection.
Such proves a
possibility occasionally
on Mars.
water
in
the
tian
present
Mar-
As
the
when an
atmos-
North polar cap
obliterating
This
melts, there
comes
indefinite pearly appearance fringes

its
persists for
a season
its
edge,
which before were sharp.

some weeks, off and on, and when at
contours,

last it clears,
the cap
That
extent.
cap there
it is
is
seen to be reduced to
mist caused by the melting of the
another instrument of astronomical re-
search the special field of which
To
invisible.
is
least
its
doubt.
is little
But there
is
137
see indirectly
is
the study of the
what cannot be seen
the province of the spectroscope.
The
consists of a prism or train of prisms
direct
spectroscope
which disperse
white light into a rainbow-tinted ribbon
known
as the
spectrum,
made up of rays of different wave-length from
violet at
one end to red
at the other.
Now
is
it
property of a gas, through which light passes, to absorb

certain of the rays peculiar to itself,
lines across the
spectrum
and so form dark
at those points.
Most of
the lines thus observed in the solar spectrum
from gases
in the
are certain others
come
photosphere of the sun, but there

which arise in our own atmospheric
envelope and are called
telluric lines in
consequence.
Such are the oxygen and water-vapor bands.
now
If
another planet, such as Mars, possessed either of these

in its atmosphere, the light reflected from it
should disclose the fact by deepening these bands.
Much was hoped from the spectroscope on this
gases
point.
Up
to
and beyond the time when the
written, of which this book
troscope had not proved
is
lectures
were
the outcome, the spec-
itself a sufficiently delicate in-
138
strument to give other than an uncertain answer on the

presence or absence of water-vapor on Mars. Huggins,
Vogel, Janssen, all thought to see evidence of it there
Campbell, with more accurate instruments, could find
;
Nor
none.
could any be obtained under
still
more
favorable conditions of air and instrument at Flagstaff.
The
reason for inconclusion, though unsuspected at the
time, lay in the position of the bands in the spectrum
These begin, indeed, in the

and light red, but are
produced by water-vapor.
yellow, are present in the orange
and darkest
broadest
red and
in
in the invisible
strongest bands were

for purposes
the
partially
visible
spectrum beyond
it.
deep
These
beyond the appliances of the day
of careful comparison, while the others
were not sufficiently salient to
make
delicate contrasts
M.
Slipher succeeded
unmistakable.
In the spring of 1908, Mr. V.
bathing plates to sensitiveness through

the red, and, exposing these plates in the camera of the
at Flagstaff in
spectroscope, photographed the spectrum first of Mars

and then of the moon at the same altitude to well
beyond the point where the great water-vapor band

"a"
He took in all eight such plates,

lies.
"
band showed stronger in
with the result that the " a
the spectrum of the planet than in that of the moon.
known
Now
as
in the case of the
atmosphere only that
we
moon
it
is
through our own
are looking; in the case of
Water-vapor
139
Mars, through our own plus that of Mars. Any difference between the two must be due to the Martian
air.
strengthening, then, in the expression of the
"a"
bands denoted water-vapor present in the atmosphere of Mars. 'Here we have the much-desired
spectroscopic proof, and with
so
much
uncertainty existed
scopists before.
To
it
the explanation of why
among eminent spectroMars it is chiefly
those versed in
of the nature of corroboration.
For
to the mind's eye
reasoning had already revealed that water-vapor must

be there, but now the bodily eye of any one may see.
The
thing
is
curiously paralleled by the
way
in
which
Clerk Maxwell's analysis showed the rings of Saturn

to be made of discrete particles before the spectroscope
in Keeler's ingenious hands stamped its evidence on a
photographic
plate.
That water-vapor
exists in the air
is
cause for
its
But to be precipitated and

deposition on the ground.
to stay so are two very different things.
The only
way
which so scant an amount could remain de-
in
posited in
moisture
fixed,
much
any part of the planet would be as frozen

about the pole.
For as snow it stays
evaporation
less fast
higher one.
persist while a
at
low temperature going
than from water under
its
so
appropriate
snow-field suitably situated might thus
pond would
speedily disappear.
The
polar snows would be the only place where moisture
4o
could descend to the surface to stay, being brought to

the polar regions by the planetary winds.
With
the distribution of the humidity,
regard to
what scant moisture the desert-born equatorial winds

might possess would be deposited northward as they
cooled, in part impermanently in the forties, in part
more permanently
air in winter,
at the poles.
being steadily
deposit moisture
down
The
return flow of
warmed, would not tend
the disk
nor in
summer
to
either,
any extent, although from the melting of the cap

such winds would then be more charged with vapor.
to
Unlike our own earth, therefore, moisture would proceed poleward, to remain there.
much
Not
only, therefore,
amount on Mars, but what
is
the water
is
there tends to be kept about the poles.
less in
available supply lies in the arctic
stationary on the
neying round to
In
once
The
only
antarctic regions,
else is in process
of jour-
again.
of temporizing, the water that

The wellsuch bespread Mars's face now is.
this
as
ground or
it
and
last
stage
nigh total disappearance of the one cap, and the entire

show how each summer melts
extinction of the other,
what the winter had deposited, and that

this is nearly the
each does so
sum
much
total
in
both cases
of the cap.
territory,
Covering as
one might suppose the
water not scanty, but comparable in quantity to the

earth's supply.
If
we
calculate
it,
however, we shall
141
At Point Barrow,
find this anything but the case.
in
N., where the temperature is below freezing from September i to June 15, 75 inches
of snow fall during the nine and a half months.
Alaska, in latitude 71
Ten
inches of
snow
are equal to
one inch of water.
This quantity, then, measures the amount of the

Earth's impermanent cap, and forms a basis for comdepth of the snow-cap melted on
seems, too, not an improbable value for
parison with
Mars.
It
the
what occurs there
for
though on the one hand
snowfall
likely that day by day the
is
greater at
Barrow than on Thyle, in Mars, at the same

on the other, the winter season is there twice
To
be lavish, we
may
100 inches of snow
fall
10 inches of water.
the
larger of
greatest,
the
as long.
estimate that the equivalent of
on Thyle.
That would mean
Now,
two,
covers
its
it
96
across
at
its
area equal to one-fifth of the
whole surface of the planet.
6,
latitude,
the southern cap of Mars,
which makes
the other cap, since
it is
Point
at the
To
this
we need not add
time stretches over only
a vanishing quantity in comparison.
On
earth,
oceans cover 72 per cent of the surface, and are, on
2100 fathoms deep. Calculation from

these data gives the amount of water on the earth as
the
average,
We said rightly, then,

189,000 times that on Mars.
water.
off
for
Mars
was
that
badly
In consequence of this state of things, the water-
42
supply of the planet
For
is
both scant in amount and teth-
up during the greater part

of the year at one pole or the other.
For a few weeks
only of each six months it stands unlocked, first in
ered at that.
it is
tied
the arctic, then in the antarctic, zone.

only,
may
Mars
is
this deposit,
meagre
as
indebted for the staff of
it is,
Then, and then

be drawn upon.
to a polar pittance
life
sparsely doled out, and that only at appointed times.

The
Study of the natural features of the planet leaves us,

a world-wide
its
present state
surface
of Mars a
waterless
world.
then, this picture of
desert where fertile spots are the exception, not the

rule,
So scanty
that over the greater part of
and where water everywhere
is this
organic essential,
support
scarce.
is
none to quicken vegetation or to
Only
here and there by nature are pos-
the surface there

life.
is
sible those processes
which make our earth the habit-
In our survey of
able, homelike place we know.
Mars, then, we behold the saddening picture of a
world
athirst,
where, as in our
own
Saharas, water
the one thing needful, and yet where by nature
not be got.
and that
But one
lies in
line
of salvation
is
its
high type
of hfe probable
it,
ice
about
poles.
The
we
to
open
is
can-
the periodic unlocking of the remnant
of water that each year gathers as snow and
it
evidence of observation
m ig nt
it is
much
thus bears out what
suspect from the planet's smaller

farther along in
its
size
that
planetary career than
is

This aging
our earth.
in its
its effect
life it
forth.
at
upon any
That life
may
the
age,
any
now
existent
condition must have
previously have brought
present
likely to be of a high order.

life
own
143
moment would be
For whatever
on Mars must be
its
actual
in the land
its
development, on the whole a much higher
one than the marine. But, more than this, it should
stage of
probably have gone much farther if it exist at all, for

in its evolving of terra firma, Mars has far outstripped
Mars's surface
the earth.
of
life
must be not only
is
now
all
land.
Its
forms
terrestrial as against aquatic,
but even as opposed to terraqueous ones.

They must
have reached not simply the stage of land-dwelling,
where the
possibilities are greater for those able to
em-
brace them, but that further point of pinching poverty
where brain
The
is
needed to survive
at all.
struggle for existence in their planet's decrepi-
tude and decay would tend to evolve intelligence to

cope with circumstances growing momentarily more
and more adverse.

that
the conditions
But, furthermore, the

prescribed would
solidarity
conduce to a
breadth of understanding sufficient to utilize it.

Intercommunication over the whole globe is made not only
possible,
but
obligatory.
This would lead to the
spreading over it of some dominant creature,

especially were this being of an advanced order of ineasier
tellect,
able to rise above
its
bodily limitations to
H4
of the
amelioration
What
mind.
conditions
absence
of
seas
would
absence of mountains would further.

stacles to distribution
removed,
exercise
through
life
thus
These two obthere
would tend
the quicker to reach a highly organized stage.
Martian conditions themselves make
Maraatthe"
present time,
dose
probabii-
Thus
for intelligence.
Our knowledge of it would likewise have

no d increased.
Not only could any beings
The
of
entail,
its
likeli-
there dis-
their presence only through their works, but

from the physical features the planet presents, we are
led to believe that such disclosure would be distinctly
more probable than in the case of the earth. Any

markings made by mind should there be more defimore uniform, and more widespread than those
More domiwith which we are familiar.
nite,
human ones
nant of
its
its
upon
domicile,
it
should so have impressed
itself
habitat as to impress us across intervening
space.
What
the character of such markings might be,
shall best conceive
we
by letting the pitiless forbiddingness
of the Martian surface take hold upon our thought.

Between the two polar husbandings of the only water
left,
stands the pathless desert
water semiannually set
free.
Only overhead does
moisture find natural passage to

the
other
organic
life,
pole.
pathless even to the
Untraversable
its
the
winter sojourn at
without
water
to
and uninhabitable, the Sahara cuts off
145
completely the planet's hemispheres from each other,

barring surface
commerce by sundering its supplies.

comes to us as we
the thirst of the desert
Thirst
realize the situation, parching
of a
off
thirst
our throat as we think
impossible of quenching except in the far-
and by nature unattainable polar snows.
Turning again
to
Mars with quickened
sense,
witness an astounding thing, the study of which in
mien,
its
moods, and
ters will take up.
its
we
its
meaning, the next two chap-
CHAPTER V
THE CANALS AND OASES OF MARS
AHIRTY
A
-I-
years ago what were taken for the conMars seemed, as one would expect
of
tinents
continents seen at such a distance to appear, virtually

featureless.
Schiapareiii
In
he canals.
gt jjj
877, however, a remarkable observer
more remarkable discovery

in
upon
narrow markings
since
long,
scanning
become famous
as
these
Schiapareiii,
the
for
in
continents,
in
made a
that
year
chanced
them which have
canals
of Mars.
Sur-
they seemed when first imperfectly made

prising
have
out, they
grown only more wonderful with
It is certainly no exaggeration to say that
study.
as
they are the most astounding objects to be viewed in
There
the heavens.
are celestial sights
more
dazzling,
more awe, but to the thoughtful

privileged to see them well there is
spectacles that inspire
observer
who
is
nothing in the sky so profoundly impressive as these

Fine lines and little gossamer filaments only, cobwebbing the face of the Martian disk,,
canals of Mars.
but threads to draw one's mind after them across the

millions of miles of intervening void.
Although
to the observer practised in their detec-
tion they are at certain times not only perfectly dis146

tinct,
but are not even
means
at
difficult
one
being by no
objects,
the limit of vision, as
is
147
often stated from
used to the subject, and

the
under
observing
average conditions of our troublesome air, they are not at first so easy to descry. Had
to
ignorance,
they been so very
not
facile,
they had not escaped detec-
tion so long, nor
needed Schiaparelli, the best observer

of his day, to discover them.
But in good air they
stand out at times with startling abruptness.
I say
this after
subject
having had twelve years' experience in the

almost entitling one to an opinion equal to
who have had none at all.

beside the mark it is to credit them
that of critics
How
to illusion
once be appreciated from the fact that experimay

ment shows the main ones to appear through the telescope of the same size as a telegraph wire seen with the
at
naked eye
But if the
at a distance
out of recognition.
With our air at
in these strange
It has
well.
their
due.
of a hundred and
fifty feet.
be not steady, they are blurred almost
air
its
best, the first thing to strike
phenomena
is
their
one
geometric look.
impressed every observer who has seen them

It would be hard to determine to which of
peculiar characteristics
Indeed,
bination
summation
it is
this
effect
for distinctive as each trait

is
was specially
probably attributable to their
multiplicitly telling.
is
com-
alone, their
That the
lines
run
148
quite straight from point to point
manner
that
on
is,
arcs of
or else curve in an equally determinate
great circles,
that they are of uniform width throughout
extreme and that they are of

tenuity
enormous length, are attributes each of which is geometrically startling and which, taken together, enhance
that
their
this in
That
Lines are
means
is
geometric
the
that
ratio.
are
lines
absolutely
on a sphere
of great circles
into one another.
is
shown by two
One
straight to the observer
of these
when
is
central
The
that they look
enough not
all
the drawings
hundreds
are plotted
opposition
not
lines
to
happen
between
other proof consists in their fitting
together to form a self-agreeing whole
of
which fay
facts
have foreshortening tell.

This could
unless they were the shortest possible
their termini.
which
straight
Mars' they follow arcs
like
on
In regard to their width,

mark to say that they had
in
when
the result
number
at
each
a globe.
it
would be nearest the
none at all. For they

have been found narrower and narrower as the conditions of scanning have
periments
at Flagstaff
it
improved.
By careful exbeen shown that the
has
smallest appear as they should were they but a mile

across.
due
The
reason so slender a filament
to its length,
number of
retinal
and
this
is
visible
is
probably because of the
cones that are struck.
Were
only
HYDE PARK AND PARK LANE, LONDON,

From a Free
1908
Balloon.
From Photographs
at 2200 feet
by
Profs.
Rotch and Lowell
HYDE PARK AND THE SERPENTINE

Showing
Artificial
Markings of Earth seen from Space.

one
affected, as
point,
it
would be the
149
case were the object a
16
certainly could not be detected.
So much
for the smallest canal
now
visible with
our
The larger are much more conspicupresent means.

ous.
These look not like gossamers, as the little
ones
do, but like
strong
pencil-lines.
Comparison
with the thread of the micrometer gives for the average

canal a breadth of about ten miles.
ever, are
they are
The
canals,
how-
by no means of a uniform width. Indeed,

of all sizes, from lines it would seem impos-
sible to miss to others
it
taxes attention to descry.
All the more surprising for their relative diversity

is
the remarkably uniform size of each throughout
course.
So
far as
it
is
possible to
make
out, there
its
is
no perceptible difference in width of a canal, when fully

Certainly
developed, from one end of it to the other.
it
takes a well-ruled line on paper to look
its
peer for
regularity and deportment.
True thus
to itself, each canal differs
from
its
neigh-
bor not only in width, but in extension. For the

canals are of very various length.
Some are not above
miles
while
others
stretch
250
long,
2500 miles from
to end.
Nor is this span by any means the limit.
The Eumenides-Orcus runs 3450 miles from where it
end
leaves the Phoenix
Charontis.
Lake
Enormous
to
where
it
enters the
Trivium
as these distances are for lines
which remain straight throughout, they become the
150
more
surprising
when we consider
of the
size
For Mars
planet on which they are found.
4220
the
miles through, while the earth
is
is
only
So that
7919.
SECTION OF THE CANAL EUMENIDES-ORCUS TERMINATING IN THE
JUNCTION TRIVIUM CHARONTIS
The
length of this canal is 3500 miles. The remainder of the canal

on the hemisphere shown on p. 156, where it starts from Phrenix
may be
seen
Lake (Lucus
Phoenicis).
a canal
to
right or
through
It
3450 miles
is
an
much
left,
arc
as
long, for
all
its
actually curves
in
of
if a
some
90
unswervingness
its
round
straight line joined
Denver, or Boston to Bering
Strait.
own
the
plane
planet.
London
to
151
should be remembered, however, that
the
It
not
actual,
the
consider.
But
this is surprising
sufficient
in
the
United
we
relative, length
as
is
the look of the
number and
their
When
to
to
really
more than
enough
Eumenides-Orcus to
the
span
individual canal,
nothing to the impression forced
tected
have
is
States.
Odd
by
it
still
upon
more by their
113
437 by those
since
added
is
articulation.
Schiaparelli finished his life-work, he
canals; this figure has
it
the observer
now been
had deincreased
As
at Flagstaff.
with
the discovery of the asteroids, the later found are as

a rule smaller and in consequence less evident than
But not always
the earlier.
it is
hunting,
field
of sky.
and, unlike
asteroid
not because of easy missing in the vast

The cause is intrinsic to the canal.
This great number of lines forms an articulate

Each stands jointed to the next (to the
whole.
in fact) in the most direct and simple
next,
many
manner
that
each
its
has
direction, the
of meeting at
own
result
peculiar
is
pattern,
as a
planet's
face.
By
planet
is
divided
length
and
its
But
as
special
of an elaborate and elegant
whole over the disk, veiling the

this means the surface of the
into a great
the areolas of Mars.
ends.
a sort of irregular regularity.
It resembles lace-tracery
woven
their
number of polygons,
152
Schiaparelli
when engaged
of the
the existence
detected
What
face for topographic purpose.
canals
of the planet's sur-
in a
triangulation
he found was
In his own words,

already made.
" looked to have been laid
down by rule
and compass." Indeed, no lines could be more prea triangulation
the thing
cisely
drawn, or more
meticulously
only do none of them break off
in
adjusted.
Not
mid-career,* to
vanish, as rivers in the desert, in the great void of
ochre ground, but they contrive always
rendezvous
to
gregarious
way
ning into
the junctions with
of a
on time.
train
age this precision
from
all
meetings are as definite
some
the
Nor do one
without
far points accurately
conceive.
at special
None of
the
space
large
No
is
man-
converge
their centres.
ochre
most
punctuality
or two only
direct as
filament of the mesh.
points, run-
exception
upon
and
in
The
possible to
areas
escapes
single secluded spot
upon them could be found, were one inclined to

desert isolation, distant more than three hundred
miles from
some
great thoroughfare.
For many years
in fact, throughout the period

of observation of the great Italian
the canals were
supposed to be confined to the bright or reddish
ochre regions of the disk.
None had been seen by
* Their
seeming occasionally to do so
or to certain latitudes being better
is
due to their mode of growth seasonally
shown than
others at the time.

him elsewhere, and none was divined
in
1892,
W. H.
Pickering, at
153
to exist.
But
Arequipa, saw
lines
the dark regions; and, in 1894, Douglass, at

Flag-
in
staff, definitely
canals
detected the presence of a system of

the
criss-crossing
blue-green similar to that

the
networking
work
Later
has shown
areas
to
Flagstaff
the
all
be
ochre.
at
dark
thus seamed
with lines, and lastly has
brought out with emphasis

the
these
that
pregnant fact
are
continued by
CANALS IN DARK REGIONS CONNECTING WITH THE POLAR CAP
others connecting with the
polar
its
Thus
snows.*
application, while
confines
generality
office,
of the
that
the system
polar
The
cap.
first
gives
the second vouchsafes a hint as to
For many years the pioneers

selves, decried as baseless
telescopically blind.
So
* Previous to
1907 the fact was
Flagstaff
it
opened up new conceptions of

in
this
another world had their revelations
1907 the
planet-wide in
is
ends by running up to the
it
observations
through the antarctic zone
its
origin.
discovery of
strictly to
them-
views and visions by the
easily are
known
disclosed
its
men
the dupes of
only for the northern hemisphere.
the
important
In
extension of the scheme
a striking confirmation of theory.
54
their

own
be made
prejudice.
But
at Flagstaff to
in
1901 attempts began to
make them
story to the world, writing
it
by
tell
own
their
self-registration
on
photographic
was
plate.
It
long
before
could
they
be
compelled tc
The
do so.
first
attempts
showed nothing;
the next,
two years
did
later,
better,
evoking faint
forms to the
initiate,
but
to
them alone; but

PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS OF THE LOWELL
OBSERVATORY
Devised by Mr. C. O. Lampland, and used in getting
crowned
the photographs of the canals of Mars.
long endeavor.
At
last
two years later

success
still,
the
these strange geometricisms
have stood successfully for their pictures. The photographic feat of making them keep still sufficiently
or, what with heavenly objects is as near as
long
man may come

the catching
to his practice with
of the air-waves
still
human
subjects,
long enough to

secure impression of
155
them upon a photographic plate

by Mr. Lampland. After
has been accomplished
great study, patience, and

this
skill
he has succeeded in
performance, of which
remarkable
wrote in wonder to the present writer

never have believed it possible."
for positioning
Regard
is
map
They
of the planet and connect
by
straight
we have
surprise, that
signifiall
join
of the surface to one another.
salient points
landmarks
should
one of the most
cant characteristics of the lines.
take a
Schiaparelli
"
:
lines,
we
shall
the
we
prominent
our
find, to
counterfeited the reality.
they are so regardant of topography
and so regardless of
most telltale insight
its
If
That
on the one hand,
on the other, gives a

it shows
their character
terrain
into
that they are of later origin than the
main markings
For they bear testimony to this without

what they are. Their characteristics and
themselves.
regard to
their attitudes, in
short, betray
that
subsequent
features the lines were superposed
But
this
is
not
all.
seas in function as in
to be such
upon them.
Since the seas probably were
name once upon

r
must have occurred
superposition
writ
some time
at
to the fashioning of the planet's general
for clearly the lines could not
only
furnished
with
pose
after they
on water, and yet be read to-day.
thus not
Canals super-
a time, the
mam
ceased
have been
We
are
datum about the
features.
156
origin
when
of the
it
canals, but with
took place.
The
date
date
marks
determining
a late era in
the planet's development, one subsequent to any the
HEMISPHERE SHOWING THE OASIS CALLED ASCRAEUS Lucus

From
this radiate
canals. Also in the upper right-hand space

continuation of the Eumenides-Orcus.
earth has yet reached.
This accounts
culty found in
understanding
have nothing like them here.
Oases.
Next
is
many
in
interest
to
the
for
them, for
canals
come
shown
the
the
diffi-
as
the
yet
we
oases.

Many
years after the detection of the canals, scrutiny
revealed another class of detail
Seen
surface of the disk.
W. H.
Pickering
been
recognized.
He
caught
We
dotted
spots
in
any number,
them
called
but
earlier,
enteen canals converge to
junctions
Some
not
well
In the case of
network.
canal
look and
less
than sev-
it.
It thus appears that the spots
in
by
now know 186 of them, and we
one of them, the Ascraeus Lucus, no
of the
the
first
lakes.
were
are very certain they are not lakes.
knots
over
1892, they lay at the meeting-
in
places of the canals.
had
the planet of
upon
This was the presence
an equally surprising order.

there of small, round, dark
few
157
make,
it
were, the
They emphasize
same time
at the
For just
importance in the system.
as
the
indicate their
no spot but
as
stands at a junction, so, reversely, few prominent junctions are without a spot,
seen, the
and the better the surface
more of these junctions prove
to
is
be provided
with them.
Their form
tion.
They
centred,
is
equally demonstrative of their func-
are
apparently self-contained and
being small,
made
out, round.
mere
reinforcements
ing,
for
crossings
It
dark, and, as
is
of
certain
the
do occur
that
canals
where
self-
near as can be
they are
due
to
not
cross-
none are seen,
while the lines themselves are perfectly visible, and
158
of the same strength
at the crossing as
before and
after.
We
The
now come
to
yet
more
surprising detail.
existence of the single canals had scarcely been
launched upon a world quite unprepared for their

reception, and duly distant in their welcome in consequence, before that world was asked to admit something
times
more astounding
some of these
still
canals
namely, that
appeared
at certain
mysteriously
paired, the second line being an exact replica of the
running by
first,
its
side the
whole of
its
course,
how-
ever long this might be, and keeping equidistant from
The two looked like the twin rails

throughout.
of a railway track.
(See map opposite page 217.)
To begin by giving an idea of the phenomenon, I
it
example, which happened also tobe one of the very first observed by me
that of the
The Phison is a canal that runs for 2250
great Phison.
will
select a typical
miles between two important points
upon the
planet's
surface, the Portus Sigaeus, halfway along the
Mare
Icarium, and the Pseboas Lucus, just off the Protonilus.
In
this
long journey
it
traverses
some
six
degrees of the southern hemisphere and about forty

degrees of the northern.
In 1894 the canal was first

line
not a line that
seen as a single, well-defined
admitted
strictly
of haziness
self-contained
or
doubt,
but which
was
as
and slenderly distinguished as
any other single canal on the planet.
month
more
or
after
thus
it
expressed
159
Martian
itself,
it
suddenly stood forth an equally self-confessed double,
two
months
Not
before.
character, direction, or
the
single line
difference in the
slightest
end served was to be detected
between the two constituents.
in
of some
the solitary line

parallel lines replacing
had shown before,
Just as certainly as a
double
line
now showed
stead.
its
Study of the doubles has been prosecuted for some

years now at Flagstaff, and its prosecution has gradu-
more and more of
ally revealed
The
out
first
is
their
peculiarities
thing this study of the subject has brought
that
duality,
bilateralism,
feature of the Martian
is
not a universal
Quite the contrary.

It cannot be said in any sense to be even a general
The great majority of the canals
attribute of them.
canals.
never show double at any time, being persistently and

perpetually single.
Out of
the 437 canals so far dis-
covered, only 51 have ever shown duplicity.

this
we perceive
that less than one-eighth of
From
all
the
canals visible affect the characteristic, nor are these 51
distinguished in any manner, by size or position, from
those
single.
of the other 386
They
are
that
remain
pertinaciously
neither larger nor smaller, longer
nor shorter, nor anything else which would
suffice
on
a superficial showing to distinguish their strange in-
160
herent potentiality from that of those which do not

possess the property.
Now,
this
fact
contradicts
directly
every
optical
If the doubles were prod-
theory of their formation.
ucts of any optical law, that
law should apply to
all
canals
alike, except so far as posi-
tion,
real
or relative
upon
the disk, might affect their

visibility.
Now,
the double
canals are not distinguished

in
SINGLE AND DOUBLE CANALS
In a drawing
made
July
any of these ways from
their
single
sisters.
They
15, 1905.
run equally at all sorts of

to
the
are presented equally at
and
meridian,
angles
of
all sorts
tilts to the observer ; and
yet the one kind
keeps to
its
singularity,
the
for
and the other
to
its
preference
paired
estate.
Width
differs
The
next point
that
the width
for different
is
y-
doubles.
of the gemination
the
that
the
r
or
distance,
is,
between
constituents
i
the
pair
not the Same
IS
for
A MASS
OF DOUBLE CANALS, ELYSIUM (SHE

THE HEMISPHERE, PAGE 150)
From a drawing made on June
i,
1903.

the doubles.
all
we have
at
Indeed,
one end of the
it
varies enormously.
list
the
little,
161
Thus,
narrow Djihoun,
the constituents of which are not separated by more
than two degrees

Nilokeras, with
That
one
is,
we have
case,
while at the other end stands the
members eleven degrees
its
apart.
a parallelism of seventy-five miles in
and one of four hundred
This
in another.
of any optical or illusory production

were their origin such, they would all
fact disposes again
of the
lines
for
be of the same width.

Position
is
the
next thing to be considered.
general investigation of
are
highly
structive.
this
shows some
results
whidi
in-
To
begin with, the

distribution of
the doubles
may
be
broadly
looked at from
two
points
of
that
of
view,
their
longitudi-
nal or latitudinal
From a drawing made in November,
upon the planet. Considering

if we cut the
planet in halves,
placing
first,
A MASS OF SINGLE CANALS ABOUT Lucus

PHOENICIS (SEE THE HEMISPHERE, PAGE 156)
1894.
the longitudinal
the one hemi-
sphere extending from longitude 20 to 200 and

the other from 200 to 20, more than two-thirds of
162
all
double canals turn out to
the
section
thirty-six
doubles
numbers being
the
the
in
other.
not
are
It
evenly
in
appears,
second
the
lie in
fifteen
one to
the
then, that
the
around
the
distributed
planet.
We
now
turn to their partition according to latitude,
and here we
are
tion affecting
made aware of a
them.
If
significant distribu-
we divide
the
surface into
zones of ten degrees each, starting from the equator
and travelling in either direction

count the double canals occurring
marked
number
falling off in their
and subtemperate zones, and

north.
tion of them at latitude 63
tropic
bers are as follows
the
after
we
pole,
complete cessa-
The
actual
S.
and 30
Between 30
Between 20
S.
and 20
S.
and 10
Between 10
S.
and
and IO
Between 10
N. and 20
Between 20
N. and 30
N. and 40
Between 30
Between 40
Between 50
Between 60
Between 63
N. and 50
N. and 60
N. and 63
N. and 90
20
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
N
leave the
and
we note
Between 90
Between
'
to
in each,
29
26
23
20
4
3
2
num-

As
may
a double
may
163
more than one zone,
pass through
it
be counted more than once, which explains the total
in the table,
Thus
though the doubles number but
fifty-one.
the doubles are tropical features of the planet,
not general
ones.
their reality, for
this
Decidedly
proclaims again
were they optical only, they could not
show such
a respect worthy
respect for the equator
of commendation from Sydney Smith.
Another of their
peculiarities consists in their
confined to the light regions.
being
For, with one possible
exception, no doubles have been detected in the dark

areas of the disk, whereas plenty of single canals have
been found there.
Yet
to the
dark areas they stand somehow beholden.
For the great majority of them debouch from what were

once thought
seas, to traverse the great deserts.
Of
the
51 doubles, no fewer than 28 are thus immediately con-
nected with the 'seas.'
But
this
is
not the end of the
For the remaining
canals, 23 in number,
dependence.
each connect with one or other of the doubles that per-
sonally connect with these dark regions.
In
all
but two
two
dependence
dark patch occurs in the line of the connection.
Thus, the double canals show a most curious sys-
cases the secondary
is
direct
in these
a smaller
tematic dependence
upon
southern hemisphere.
In
the great dark areas of the

this
they reproduce again the
general dependability of single canals
upon topographic
Area of zones,
64
but with more emphatic particularity, for they

prove that not only are prominent points for much
in their localization, but that different kinds of terrain
features
The
are curiously concerned.

terrain to another
is
relation of
one kind of
essential to their existence, since
they are virtually not found in the blue-green areas, and

yet are found in the light only in connection with the
blue-green. That the blue-green is vegetation and the
ochre desert leads one's thought to conjecture beyond.
To
now, to another mode of position, we
turn,
will
look into the direction in which these doubles run.
To
do
we
this,
Any
compass-points.
two ways
we
shall therefore
two points
N.N.E. and S.S.W., and
have but half the whole number of
to
compass-points
apart,
consider.
we
S.
have eight
shall
andN
S.E. and
N.N.W.
sets,
dividing
.....
W.N.W.
4
.
.-<
E.N.E. and
N.E.
direction
N.W
E.S.E. and
E. and
the
Taking
the canals into bunches, as follows
S.S.E. and
to the
one of them, of course, runs
for example,
as,
them according
shall segregate
W.S.W
andS.W
6
12
N.N.E. and S.S.W
8
5

At
165
one considering this table, no marked

preponderance for one direction over another manito
first,
the orientation.
fests itself in
Still,
a certain trend to
the east of north as opposed to the west of north
is
For 25 doubles run within 45 of northand southwest, to 1 2 only that do the same thing
discernible.
east
for northwest
and southeast.
Following up the hint
thus given us, we proceed to apportion the canals

into quadrantal points.
division
fact,
all
around the
The
result
is
Now,
circle.
first
a fairly equable
matter of
as a
by lumping the doubles of the two hemispheres
together,
we have almost
which
hidden
lies
obliterated a striking fact
in the table.
If,
instead of thus
com-
bining them, we separate those exclusively of the northern hemisphere from those of the southern one only,
and now note
in each
of these what proportion trend to
the west of south as against those that run to the east
of
it,
and
vice versa,
we come out with
significant re-
In the northern hemisphere, the proportion of
sults.
double canals to show a westward trend as opposed

In the southern hemisphere,
to an eastern is 17 to 4.
the easterly-trending
to
outnumber the westerly-trending
while for those whose course
by
to
both hemispheres we find for the
western to southeastern
How
ratio
common
of south-
8 to 7.
can this be explained
descending from
is
Consider a particle
the pole to the equator under the
?
166
push of a
momentum.
certain
As
it
comes upon
which
a surface
the particle (of
and lower
water, for example) reaches a lower
of the
faster eastward, because, since all parts
whether the earth or Mars, rotate

those
particles
where the girth
latitude,
and
travelling faster
is
in the
is
body,
same time,
greatest
have the
farthest distance to go.
In consequence of
stantly be going
at
upon which
the spot
less
the
south
would con-
particle
to
speed
found
it
itself
the east
than
adventured, and
would move
so relatively to that place
From
the
this
to the west.
pole to the equator, therefore,
course would always
show
its
a deviation southwesterly
from a due north and south direction.

In the southern hemisphere, on the other hand,
since the rotation of the planet is the same, its direction with regard to the pole
upon which the
face
to
sweeps
to
the
the
surface,
is
different, for the sur-
particle successively
east.
It
move
comes
still
would, therefore, relatively
to
the
northwest,
and
we
should have in this hemisphere a northwesterly trend
from the pole equatorward.

This is actually what we see
The
Mars.
west as
northern
while
in
proportion
against
in
of canals
those trending
to
the doubles of
trending
to
the
the
in
the
east
hemisphere is, as we have seen, 17 to 4

the southern hemisphere the proportion

trending to the east
is
to o.
ing both grounds a compromise
running according to the
As
for canals
167
occupy-
effected, the canals
is
hemisphere
which the
in
This is cergreater part of their course is situated.

tainly a very curious conclusion, and seems to justify
the name canals as typifying a conduit of some sort
which something flowed. 17
in
Passing strange as
study
yet
in
changes
is
their
Permanent the canals

prove
the mere look of the canals, The
them stranger
aspect depend on the time.
disclosed something about
has
in character.
are in place,
impermanent they
At one epoch they
will
be con-
spicuous objects, almost impossible to miss ; then, a

few months later, acuteness is taxed to discover them
Nor
when
the
will
show
when
first
affected
tion
is
whole story
Whole
invisible.
regions are
by such self-effacement or an equal ostenta-
while
neighboring
spicuous
enough,
not at the
the earth and
seen
out.
ones
are
simultaneously
reverse.
Curiously
come
this the
have become
given to the
best
some
others remain hid, and others will appear
at all.
its
the
time
most
are
canals
the planet
is
con-
nearest to
general features are in consequence
but as the planet goes away, the canals
The
fact
is
that
the
and the seasonal epoch conspire

the canal phenomena.
orbital
position
masking of
For the planet comes to its
to
canals
^^^
168
closest
ern
hibit
is
because
out,
is
it
date
lie
before
little
of
this
for
its
the
the
of
canal
ex-
where
the
hemi-
chiefly in the
from
it
south-
epoch
areas,
bright
away
tipped
because
secondly,
the
made
canals are easiest
then
solstice
For two reasons
an unpropitious
first,
sphere
earth
summer
orbit the
its
hemisphere.
nearness
the
to
approach
reaches in
earth
and
not the Martian season for
the canals to show.
Due
to
this
have been the
by man
at the
research -
wrong
From
would
Something of the
case.
many
acquaintance by
method
than
of appointment defeats the
felicity
same
in-
their
They look
time.
their
changes in
conspicuousness
that
patches
on the disk, were seasonal
discover
lay
otherwise
making of
observers to-day.
evident
To
of the two
and seasonableness, the canals
longer undetected
New
occurrence
inopportune
events, approach
the
canals,
the
like
large
in
it
was
blue-green
their habit.
with more particularity what their law
might be, an investigation to that end

was conceived and undertaken at the opposition of
of change
1903,
and
brought to
in
consequence
The
light.
determination from
of the varying
cally
singular
thing
was
research in question was the
complete drawings of the disk

of the several canals statisti-
visibility
considered
during a period of
many months.
169
For the making of the drawings extended over this

by a comparison of them one might note
time, and
how any
particular canal
had altered
in the interval.
Their great number enabled accidental errors to be

largely eliminated, and so assured a more trustworthy
result.
conditions
Systematic
as
our
own
and the
size
of the disk
such
to
make
affecting
the position
air,
visibility
of the marking,
were allowed
for,
the drawings strictly comparable.
so as
On
the
were for each canal TOO drawings in

which that canal either appeared or might have done
average, there
And
so.
109 canals were considered in all, there

10,900 separate determinations as basis for
resulted
as
the eventual conclusion.
The
which
now was to adopt some procedure by

mass of material might be made to yield
object
this
statistical
information,
quantitative
gested a way.
Owing
region would be
not
Here
results.
to
carried
observer in space once in
But owing
to
an
simply
the
qualitative
but
itself
sug-
planet
rotation of Mars any

and out of sight to an
24 hours and 40 minutes.
the
in
analogous rotation of the earth

is
not always in a position to
the observer himself

see.
Furthermore, the two rotations are
not quite
synchronous and are besides complicated by

motions of the two planets in their orbits.
result
is
the
The
that there takes place a slow falling behind
170
in the
longitudes of
earth at the
Mars presented
we should think
of
it
9.6'
to
of
If
nights.
we
minute each night,

be slowly rotating backward
could only see the planet for
at the rate
centrally to the
same hour on successive

a
own longitude
its
In
a day.
consequence any given marking can only be well

observed for about a fortnight consecutively, after
which it passes off the disk at the hours suitable
for observation, not to return again for a
month.
Its
times of showing are called presentations.
Now
in
the
subject
we
mark epochs
are
considering
these
weeks apart at which

presentations
the state of any marking may be examined in all
the drawings in which it might then appear, a percentage
of visibility
percentages
for
its
six
deduced
several
for
and then the
it
successive
presentations
compared.
method
may be got of quantitaof

value, capable
approaching something like
exactitude from being each the mean of many
By
this
results
tive
observations, and observations
no
specific
outcome
made with an eye
adapted in advance as the result showed.

It is pleasing to note that to no one
method commended
To
ness,
itself
more than
welcome new procedures

for
it
to
indeed, incapable of being so
is
to Schiaparelli.
the test
betokens breadth of view.
has the
of great-
Most men's
cut on a bias of early acquisition, and
is
knowledge
171
cannot be adapted to new habits of thought.

The percentages of visibility of the 109 canals at
each of their presentations having thus been obtained,
of them
a tabulation
showed what had been each
canal's history during the period
From
vation.
the
changing
reason
whether
it
had been
mere un-
the planet's disk, or whether for
upon
peculiar
was under obser-
perusal of the table could be learned
canal's career,
line
it
to
itself
interval.
To show
centages
were
this
plotted
it
had varied during the
the
upon
more
the
easily,
coordinate
per-
paper,
in
which the horizontal direction should represent the

time and the vertical the amount of the percentage.
Then
the
points
so
found
could
be joined
smooth curve, and the curve would

eye with the vicissitudes
quaint
the
career
from
would be
start
its
to
history
finish.
The
graphically
by a
instantly
ac-
of the canal's
curve,
in
represented,
fact,
and
furthermore, would furnish a sign-manual by which

it
might be specifically known. The curve could be
considered the canal's cartouche,
after the
of the ideographs of the Egyptian kings,

bolizing its achievements and distinguishing it
manner
symat
once
from others.
Since the height of the curve from the horizontal
base to which
it
stood referred denoted the degree of
172
visibility
of the canal
this height
at the
moment, any deviation in

showed that
along the course of the curve
the canal was then changing in conspicuousness from

If the height grew greater, the canal
intrinsic cause.
was on the increase
if
it
less,
was on the decline.
For precautions had already been taken

circumstance,
every
it
be
will
to eliminate
remembered, which
could affect the canal's appearance, except change in

the canal
Not
itself.
only increase or decrease in the canal
stood
thus manifestly confessed, but
forth
any change in
of such wax and wane also lay revealed.
In looking at them, one has only to remember that
the rate
the action proceeds from
left
to right
and
the
that
ups and downs of the curve show exactly what that

action was.
Only one
that
possible form out of
no action
horizontal
at
all
That
line.
them
was going on
cartouche
canal was a dead, inert, unchanging
the period during which
Now,
of
the
all
it
indicates
all
the
straight
that
its
phenomenon
for
signifies
was observed.
109 canals examined, only three
cartouches came out as horizontal straight lines, and
even these
telling
bit
it
is
possible to doubt.
This
is
most
To begin with, it is an
of the most subtly emphatic sort upon
of information.
obiter dictum
the reality of the
canals.
It
states that
the canals
AT THE TELESCOPE
Experiments
in Artificial Disks.
173
cannot be optical or illusory phenomena of any kind

whatsoever without in the least going out of its way
to
do
so, as
of law in the course of a more
point
indisputable
of
charging
particular
might lay down some quite
a judge
the
For an
jury.
illusion
could no more exhibit intrinsic change than a ghost

could eat dinner without endangering its constitution.
The mere
renders
in
As
them
it is
an illusion or optical product
incapable of spontaneous variation.
it
sequently,
line.
fact that
its
Con-
cartouche would be a horizontal straight
the cartouches are not such lines,
we have
instant disproof of optical or illusory effects
of every kind.
that
Now,
the cartouches
them
the action
in
decreases
more
Furthermore,
course
as
of their
at
is
are
curves shows
not uniform, but increases or
one
season
than
career, the
another.
at
the curves both rise and
consist of alternate
that
fall in
action they typify
wax and wane.
It
periodic, which leads us again to the
is,
fact
the
must
therefore,
that
it
is
seasonal.
Thus,
Ceraunius, we note
to take the canal
that
it
dwindled from the time
in
the Martian calendar,
It
then started to increase in conspicuousness intrin-
sically,
in
short
to
August, subsequently
it
till
grow,
to
was
first
observed, June 5
about the end of June.
until
which
the
it
early
again
part
of
declined,
174
vanishing after the
shows that
tion, its
Search for clew
first
Its
frost.
cartouche further
waning was a slow process of extincwax a relatively sudden one.

its
From the knowledge about the individual canal

which the cartouches thus afford, we advance to what
they prove capable of imparting by collective
dination
with
one
was necessary to
Days
before
-30
another.
select
To
it
some point of the cartouche

Days after
SÛSTT KÊ
coor-
compare them
jo
60
FROST
fo
izo
iy>

positioning a place
we
latitude,
and
a sphere are longitude
upon
to
led
are
175
latitude
try
more
the
as
promising of the two to furnish a clew.

To this end the canals were segregated according
to the
zone on the planet
which they
in
their separate values for consecutive times
into
mean
was done
cartouche
canal
for all the zones,
This
zone.
the
for
and
lay,
combined
and the mean cartouches
were then placed in a column descending according

to latitude.
The
result
column, there
of
occurrence
is
evident
from their dead

in
epochs
the
of
time
the
in
delay
minimum
the
down
Following
striking.
proportion
at
point
to
their
descend
the
successively
from
distance
in-
later
the
planet's polar cap.
before seeking
Now,
comprehensive
^parenthetically,
terms,
is
philosophic than
monument of
scientifically
hibited
just
to
to
put this symbolism into

to do which, I may add
as
leave
remarkable
law,
by the diagram deserves
It appears, if attention
the
mean
fore
the
and
scientific
which
another
to be
be directed to
more
than after
it.
it
were
fact ex-
brought out.
it,
canal cartouches, the gradient
minimum
far
the diagram as a cryptic
impious to interpret,
Quickening of
canals a(xord ~
.
ing to latitude.
we
as
This means that the canals started to
latitudes.
crease
was
that in
is
less
What we saw
all
beto
176
occur in the Ceraunius

law governing
the
this
thought.
betokens
curves
fall
slowly
sharply from them.

suggest itself on a moment's
will
means
It
The
and
to their lowest points,
What
the expression of a general
is
canals.
rise
the effects
that
of a
previous
motive force were slowly dying out in the first part

of the curves, and then a fresh impulse started
in to act.
The new impulse was more instant
and of greater strength in its action, and by piecing the two parts of the curve together, we conclude
that
it
was
both cases an impulse which
in
acted fairly quickly and of which the effects took a
The mean
longer time to die out.
cartouches, then,
of two quickenings and lead us to infer

that both were of the nature of forces speedily apus
assure
and then withdrawn.
plied
/
Quickening
To
interpret
now
canals
latitudinally
cern.
We
polar
cap.
the
down
saw that
it
Now, such
successive
the disk
started
at
an origin
is
growth of the
our next con-
the edges
in
place
of the
at
once
suggests an origin of causation as well, and furthermore precludes all other. For the origin of time
was
after
the
melting
of the
cap.
First
the
cap
melted, and then the canals began to appear. Those

nearest to the cap did so first, and then the others
in their order
stately
of distance
from
march down over the
it,
face
progressing in a
of the disk.

Thus we
177
reach the deduction that water liberated
from the polar cap and thence carried down the disk
in regular progression
quickening of the
the cause of the latitudinal
is
takes
place,
what we
On
canals.
certain
see
is
the water
itself.
the other hand, vegetation
of,
the
that
seems to negative the supposition that
would respond only
after a lapse of time necessary for
period
in
delay
amount of darkening
action, together with the
say,
it
to sprout,
and such tarrying would
two weeks,
account for the observed delay.

then,
Vegetation,
Not
canals.
formation
behavior
the
explains
consequent
upon
key
the
body of water, but the quickened
it
gives
from
the
rise,
its
bonds of
its
meaning
produces
winter
jsnow, begins
in
by
flow
this
and
spirit to
not
free
vegetation, which
starts
for the increased visibility of the
manner,
due delay, passes down the

resuscitations
Set
see.
unlocking of the
water, accumulated as
the
vegetal quickening,
following the water with equal step, but
attribute
which
the
solid state, the

to
Not
cartouches.
we
the result
storage
becomes responsible
canals. /
Waked
the
furnishes
transference,
of the
the
to
of
transference of water merely, but trans-
we mark through
without
only after
disk, giving rise to those
reason
to
the
telescope,
seasonal
and
change.
178
Change it is, and seasonal as well, yet it is not what

we know by the name in one important particular.
For
The
from
earth as
it
is
Mars which
a vernal quickening peculiar to
knows no counterpart on earth.

To realize this, we must try
If
others might see. us.
to see ourselves as
we could do away with the
cloud-envelope which must to a great extent shield

our earth's domestic matters from prying astronomers
upon other
orbs,
as, for example,
abode from
Venus, scan the face of our familiar
merge the
distance sufficient to
in the general
months
and selecting some coign of vantage,
aspect,
we should
most
interesting
notice a
formation spread over
It is
it.
the earth's awakening from
its
at intervals
local
of six
and beautiful transthe vernal flush of
winter's sleep that
we
should then perceive.

Starting from near the line
of the tropic, we should mark the surface turn
see
it
stood
within
the latitudes
up
the Arctic Circle and actually
bordered the perpetual snow.

should witness thus on the earth
We
we mark on Mars
there
timed
year.
to
the
to
wakening would
much what
at intervals twice as long, because
the
greater
But one striking

observer's
we should
the tint deepened,
also spread, creeping gradually
it
until
As
virescent.
slowly
eye
travel
length of the Martian
difference
:
on
from
earth
would be patent
the wave of
equator
to
pole
on
THE CANALS AND OASES OF 'MARS

Mars
journeys from
it
pole
to
equator.
179
So much
two would thus be
alike in their general detail, the
parted by the opposite sense of the action to a diversity which
at first
ness in cause.
To
would seem
to
like-
deny any
us the very meaning of .seasonal
change hinges on the return of the sun due to our

That the reverse could
change of aspect toward it.
by any reason be ascribed

appear
to the
same means might
at first impossible.
Not so when we consider it with care. Apart

from the all-important matter of the seed, two factors are
concerned
of either of which
in the vegetal process, the

is
equally
fatal to
absence
The
the result.
raw material, represented by oxygen, nitrogen, a few

and water, is one of these
the sun's rays
constitute the other.
Unless it be called by the sun,
salts,
vegetation never wakes.
have water,
the
But, furthermore, unless
remains deaf to
water
earth
The
it
except in
is,
sun, on the other hand,
After
its
call.
deserts, omnipresent.
is
not
always
there.
is
until
its
return in the spring.
otherwise circumstanced.
Dependent
like
us upon the periodic presence of the sun directly,

is
it
Now, on
departure south in the autumn, vegetation
must wait
Mars
the
further dependent
upon
it
the same source indirectly
Not having any surface water

such
from the annual unlocking of
as
comes
except
for
its
water-supply.
Melting
first
i8o
the snows of the
upon
this
polar
cap, vegetation
unlocking before
it
must wait
can begin to sprout.
SPROUTING TIMES OF VEGETATION ON THE EARTH
The
earth
is
represented upside down, in direct comparison with Mars as

it in the telescope.
From
a chart
The sun must have
we
see
made by Professor Lowell.
already gone north and melted
the polar snows before vegetation
starts,
and when

it
must do so
starts, it
arises,
and
disk.
Thus,
then
if
and
is
down
flood
the
to traverse
its
where the water
the frugal
follow
it
with vegetation in
at the pole
at the north,
181
surface
train, the showing
at
the
all
must begin
travel to the equator.
This, to us, inverse manner of vernal progression

is
precisely
what the cartouches
show
of visibility
Their curves
exhibit.
the verdure
that
wave
timed
is
not primarily to the simple return of the sun, but

to the subsequent advent of the water,
not the former up the
parallels,
but the
and
follows,
latter
down
the disk.
possible to
It is
gauge the speed of the latitudiand therefore of the
nal sprouting of the vegetation,
advent of the water down the canals, by the difference in time between the successive darkenings of
the
that
canals
from
of the
takes
it
latitude
0^2650
miles.
a day, or 2.1
several
the
water
72
N.
Thus
zones.
fifty-two
to
the
This means
days
equator,
a
speed
it
appears
to
descend
distance
of 51
miles
miles per hour.
So, from our study,
it
appears that a definite law
governs the wax and wane of these strange things.

Quickened by the water let loose on the melting of
the polar cap, they rise
to die
rapidly
to
prominence, to
some months, and then slowly proceed

Each in turn is thus affected, the
out again.
stay so for
Speed of
82
march of
stride
vivification stalking the latitudes with

steady
down
the surface of the disk.
Nothing stops
"
FT
SPROUTING TIMES OF VEGETATION ON MARS

From a
its
measured
course.
One
chart
made by
progress,
after the
reached and traversed,
or
Professor Lowell.
proves
deterrent
to
other each zone in order
till
even the equator
is
its
is
crossed,

and the advance invades the
183
of the other
territory
comes
its slower
steps
Following
But already, from the other cap, has started
an impulse of like character that sweeps reversely
in its
side.
afar,
wane.
back again, travelling northward as the first went

Twice each Martian year is the main body
of the planet traversed by these antistrophic waves
south.
of vegetal awakening, grandly oblivious to everything

Two seasons of growth it
but their own advance.
therefore has, one
coming from
its
arctic,
one from
antarctic, zone, its equator standing curiously be-
its
holden semestrally to
There
is
its
something
to
stirring
of movement,
solidarity
18
poles.
timed
in
thought in
cadence to
this
the
Silent as it is, the eye seems

passage of the year.
half to catch the measured tread of its advance as
the darkening of the canals sweeps on in progressive
unison of march.
tracts
For
That
no jot from the
all
it
means
moving
life,
not death, de-
quality of
its
effect.
purpose, the
its
rhythmic majesty
peaceful
of the action imposes a sense of power on the mind,
seeming
in
some
name
its
wholly Martian character.
in
better
way
to justify
the planet's
Called after
god of war, the globe is true to its character in

the orderly precision of its stately processional change.
the
CHAPTER
VI
PROOFS OF LIFE ON MARS
A STRONOMICAL
*-
^-
satellite to
is
is
of two kinds.
If
those already listed, obedience to the law of
gravitation, with
alone
discovery
consist simply in adding another asteroid or
it
subsequent corroboration
needed for
But
belief.
if it relate to
of place,
the detec-
tion of an underlying truth as yet unrecognized, then

it
only to be unearthed by reasoning on facts after
is
they are obtained, and
credence according to
effects
one's capacity for weighing evidence.
For
must match breadth of subject.

prescribed paths a far view
Discovery
of
truth
to plodders along
of appeal conservain quality from pioneers.
fails
a land differ
tive settlers in
Breadth of mind
in
the
heavens
varies
in
nothing, except the subject, from discovery of a crime
on
earth.
The
forcing of the secrets of the sky is,

of man's, simply a piece of detective
the finding of a cause in place of a cul-
like the forcing
work.
prit
It is
but the process
and causa
Like,
is
quite similar.
discriminis differ only
too,
are, or
by
Causa criminis
a syllable.
should be, the methods em184
185
In astronomy, as in criminal investigation,

ployed.
two kinds of testimony require to be secured. Circumstantial evidence must first be marshalled, and then
must be found.
a motive
irrelevant,
and
To
omit the purpose as
rest content with gathering the facts, is
really as inconclusive a
procedure in science as in law,

in
ends
rarely
convincing, any more than in
For motive is just as
properly convicting, anybody.
and
all-pervading
preliminary
cosmic as to
to
human
of fully comprehending it we call

the one a motive and the other a cause.
Unless we
events, only for lack
can succeed in assigning a sufficient reason for a given

set
of observed phenomena, we have, not greatly fur-
thered the ends of knowledge and have done no more

than the clerkage of science.
theory is just as
necessary to give a
a
as
backbone
affords the
working value to any body of facts
is
to higher animal locomotion.
It
them
for
data vertebrate support, fitting
the pursuit of what had otherwise eluded search.
"Coordination
attempt
And
at
is
the end of science, the aim of
learning what
coordination
is
universe
this
only another name for theory, as
the law of gravitation witnesses.
theory must
tradicted
fulfil
two conditions
by any
fact within its
assign an underlying
the
phenomena
all
may mean.
Now,
:
it
to be valid, a
must not be con-
purview, and
it
must
thread of reason to explain
observed.
Circumstantial
all
evidence
86
must
lead
first
and then
a suspect,
to
must prove equal to accounting for the

This method we shall pursue in the
this suspect
facts.
case before us
and
will conduce to understanding of the evidence
to keep its order of presentation to the detective in
it
presenting
it
'
ê
of reason.
at the bar
Starting with the
Review of the
known
physical laws applicable to
concentration of matter,
we found
that
though
in
general the course of evolution of the earth and Mars

was similar, the smaller mass of Mars should have
caused
it
to differ eventually
from the earth
important respects.
Three of these are
noteworthy: (i)
should be smoother than the earth's, (2)
relatively less, (3)
itself
we then saw
jplanet
/(i)
its air
were
The
On
scantier.
precisely those the
surface
planet's
its
some
surface
its
oceans
turning to
Mars
that these three attributes of the
telescope
was singularly
quite devoid of mountains; (2)
in
covered at most three-eighths of

three-quarters, as with us
(3)
flat,
being
its
oceans in the past
its
surface instead of
its
disclosed,
air
was relatively
thin.
We
Aspect of
are con-o
rates principles
of planetary
evolution.
next
showed
that physical
ij^ smaller mass, have caused
from
loss should,
to age quicker,
it
and
that this aging should reveal itself

-
plete departure or
what oceans
by the wider spread of
deserts.
it
by the more com.
once possessed and
187
Telescopic observation we then found asserted these

two peculiarities: (i) no oceans now exist on the
planet's surface
(2) desert occupies five-eighths
of
it.
From
such confirmation of the principles of planetfrom the present aspect of the planet
evolution
ary
Mars, we went on to consider the two most essential
prerequisites to habitability
Water we sought
first
water and warmth.
and we found
it
in the polar
The phenomena of the polar caps proved excaps.

plicable as consisting of water, and not as of anything
else.
Still
more important was the question of tem-
We
perature.
took
this
up with
particularity.
We
found several
factors to the problem not hitherto

reckoned with, and that when these were taken into
account the result came out entirely different from

what had previously been supposed. Instead of a
temperature prohibitive to
life,
research entirely suitable for

for animals than plants.
it.
one emerged from our

And this even more
For
a climate of extremes
was what that of Mars appeared to be, with the

summers warm. Now, investigations on earth have
shown
that
it is
the temperature of the hottest season
that determines the existence of animals, cold
more adversely
of the
ning
latter the
it,
affecting plants.
loo*k
we marked
which
Thus
much
to the presence
of the disk conformed.
effects
plained as vegetation.
Yet
Scan-
could only be ex-
the conditions on
Mars
88
showed themselves hospitable

life,
the
latter
actually revealing
seasonal changes of
Animal
Here we reached
life
......
disclosed only
at this point
fact: that
by
its
space
it
Canals con-
life
mind, would
it
economy
we brought up
but that animal
could
its
presence by
the end of what might directly be

.
vegetable
its
tint.
disclosed in the organic
mind
both great orders of
to
life
T-<
ror
before a most significant
could thus reveal
could not.
it
or the planet,
itself directly,
Not by
be known.
its
body, but
Across the gulf of
be recognized only by the imprint

face of Mars.
had made on the
Turning to the planet, we witnessed a surprising

There on the Martian disk were just such
thing.
markings
as intelligence
might have made.
Seen even
with the unthinking eye, they appear strange beyond

belief, but viewed thus, in the light of deduction, they
prophecy come true.

Confronting the observer are lines and spots that
but impress him the more, as his study goes on, with
seem positively
startling, like a
their non-natural look.
So uncommonly regular are
they, and on such a scale, as to raise suspicion whether

Next to
they can be by nature regularly produced.
one's own eyesight the best proof of this is the unsolicited
their
indorsement
it
has received in the scepticism
depiction invariably evokes.
Those who have
not been privileged to see them find
it
well-nigh im-
possible to believe that such things can be.
Nor
is
But however consonant
the least surprising.
this in
189
with nescience to doubt the existence of the lines on

this score, to
do so commits
it
to witness against itself
of the most damaging character the moment their existence is proved.

Now, assurance of actuality no longer
The
have not only been amply

but have actually been photographed,
needs defence.
lines
proved to exist,
and doubt has shifted
its
ground from existence to
tantamount to a complete surFor without equal investigation, to admit a
character, a half retreat
render.
discovery and deny

bill
and against
the
"
advice
When
its
description
appropriation.
of the
have
you
its
old
lawyer
no
case,
is
like voting for a
It
reminds one of
to a junior counsel
abuse
the
plaintiff's
attorney."
Unnatural
regularity,
the
observations
betrays itself in everything to do with

their surprising straightness, their
throughout,
mense
their
length.
exceeding
These
showed,
the lines
in
amazing uniformity
tenuity,
and
their
im-
traits, instead of disappearing,
the better the canals have been seen, as was confidently
prophesied, have only
With
come out with
greater insistence.
increased study not only the assurance gains that
they are as described, but a mass of detail has been
added about them impossible

natural
known
to
reconcile with any
process.
single instance of the
methodism
that confronts
9o
us
will serve to
make
The Lucus
this plain.
The marking
a case in point.
is
two round spots each about seventy-five

diameter.
miles
They
in
close
lie
more than
not
together,
fifty
Ismenius
so called consists of
miles of ochre ground
parting
Into
their
peripheries.
them
a
converge
number of canals
seven
doubles
Now,
meetings
LUCI ISMENII, REVEALING THE SYSTEMATIC METHOD IN WHICH THE
tailed.
just
1.
3.
Euphrates, double.
Hiddekel, double.
Protonilus, double.
Deuteronilus, double.
5.
Astaboras, double.
Djihoun, double.
Arnon, convergent double.

Aroeris.
9.
is
Pallacopas.
12.
Naarmalcha, double.
Naarsares.
central
singles, they
as
the
case
de-
of the
enclosing
them
be-
The
it
centrally.
Which
con-
nection
the
double
shall
adopt apparently depends

upon the angle at which
made.
is
the
if
curiously
TllTCC
Sados.
n. Phthuth.
10.
13.
to
these
four other doubles send a
8.
vertical
is
line to each oasis to enter
7.
the approach
singles.
tween their two arms.
4.
6.
five
manner of
doubles embrace the oases,
DOUBLE CANALS ENTER THE TWIN
2.
and
the
line
parallel,
If the direction
it
is
an embrace.
connect with one
may
be.
be nearly
of the two oases, the entrance
or
the
As
for
other
the
oasis,
Such precise and methodical
191
arrangement, thus marvellously articulated and dean orderliness so surprising, if on

tailed, discloses
nature's part, as to throw us at once into the
arms of
the alternative as the least astonishing of the two.
Before passing on
to reason
that
men-
the characters
them-
tioned
are
selves
enough
all
negative
rivers,
the
upon
we note
fact,
Not
to
sup-
positions of natural
the
cause.
First,
lines
cannot
rivers,
since
are
never
be
rivers
straight
and never uniform
Now, we
in width.
From
a drawing by Professor Lov
THE MOON, SHOWING THE STRAIGHT WALL

AND RlLL TO THE RIGHT OF BlRT, MAY,
1905
see
the
canals
so
well as to be quite
These are palpable cracks like those in a ceiling,

and quite unlike the uniform canal lines of
Mars.
certain of their evenness.
The
best proof of this
uniform, some are at least

If one of
though each is
ten times the size of others.
them dwindled
is
that,
en route,
ample measure of the fact.

Nor can the lines be cracks
we should have
in the surface, because Not
cracks also are not straight, and because cracks end
cracks.
192
We
before finishing.
appearance
her so-called
To
the
their
offers
such
in
many,
not
if
all,
of
rills.
most
view these suggest their

carefully examined at Flagstaff,
superficial
when
but
nature,
of undoubted
quite unlike the look of the lines of
is
The moon
Mars.
have examples
more than one heavenly body, and
cracks in
corroboration of the fact came out in certain definite
For the
characteristics.
rills
proved to be made of
parts which overlapped at their ends, one

line taking
fractional
the course before the other had given
up
out, thus exactly reproducing the composition of the
cracks in any plaster ceiling.
Mercury bears testimony to the same effect.

more difficult than the canals of Mars,
lines,
we
Its
for
Mercury four times as far off when best

we do Mars,
though roughly linear, are
see
placed as
not unnatural in appearance even at that

tance,
In
and show
the
irregularities suggestive
markings on Venus, too, there
great dis-
of cracks. *
is
nothing
unnatural.
Rivers and cracks are the two most plausible sup-
other natural
made
positions
sibie.
O f natural causation.
*
Lately, at least
on any theory
Other guesses have been in-
to account for the lines
"ovTiTos
two
critics
have
stated that
the descriptions of the spoke-like
markings seen on Venus at Flagstaff in 1897 and later, are inconsistent. The seeming
inconsistency is due to our own air, which sometimes defines them, sometimes not.
The
important point about them
is
that the Venusian lines are irregular.
P. L.
'93
94
dulged
such
in,
meteors
that
as
have raised
attraction
the
lines
as
their
by
passing
upon the
welts
by application of the
surface
welts
fact that
the lines change with the seasons, actually
easily allayed
at
disappearing
certain
epochs, to
revive
again
at
Such suggestions there are, but none have

been advanced to my knowledge that bear the most
others.
cursory inspection.
more
Still
inexplicable on any natural
hypothesis
is
the systematized arrangement of the lines to form
network over the whole planet. That the lines

go directly from certain points to certain
should
an absolutely unswerving direction

that
have
with
there
meet
lines
that
come
should
they
like directness from quite different points of deparothers in
ture
more than
that sometimes
ten of
them should
thus rendezvous, and rarely less than six

lastly,
true
this
all
state
and
that,
should
be
over the disk, are phenomena that no natural

can
process that
one
seems to have been able
in the least
Yet
explain.
of
conceive
physical
else
of intercommunication
this
and
either
to,
no
can
arrangement cannot
be due to chance, the probabilities against the lines

meeting one another in this orderly manner being
millions to one.
Oases equally
mexpiicabie.
But
we iave
j
the
canals
are
to
rec k on
}t
not
all
that
h the oases
as
is
wonderful
well.
These

are remarkable, both in themselves
system of
lation to the
and
in their re-
for they occur at the
only at the junctions, and
junctions
at the junctions.
ways
of knots
lines
virtually al-
are thus of the nature
They
No
the network.
to
195
be
can
explanation
given of this by purely physical laws.

So we might go on, with the enigma of the double
canals
more and more mysterious the more one
about them
their
learns
with
strange
posi-
tioning on the planet

in the tropical belts:
'
--
*"
with
the
'
"*x..*
>.
curious
*"SJ^
phenomenon of con-
.*
verging or
wedge-
shaped doubles descending
to
them from
the pole
join
and with other
facts
CORNER OF MARS> JUNE
I0>
90>J
equally odd.
But
long before the

had drawn to
catalogue
curiosities
its
wearisome to count them
all,
is
so
cogent, numbers do
apparent
to
close,
of
for
geometric
it
were
and where even one
not
add,
it
becomes
any one capable of weighing evidence
that these things which so

palpably imply artificiality
on
their face
cannot be natural products
at all,
but
196
observer apparently stands confronted with
that the
the workings of an intelligence

fore
to
appealing
akin
What
own.
his
and
to
there-
gazing on
not
the outtypifies
he
is
come of natural
forces of an
ele-
mental kind, but the

artificial
mind
ARETHUSA Lucus, APRIL 15, 1903, SHOWING
CONVERGING CANALS FROM THE NORTH
POLAR CAP
When
see
to
once
this
purposed and
to
defi-
adopted, we begin
of artificiality puts
is
recognition
we gather explanation
track where
it
directing
nite end.
standpoint
The
light.
us on a
product of a
as
we
proceed.
Thus two
Great-circle
character of
the canals
preted.
shortest
distance
therefore, the
to another.
intelligence
are
The
great-
sphere
circle
great
two
between
takes
It
points.
the
offers,
most expeditious route from one place

It
is,
then, that which,
Even
would adopt.
accidented
being
other
TI
of the lines stands instantly inter-
On
very
canals, the
oases > ^ n ^ explanation at once.

directness
circle
one of the
attributes,
r
earth, our
rectified
every
possible,
of our
of communication
lines
year
when
in the case
as
we
progress
in
mastery of our globe.
Equally suggestive
is
the
shape of the oases, or

button
that
spots,
show round.
Now,
property that the

to
points in
all
the
ing a like area.
gence, then, to
it
lines
solid
construct
other
tillage or any
from
centre
its
than for any figure enclosIt would be the part of intelliless
is
this
purpose
whenever the
figure
amount of ground was
greatest
they
has the peculiar
distance
average
For
together.
circle
at
be
to
the
reached for
least
expendi-
of force.
ture
No
less
telltale
only of the bare

manner in which
The extreme
their
is
fact
it
of
came
threads
behavior
artificiality,
to
and now not

but
of
the
be.
of the world-wide network
of canals stand connected with the dark-blue patches
CANALS FROM THE SOUTH POLAR

CAP, THE WHITE BONNET AT
THE TOP OF THE PICTURE,
JUNE
6,
1907
1907
Martian date, September
at
CANALS FROM THE SOUTH POLAR

CAP, SHOWN AT THE Top OF
THE PICTURE, OCTOBER 25,
Martian date, December
22.
18.
edge of one or the other of the polar caps.

In the winter
they are not always visible.
the
But
season
they
fail
to
show.
Not
till
the
cap
has
circularity
198
do they make
to melt,
begun
their appearance,
and
Now, the
they come out dark and strong.
cap in winter is formed of snow and ice that melts
as summer comes on.
Here, then, the attentive
then
seems
ear
From
to
their
darken down
the
catch
of running water.
note
poleward origin
the
disk.
One
the
up
the thread of visibility, to hand
in
place.
So
the
strange
lines
to
begin
after the other takes

it
on
to the next
communication
travels,
zone through the temperate

and the tropic ones on to the equator, and then befrom
carried
yond
it
flow
is
the arctic
over into the planet's other hemisphere.

here apparent, journeying with measured
progress over the surface of this globe.

the
ing
mental
down
ear detects the
Here, again,
sound of water percolat-
the latitudes.
Across what once were seas, but are seas no more,

the darkening of the lines advances, with
forthrightness
as
over the
ochre
same
the
continental
tracts.
Blue-green areas of vegetation and arid wastes alike

Latithreaded by the silent deepening of tint.
It
tude bars it not, nor character of country.
are
great-circles
caravans
the
old sea bottoms as cheerfully as
the desert steppes.
it
This persistency made
possible by the loss of what the seas once held, the
thought of water
sense,
its
absence
is
now
once
more
upon
the
as telling as its presence
was
thrust

One
before.
of
it
hears
it
in the
very
199
stillness the lack
promotes.
Then, as with quickened sense one listens, the

mind is aware of antiphonal response in the unlockto send its scanty hoardings
over
the long-parched land.
in similar rilling
The
note of water confronts us thus at every turn of
ing of the other cap
this
strange
action.
word of the enigma
Water,
must
then,
be
the
the clew that will lead us to
the unloosening of the riddle.
But though water

solution
unnatural
That
canals
of the
problem
character
wave
down
be, this
it
of the
disk
not the complete
one ponders, the

action dawns on one.
of progression
the
is
for, as
that
the
through
passes
then, pro-
something,
from the pole to the equator and that

something can be none other than water, giving
ceeds
vegetation, sounds simple and forthright.

is
not at
startling character of the action
to
apparent.
It
becomes
so
only
account for the locomotion.

it,
this
when
When we
the transference turns out to be a
ing and instructive thing.

To understand wherein
lies its
consider the shape of the planet.

flattened at the poles
begin with, will
by
make
-^gir
we
rise
The
once
try
to
so envisage
most astound-
peculiarity,
we must
For the planet
f ^ ts diameter.
is
This, to
the action seem even stranger
its
200
than
it
going
might seem at first as if the water in

equator had to run twenty-one miles
It
is.
the
to
uphill.
Mars' sur&ce
librium.
Mars did not
If
its
rotate,
would be a
figure
sphere, except for such tidal deformation as outside
bodies might give

into
it
pull
Mars
shape
its
rotates,
it,
because
its
similar
rotatory
own
in all
momentum
oblate
spheroid
The
of the
As
at
called
is
form
general
it
bulges
the equator, changing the sphere into what
an
would
gravity
directions.
of
an
of a rotating mass is affected

not only by the size of the body and by the speed
of rotation, but by the distribution of the matter
orange.
composing
ellipticity
Thus
it.
it
for
different
is
homo-
a heterogeneous one, and

according to the law of density from surface
Now it is an' interesting fact that the
centre.
geneous body than for

differs
to
oblateness of
dent
Mars
methods
quite
found by two indepenone

independently applied
j-g^y
from measurements of the planet made in 1894 at

Flagstaff by Mr. Douglass, reduced and discussed
by the director
satellites
the other from the motions of the
by Hermann
Struve
should
fall
between
would have, were it homogeneous, and

that which it would show did the density increase from
surface to centre in the same manner as on earth.
the
value
it
But we can
see
from theory that
it
should
lie
be-
201
two extremes. For the compression

not so great as with the earth because of
Mars' smaller mass. In this we find another proof,
tween
there
these
is
were any needed, that the evolution of both planets

was as sketched in our opening chapter.
rapidly
of putty will take on the same shape.

of Mars the stresses are so enormous
rotated mass
In
the
case
that for
long acting force,
the
cerned,
planet,
behaves
steel,
result
as
if
the
to
the
Now,
fact
probably
rigid as
mass were plastic. The
its
surface
for
is
at
every
always per-
point
or,
in
in stable equilibrium.
is
any particle of a liquid

a drop of water
would
that
example,
not
move, but would stay where
the
forces
resultant
is
that every point of the surface
equilibrium means
as,
con-
as
although
other words, the surface
there
as is here
that the direction of gravity
is
pendicular
in
such
it
balanced
being exactly
cannot solicit it to
stir.
was.
to
For
rest,
all
their
Just as on the
of the earth, water upon a level stretch of

ground shows no tendency to move.
surface
Consequently, any water set free near the pole

by the melting of the polar cap would stay where
it
was liberated without the least inclination to go
elsewhere.
The
slightest effect
had any.
only
upon
Were
it
force
which would
might be
its
own
have the
head,
if it
the melting ice or snow that gave
Gravity mca P ableof
ference.
202
birth to
less,
of
it
ten feet thick, and
would give
it
five
rise
Now,
feet.
head of
more
it is
five
likely to be
head of water
to an average
could not
feet
urge the water against surface friction more than a

So that any such impulse is
few miles at most.
we
quite impotent to the effects
Face to
we
then,
face,
see.
find ourselves with a
mo-
tion of great magnitude occurring without visible or

body of water travels
physically imaginable cause.
3300 miles
at the rate
miles a day under no
of 51
material compulsion whatever.
neighborhood of the pole, where it

was gravitationally at home, and wanders to the
It leaves the
where
equator,
gravitationally
it
was
not
wanted,
without the slightest prompting on the part of any

natural force.
The deduction is inevitable ; it must
have been
planet.
it
artificially
We
are left
conducted over the
no alternative but
intelligently carried to
Nor
is
the
this
formances shown
the canals
down
natural forces,
incredible.
its
by the
suppose
extraordinary per-
progressive
the disk.
of the
end.
of the
limit
face
to
Were
darkening
of
they actuated by
what they next do would be
simply
For, not content with descending to the
equator without
visible
means of propulsion, once
arrived there, they promptly proceed to cross
the planet's other hemisphere
it
and run up the
into
lati-
203
tudes with equal celerity on the other side.
Now,
any physical inducement given them to come equatorward must have its action reversed so soon as
that dividing-line
in
any way
was crossed.
If,
then, they
were
helped to the earlier part of their pere-
natural
by
would
be
they
grination
forces,
hindered
this
them
in
portion
of
by
latter
Thus, the
their career.
Only
rational
OUr
discussion
canals
is
result
of
of the
The
"
original" canal leaves from the tip
the
the "duplicate" from
of
higher up its coast.
^,,
that these
things are not

action, but are
dependent on natural forces
for their
productions designed to the

end they so beautifully serve. In the canals of the
artificial
we are looking at the work of local

now dominant on Mars. Such is what
planet
stantial
To
here
eral
evidence points to unmistakably.

detection
of a motive
is
life,
turn.
And
our
grows
scarce.
rivers cease to flow,
if it
we now
study of planetary evolution in genAs a planet ages, its surbecomes of service.

it
face water
its
intelligence
the circum-
its
Its
oceans in time dry up,
lakes evaporate.
Its fauna,
have any, dependent as they are upon water for

must more and more be pushed to it for that
prime necessity to existence.
MARS
204
As
so
THE ABODE OF LIFE
AS
the water leaves a planet, departing into space,
much of
as does not sink out
it
taking final
into
flight
the
economy
more ethereal
This
ever
it
earth again and
in
the
on
take
ice,
and
its
in
planet's
become
that
In one way and
The
general mete-
From
deposition takes
there
it
deposits
planet
throughout the winter months.

the arctic latitudes
its
before
air
any amount descend to

even transiently its liquid
in the polar caps.
is
orologic circulation of the
is
In
sky.
thing, water- vapor.
place only does
snow or
its
has ceased to be water, and
it
state.
of sight into
stands for a while a-tiptoe in
interior
cold of
the
the form of
consequence of this solid state

where it falls, remain-
largely tethered to the spot
ing in situ
until the returning
This
spring.
When
is
sun
the state of things
melts
it
in
the
on Mars.
unlocking occurs, and while the water

is in its intermediate
liquid state, between not easily
transportable ice and ungatherable vapor, it is in a
this
condition to be moved, and
Then, and
consumption.
for
available
use,
and
may be drawn upon
then
then,
if
only,
ever,
is
it
it
for
readily
must be
tapped.
Now,
in the struggle for existence, water
is
must be
advanced condition of the planet this

the only place where it is in storage and whence,
got, and
therefore,
in the
it
may
be had.
Round
the semestral release

of
this
planet's
naturally
store
garnered
organic economy must
other source of supply.
Its
205
the
in
everything
There
turn.
no
is
procuring depends upon
the intelligence of the organisms that stand in need
be of a high
of
mind to divert
enough order
of
it
If these
it.
to
their
ends,
necessity,
Here, then,
will
is
its
using, from
become
fact.
motive of the
most
compelling kind for the

tapping of the polar caps and the
DlFFEREN
leading of the water they contain
The
No
incentive
it
COuld
Gcalges
the
is
doubie
Z*J&SXl
over the surface of the planet:

the primal motive of self-preser-
stronger than
centre of the disk

will
be
I{
be noticed that the
right-hand line is stronger

than the left-hand one.
this.
Our motive found being of the most drastic kind,

remains now to examine whether it can be put
into execution.
As
a planet ages,
share in
it,
its
indeed, or perish.
environment
offers
scious way.
But, as
At
the creature of
make them
They must
first
they
a
opportunity, in
brain
perior to such occasioning.

is
it
any organisms upon
development.
its
with
change only as
lowly, uncon-
develops, they
rise
su-
Originally the organism
surroundings
subservient to
would
evolve
itself.
later
In
it
this
learns to
way
the
organisms
8
"J^* ^
206
organism avoids unfavorableness

or turns unpropitious fortune
in the
to
environment,
Man
use.
good
has acquired something of the art here on the earth,
and what with clothing himself

yoking natural
now where,
comfort
.forces in the second, lives in
would
of nature, he
in a state
and
in the first place,
inconti-
nently perish.
Such adaptation
adaptation in
in
body,
on any planet,
life
mind, making
bound
is
to
superior
survive at
to
if it is
it
to occur in the organic
For
all.
conditions are in the end sure to reach a pass where
something more potent than body
is
required to cope
with them.
One
species
supplants all
others.
It
,
is
,
to
possible
intelligence
environment.
all
For
others, as
What
certain signs
would be
intellect
would cause one
prevail over
whether
it
it
to
test
sucn n ê existed or not.
forthcoming were such
tell
apply
Increase of
there.
end
to
had prevailed over
its
species
the
in
found inconvenient or
would exterminate,
we have
necessary to enslave,
it
obliterated the bison
and domesticated the dog.
species
will
thus
become lord
spread completely over its face.

take would, in consequence, be
of the
Any
as
un-
This
planet
action
it
planet-wide
and
might
in
its
showing.
Now, such
is
precisely
spread system of canals.
what appears
That
it
in the
world-
joins the surface

from pole
and girdles
to pole
trays a single
it
207
the equator be-
at
Not only does
purpose there at work.
one species possess the planet but even
its
subdivi-
must labor harmoniously to a common aim.

Nations must have sunk their local patriotisms in a
sions
wider breadth of view and the planet be a unit to the

general good.
As
the being has conquered all others, so will it at TO

be threatened itself.
In the growing scarcity of
water will arise the premonitions of its doom.
To
last
yet be got will thus become the

endeavor, to which all other questions
secure what
may
forefront of
its
are secondary.
making
these beings are capable of
their presence noticeable
occupation
should
be
that
of
at
all,
their
great
water-getting,
and
most fundamental,
first,
existence an outsider would be privi-
should be the
because
of their
trace
if
Thus,
the
leged to catch.
The
planet's surface
dying of
thirst.
must be
is
rotary retardation, as
is
Failure
To
last
of
procure
conscious
effort.
its
it
came
to
upon
to
a
its
this
pass by
Mars, or by
the case with Mercury and
the case
Venus, the result would
cause.
life
that just antecedent
Whether
simple exhaustion, as
itself.
of
the expression
last stage in
be
all
with
one
water-supply
this
to
the planet
would
be
indispensable would be
the
its
die
of
2o8
End
With an
foreseen.
intelligent population this inevitable
would be long
Before
foreseen.
was
it
upon
end
the
denizens of the globe, preparations would have been

made to meet it. And this would be possible, for
the intelligence attained
respond.
in a
planet's
moment.
minence of
Long
would be of an order
does
water-supply
previous to any wholesale im-
must have begun
default, local necessity
the reaching out to distant supply.

large
cities
to-day go
to cor-
not depart
far to
Just as
all
our
tap a stream or a lake,
must have been on Mars.
Probably the bewere

small
and inconspicuous, as the water
ginnings
at first locally gave out.
From this it was a step
so
it
to greater distances, until necessity lured
them even
to
The
very process, one of addition, instead of one of total synchronous construction, seems
the pole.
to
show stereotyped
in
their fashioning rather with partial than with tele-
ologic intent, giving
much concern
as
points as to the goal itself,
now
done
The
arteries
to
ability
of
its
The
thing was not
artificial
beings
of sustenance, two
make comprehensible
halfway
although
and by that very
more conclusively
to
in their action
they are totally involved.

in a day,
These run
to us in the canals.
fact
stamps
the
origin.
there
to
construct
considerations
will
such
help
one of these minifies
the
In the
first
work, the other magnifies the workers.

it
place,
is
water
itself,
sible.
It
we
not what
constructed.
is
see that
would have
209
to be
The
object of endeavor is not only the

but the products that water makes pos-
vegetation which
is
matter of
imme-
being of mediate employment.

what would probably show. Just as
diate concern, water
This, then,
is
NORTHEAST CORNER OF AERIA, JULY
on the
earth
desert,
and not the Nile
its
it
is
presence evident
the irrigated
strip
of reclaimed
which would make
across interplanetary space.
these lines are irrigated

tebral canal
itself,
2-5, 1907
would be
If
bands of planting, the ver-
mere
invisible thread in the
gave growth. This alone

would have to be made, and indeed it would probably be covered to prevent evaporation.
midst of that to which
it
210
Now, we have
evidence that the canals are
When
composed of nerve and body.

they do not entirely vanish.
Under
ditions of Flagstaff they
still
may
they
lie
thus
down,
the visual con-
be made out in
dead season, the mere skeletons of themselves
their
as they later
fill
And
out.
tually see the nerve
even so we do not ac-
itself.
For the construction of these residuary filaments

a plethora of capabilities to draw upon
in
the first place, beings on a small planet could be
we have
both bigger and more effective than on a larger one,

because of the lesser gravity on the smaller body.
An
elephant on Mars could jump like a gazelle.

In the second place, age means intelligence, enabling
them
to
yoke nature
electricity.
times
Mars
the
as
is
light.
For
only about 38
surface
we are yoking
would be seven
to their task, as
Finally, the task
itself
gravity
on
the
surface
cent of what
per
of the earth; and
the
it
is
of
on
work which can
be done against a force like gravity with the same

expenditure of energy is inversely as the square of
that force.
ditch, then, seven times the length
of one on earth could be dug as easily on Mars.

With this motive of self-preservation for clew, and
with a race equal to the emergency, we should exBoth polar
pect to note certain general phenomena.
caps would be pressed into service in order to utilize
211
the whole available supply and also to accommodate
We
most easily the inhabitants of each hemisphere.

should thus expect to find a system of conduits of
some
at its
sort world-wide in
its
distribution
and running
northern and southern ends to termini in the
This
caps.
is
precisely
what the telescope
These means of communication should
reveals.
be, if possible,
both for economy of space and of time, it

especially necessary to avoid any wasteful
straight,
being
evaporation on the road.
Construction of such would
needs be very difficult, if not impracticable, on earth,

owing to the often mountainous character of its surface.
But on Mars
seen, there
Thus
the
quence,
obstacle
great
the
this is
As we have
not the case.
fortunately no mountains on Mars.
are
great
to
obstacle
providentially removed.
canals, and, in
to
their
conse-
acceptance,
is
Terrain offers the least of
objections, terror the greatest of spurs, to their construction.
Thus we
not only should
see that
be possible, but that
phenomena we
It
would be
it
the execution
should exhibit precisely the
see.
interesting, doubtless, to
learn
how
are bodied these inhabitants that analysis reaches out
to touch.
to
But body
know of them.
their works,
we may
is
Of
the last thing

their
learn
mind
as
much more
we
are likely
embodied
and, after
in
all,
Further
pher
212
not that the more pregnant knowledge of the two ?

Something of this we have surveyed together. But
is
beyond
many
the
of assured deduction
facts awaiting their
tion which
mention
to
lime-light
we have not touched upon.

some of them under due
the
they constitute
stand
turn to synthetic coordinaIt
is
proper
reserve, for
bricks which, with others yet to
THE CARETS OF MARS

"
Carets at the borders of the seas "; showing those of Icarii Luci and their resemblance, in miniature, to the two forks of the Sabaeus Sinus. These carets are
distinctive
phenomena, marking the entrance of the canals from the dark

They are found at such points, and at such points only.
regions into the light.
come,
will
some day be
built
up
into
housing
whole.
Not
least
of these are those strange caret-shaped
dark spots at the points where the canals leave the

dark regions to adventure themselves into the light.
No
canal thus circumstanced in position
without them, and, unlike
show round.
On
the
is
apparently
oases, they
do
not
the theory of canalization they are
We
certainly well placed.
have seen that the blue-
green regions and the ochre ones
than the
lie
undoubtedly
much
former standing
at different levels, the
213
lower
latter.
Here, then, should occur
difficulties in canalization
Are
which would have to be overcome.
these, then,
the evidence of their
They
surmounting
certainly suggest the
'*
-^L^
*"T*" "*%
fact.
Then the oases

themselves
thoughts
our
lure
L
MouTHS OF EUPHRATES AND PHISON
Im-
afield.
The drawing shows
the way in which each

branch of the two double canals enters the
desert from a common point of departure
portant Centres tO the
canal system they are
on
their
bear
face.
But,
relation
like
That they
dilate
vegetation
as
to
centres to that, they should
what fashioned the
spirit
canals.
and dwindle seasonally points to

chief constituent, whence their
their
But behind, and informing
name.
bodied
if
of the whole.
We
this,
must be the
are certainly justi-
regarding them as the apple of the eye of

what corresponds with us to centres
Martian life
fied
in
of population.
An
phenomenon about the oases makes

more probable. Observation discloses that
interesting
this the
the oases are given to change both of size and tone.
2i4
They
fade at certain seasons, retaining
tively diminutive
dark kernel.
of two parts, pulp and core.

cates vegetation, since
canals
the core
it
follows the
be
well
may
and
living
the
means
same laws
as the
the evidence of the
permanent population. That the

75 miles across, seems to give
for
only a rela-
They are thus formed

The pulp itself indi-
to
are
largest
sufficient
If
live.
some
space
our
cities
had to be their own sources of supply, they might

As it is, Tokio is ten miles by
well be of this size.
ten,
and London yet
larger.
But we must
in
this
be careful to part surmise from deduction.

In our exposition of what we have gleaned about
Mars, we have been careful to indulge in no speculation.
The
edge
of
laws of physics and
geology
and
the present knowlaffected
biology,
by
what
astronomy has to say of the former subject, have

conducted us, starting from the observations, to the
recognition of other intelligent
fully considered
case,
the
We
life.
circumstantial
and we have found that
it
points
gence acting on that other globe, and
We
with
anything else.
motive and have lighted
explains
the
evidence
have,
on
have care-
evidence in
is
then,
the
to intelli-
incompatible
searched
for
one which thoroughly
that observation
are justified, therefore, in believing that
earthed the cause and our conclusion
is
offers.
We
we have unthis
that
we

have
these strange
in
features,
reveals to us, witness that
life,
which
and
the
215
telescope
of no mean
life
order, at present inhabits the planet.
Part and parcel of this information

intelligence involved in
Peculiarly impressive
other
world
known by
should
is
beings
the order of
is
thus
the thought that
thus
exercise
its
the
have made
life
its
That
of mind.
disclosed.
on an-
presence
intelligence
should thus mutely communicate its existence to us

across the far stretches of space, itself remaining hid,
appeals to
in
man
for
in
that
all
is
highest and
More
himself.
most far-reaching
satisfactory than strange this;
no other way could the
habitation
of the
It simply shows again

planet have been revealed.
Men live after they are
the supremacy of mind.
dead by what they have written while they were alive,

and the inhabitants of a planet tell of themselves
across space as
do individuals athwart time, by the

their mind.
same imprinting of
Thus, not only do the observations we have

scanned lead us to the conclusion that Mars at this
moment
is
inhabited, but they land us at the further
one that these denizens are of an order whose

quaintance
was
ever shall
come
instant
way
is
worth
the
making.
to converse with
a
question
upon
present has no data to decide.
them
Whether
in
which
More
ac-
we
any more
science
at
important to
Our
life
not
216
us
the fact
is
that
they
exist,
made
more
the
all
by their precedence of us in the path of

Their presence certainly ousts us from
interesting
evolution.
any unique or self-centred position

tem, but so with the world did
in the solar sys-
the
Copernican
Ptolemaic, and the world survived this

system
So may man. To all who have
deposing change.
the
a cosmoplanetary breadth of view
cannot
it
be
but
contemplate extra-mundane life and to

pregnant
realize that we have warrant for believing that such
to
now
life
A
it
inhabits the planet Mars.
sadder interest attaches to such existence

cosmically speaking, soon
is,
our eventual descendants

be something to
lapsed beyond
us
it
it
has
takes
not
brought
it
life
scan and
to
pass away.
on Mars
interpret.
will
It
the hope of study or recall.
that
To
no longer
will have
Thus
to
on an added glamour from the fact that

For the process that
long to last.
to its present pass must go on to the
spark of Martian life goes
of the planet is certain to
bitter end, until the last
out.
The
drying up
proceed until its surface can support no
Slowly but surely time will snuff it out.
last
ember
is
all.
the
thus extinguished, the planet will roll
a dead world through space,
forever ended.
at
When
life
its
evolutionary career
APPEARANCE OF MARS
IN 1905
PART
II
NOTES
PART
NOTES
II.
ON MOMENT
OF
MOMENTUM
The momentum of a body is the quantity of motion it

contains, which is its mass multiplied by its velocity, i.e.
the sum of the motions of all the particles composing it.
Its
moment
of
momentum
about any point
into the perpendicular from the point

neous course. It is thus
m
where
m is its mass
v
its
is this
upon
its
quantity
instanta-
r,
velocity at right angles to the shortest distance

to the point ;
r its perpendicular distance from the point.

Suppose, now, two bodies, one x times the mass of the
other, to be revolving round each other in circles and, for
simplification, that both are homogeneous and non-rotating.
If
be their united mass, the relative velocity of one
about the other
is
for a circular orbit,
Then
the
moment
centre of gravity
since
being the unit force at unit distance.

momentum of the system round its
of
is
the velocities of the bodies about their centre of
gravity and their distances from

masses.
219
it
are inversely as their
220
To find what partition renders this quantity a maximum,

we must differentiate it with regard to x and put the derivative equal to zero.
Thus
dx
whence x = ^
must be equal. That

shown by the second derivative,
or the masses
maximum
gives a
dx
is
2 x}
d( i
this
dx
this to Jupiter
Applying
moment
of
momentum
and the Sun, we see that the

two is only ^|^ of what it
of the
might be were the mass otherwise distributed to get the

In other words, the quantity of motion in
greatest effect.
the solar system is almost the least possible and from the
;
principle of the conservation of the moment of momentum

of a system of bodies by their mutual action, this has
always been
so.
Centauri, though the mass of

only 2.14 that of the Sun's, the moment of
about 2000 times as great.
For the system

suns
tum
is
is
its
two
momen-
THE CONNECTION OF METEORITES WITH THE SOLAR

SYSTEM
The speed
with which meteorites are observed to enter
the Earth's atmosphere is telltale of their relationship to

For the velocity of a body moving on a
the solar system.
parabolic orbit with regard to the Sun, the greatest he can
may be calculated, and this velocity compared with
control,
the observed ones.
method of
solution of
it
by the writer by a
interest in itself, that of a rotating field of force,
NOTES
221
has been published in the Astronomical Journal for April

17, 1908, and is here reproduced.
and 77 rotate
of which
Consider a system of axes
77,
with a uniform angular spin n.
Take the origin
axis continually pass through the
at the Sun, and let the
Earth supposed to travel in a circle. Then the space
,
about
velocities u, v,
and
and
expressed in the moving axes
respectively, or the space rates of
change of
f,
77,
77,
,
are
n-,
where the accents denote the derivatives with respect to

the time.
Similarly the accelerations or the forces which
they measure, X, Y, and Z expressed in the same axes, are
X=u'
-nv,
Y=v'-nu,
Z=w
f
.
Substituting for u, v, and n in the last equations their

values from the first, we have
Let
U be the
potential of the forces,
dU = ^,
Y dU = F,
v
and
dU =
222
In the rotating
is a function of f, 77, and

been eliminated by the rotation,
force [7
field of
only, since the time has
Therefore
dU = dU
dt
'
d%
d%
dJJ
dt
dt]
'
dn.dU
'
dt
tf
di
motion be multiplied by
If the equations of
dt
dt
dt
respectively, and added, they admit of an integral

found by Jacobi,
first
^2_ w2 r 2 =2 [/+C,
in
which v l
= velocity
of the particle relatively to the
ing axes,
and
r=
its
its
mov-
relative not its space rate,
distance from the origin reckoned by the
same.
We
shall suppose the particle to be moving in the plane

of the planet's motion, that of f, 77.
The velocity of encounter with the planet is thus made the greatest or the
least possible, according as the particle overtakes the
planet or meets it head on.
the space velocity of the particle, that is the
Calling
velocity with regard to fixed axes,
momentum
and
the
moment
with regard to the same at the moment,
of
we
have
F 2 = v? + 2 nr cos
av 1
+ nzr*,
which a is the angle between v l and nr

hence
r cos a =pi, the perpendicular from the origin upon the
particle's line of motion in space, but A = v^p + nr* by
taking moments about the origin, of the particle's motion
in
in the rotating
whence
plane plus that of the plane
Vz
nA =
U+
C.
itself,
NOTES
We
determine
C by the
consideration that for a parabola
at infinity,
F=
whence
where
223
and
U= 0,
since
/ is the
parameter of the parabola and
the radius
of the planet's orbit.
Suppose now the

planet from behind, /
A = v^p + nr*
= V- v^ -p + nr\
will
in
which
z>
is
the velocity of the planet in
= nr z
A = r V.
2nA=2nr-
its orbit,
vQp
then
and
Let
be just overtaking the

very approximately be 2 r, while
particle to
will
M=
mass
m=
mass of the
V.
of the Sun,
planet,
r= c= radius of the planet's orbit,

p = distance from the Earth's centre
to
where the
meteor enters the atmosphere, which for round numbers

we may take at 3958.8 +41 miles, or 4000 miles.
Then the attraction of the Sun on the particle is
very approximately,
that of the planet on the particle
224
and that of the planet on the Sun which

reversed to bring the Sun to rest,
This
latter force acts
Consequently, since
only, not involving t,
r
is
to
be applied
only in the line f.

functions of f and
X and Y are
r2
our equation becomes
Completing the square on the left-hand side and extracting the square root, we have
Letting
M=
r=
and determining
V comes out
k enters with the masses as kz
I
and
ficient of proportionality, so that
second,
for
VQ
=
=
the coef-
M unless the
unit of time be canonically chosen,
k,
in miles per
we
find, since
z/
= nr,
the velocity relative to the Earth

10.321 miles a second
when
the particle
overtakes the Earth.

r
The
Earth's effect in increasing the velocity which in

this case is the greatest possible is
28.822
26.163
2.659 miles a second.
In the other case, when the Earth encounters the particle
head
on,
v l becomes negative and
2nA = +
C negative.
NOTES
225
and
r
and
r
V+
= 45.197
miles a second, and the effect of

the Earth in increasing the meteor's velocity
whence
2/0
26.696
The geometric
directly
added
is
26.163
0.533 mile a second.
why the velocities cannot be

when each body is supposed to act
explanation
that
alone the times involved in their actions are different,

when they act together these are naturally the same.
while
In the latter case the velocity due the Sun hurries the
space faster than the Earth's pull
alone could, and so gives the Earth less time to act.
particle through the
Now
if,
instead of
moving
in a parabolic or controlled
meteor were travelling in a hyperbolic or uncontrolled one, its speed of encountering the earth would be
orbit, the
greatly increased.
But there are no instances of meteors meeting the Earth
at speeds exceeding or even equalling 45.1 miles a second.
From this we perceive that they are not visitants from

outer space, travellers from other suns, but are all part
and parcel of the Sun's retinue, kin to Jupiter and the
Earth, the remains, indeed,
planets were built up.
of
those from which the
THE HEAT DEVELOPED

To
find the heat evolved
BY PLANETARY CONTRACTION
by the aggregation of particles

mass and the subsequent shrinking of
that mass upon itself, we first find the work done by the
contraction and then evaluate it in terms of heat.
into a planetary
226
M' = mass
Let
within a radius r
then the work done by a shell

pull of
M', the mass inside
it,
dM'
contracting under the

from infinity to the radius
ris
C T t?M'dM'
_
_ JPM'dM'
i
/oo
where kz
is
y*
the force between unit masses at unit distance.
sphere be supposed homogeneous and

mass of the nebula of radius a at any time,
If the
M' = M-^.
dM' =
M be the
r
M -dr.
a
a
z
3 ,0^/2
C PM'dM' = r $&M
4
z
2
r*dr=k
,
Jo
the
Jo
06
(i)
work done.
is really heterogeneous, and to determine

the function of the density we proceed as follows
The attraction, A, of the mass M' upon the shell dM' is:
But the sphere
Then
Let / = the
=
dp
-pAdr,
whence
dp
where p
= the
density.
pressure at the point.
as Laplace says, both solids and liquids resist commore the more they are compressed. The most
simple expression of this fact is
Now,
pression
dp = hpdp,
which
is
Laplace's formula.
The Roche formula hardly
gains in exactness enough to
offset its greater complexity, as Tisserand has
shown.
NOTES
Whence,
227
substituting Laplace's value for dp above,
we have
Differentiating this,
The
solution of this equation
pr=c
sin
mr +
c l cos
but since the density p must remain

,
where r
//,
o, c^
mr\
finite at
-c sin
o\ and
=m,
calling
is,
To find the two unknown parameters

we have for the Earth, if p l denote the
face
where r
ft
= I,
= c sin m =
supposed
2.74,
the centre
mr
>.
(2)
c
and m, and thus
density at the sur-
all rock,
(3)
or 2.5, allowing for the ocean;
and
also since the
mean
density
'o
5.53,
*!!.*.
In the determination of the work done,
c sin
(4)
we must
write
m-
Then
dM' = 4 irr*dr
= 4 TTCIC
JQ
4 TT
m-
dr
a8c- f
nr
r sin
smm -
[_
sm
mr
a
m -r cos m -r~\
a
aj
228

m -- m - cos m m cos m
sin m
sin
M' =
Ti/rl
whence
sin
(sin
n/r
cos
cos
cos
sin
J
x
2 (sin
m cos w)
Since the work done by a mass Jf in cooling
Majt, where
a-
is
degrees
is
the specific heat of the body,
and J the mechanical equivalent

in the case of a
of heat,
homogeneous body
t
5
for contraction
from
oo
to
the
oja
radius a,
and therefore
=
5
radius a' to a.
hand members
-?^-(i --.)
a
<rja
for contraction
from the
In the case of heterogeneity, the rightof the equations should be multiplied by
the ratio of (5) to (i).

During the evolution of the heat, radiation was steadily
draining it away, according to the fourth power of the surface temperature (Stefan's law).
Convection meanwhile
was going on from the inside out, the quantity delivered
from one layer to the next being proportionate to their
differences of temperature dT, while this difference was
itself dependent on the areas involved, which were as
^5
r?
and therefore
their increase in the ratio
'-LL.
r,
If
we
NOTES
229
in consequence that the surface was never hotter

than 10,000 F. or 5556 C., we shall have a heat sufficient
assume
to explain all the
metamorphic and volcanic phenomena
exhibited by geology.
ENERGY LET LOOSE DURING CONTRACTION.
CONTRACTION FROM INFINITY

TO PRESENT STATE
EVALUATED
IN
HEAT
230
The lunar diameter being 2160 miles, this gives for a

mountain four miles high an apparent isolation from the
terminator of 93 miles, or 23 times its height.
For one a
mile high, the distance is 46 miles or 46 times its height.
principle affords an indirect kind of magnification, relatively greater and greater inversely as the square
Thus the
root of the height.
HEAT ACQUIRED
BY THE
MOON
In the expression (5) for the work done by contraction

will vary with each planet,
in the case of heterogeneity,
determination depends upon both the surface and

the mean density of the contracting body.
For the surface
since
its
density of the Moon

that is, one of rock.
we have a ground
surface entirely
In consequence,
we may perhaps
it as being that of the rocky exterior of the Earth,

water being unity. The mean lunar density is 3.65.
Putting these values in place of those of the Earth in (3)
estimate
or
2.7,
and
(4),
for the
we get from the new (5) with the new m' the value
Moon's contracted heat given in the table.
Since the rate of changes of the concentric shells

!L, while
dr
is
is
as
taken constant, the gradient of temperature
fi
from the inside out will be greater, the smaller the body,
and convection in it be more rapid. Also its surface being
larger relatively to its volume, it would on that account
That surface, therefore, could never attain
radiate more.
the degree of warmth of the other's in spite of the greater
We
shall probably be
radiation at higher temperatures.
mark if we take the surface temperature at its
maximum as proportionate to the total heat evolved. This
within the
would give on the supposition of 10,000 F. for the Earth,
NOTES
231
0159
below the freezing-point, a

400 F. Abs. for the Moon,
temperature quite incompatible with volcanic phenomena.
SURFACE HEAT OF MARS

For Mars, where again the surface
we have p,=
3.93.
2.7,
is
wholly ground,
mean density of the planet is

we obtain a new m" and the
while the
With these data
value for the heat evolved
given in
the table
under
heterogeneity.
Following the
same course as with the Moon, we get a

surface temperature for Mars at its maximum of 2000 F.
This is just below the melting-point of (cast) iron, which
is
2160 F.
Such a temperature
is
insufficient for the dis-
play of metamorphic or of volcanic action such as occurred on Earth.

For the like reason the crumpling of
the crust in consequence of the planet's parting with
internal heat
must have been much
less
its
pronounced.
THE
BOILING-POINT OF
WATER ON MARS
The boiling-points of liquids are functions both of the

temperature and the pressure a lower temperature being
sufficient to cause ebullition if the pressure be less.
On
the kinetic theory of gases the cause of this is at once
;
Boiling means that the particles of the

liquid generally have attained speed enough to throw off
the restraint of their neighbors and leave the surface.
comprehensible.
Release
in other
is
may come about through
increase of velocity, or,
words, increase of temperature, since temperature

only another expression for the mean velocity-square
232
of the particles
or
by decrease
of restraint,
which means
decrease of the pressure upon them.

Gravity on the surface of Mars is only 38 per cent of
that at the surface of the Earth, and if the amount of
Martian air per unit of surface be f that of the Earth, as
later
we
see to
shall
be probable, the pressure there
would be
/ = M,g, = 0.09 Mg,

where the unaccented
cented to Mars.
letters refer to the Earth, the ac-
Whence
the boiling-point would be
44 C. or
mF.
THE PALEOZOIC SUN

M. Blondet's explanation of the greater warmth of
was that the Sun then occupied a space
paleozoic times
large enough to be able to shine on the pole even in midwinter.

To do this, the semidiameter of the Sun must
Earth an angle equal

or an angle of
23 27'. This would give it a semidiameter of 37,000,000
miles, or a million miles larger than the mean distance of
have subtended
to the
tilt
at the centre of the
of the pole
away from the Sun,
Mercury.
Its
present
mean
density
is
1.39 times that of water.
density of hydrogen, the lightest known gas, is

0.0000895 that of water at o C. and under a pressure of
The
760 mm. at Lat. 45. The present diameter of the Sun

866,000 miles. Its density then must therefore have
been
is
.39.
37oooooo
or \ that of hydrogen.
_ 0.0000,78,
NOTES
233
Such tenuous matter could hardly have given out any
all.
This is one insuperable objection.
second
that to suppose that the Earth can have condensed to
a solid state while the Sun still remained of such gaseous
heat at
is
tenuity, its material more sparse than that of any known

is to violate
every conception of evolution. The
gas,
is
thing
mechanically impossible.
When we
reflect that so eminent a geologist as M. de

Lapparent* espoused M. Blondet's hypothesis, we see how
necessary to geologic
them
conceptions
a foundation for
is
in astronomy.
EFFECT ON THE EARTH OF THE SUPPOSED PALEOZOIC SUN
As impossible the supposed paleozoic Sun proves from

the point of view of the Earth. For on critical examination
it turns out quite incapable of the climatic effect attributed
to
even supposing
it,
effect at
To
If
calculate
it
emitted heat enough to have any
all.
its
we proceed
zonal influence
coaltitude of the Sun,
at the confines of the
its
atmosphere
as follows
insolation at the
is
as cos a.
The
moment
relative
amount
of the total insolation at a given latitude and for a

given declination during twenty-four hours, supposing the
Sun a point, and calling the insolation at the equator at the
equinox unity,
I
/ cos"
1
(
cosa
is
cot b
expressible
cot c)
-dA =
/0
1
/cos" (-
by spherical
triangles as
cot c)
cot 6
cosbcosc-dA
/0
+ sin ItsinccosA dA
1
2(cos b cos c
A+
sin b sin c
.^
sm A)
cos- (-cot b -cote)

,
= the colatitude of the place,

c = the codeclination of the sun,
A = the hour angle from noon
where
* " Traite
Elementaire de Geologic," par
De
Lapparent.
234
=o
the limits of the integration being the meridian, where
and the horizon where a = 90 and its cosine o, whence
o = cos b cos c + sin b sin c cos A,

A = cos"^ cot b cot c\
or
But the area of the supposed paleozoic Sun cannot be

its size.
To deduce its effect
each bit of it which rises above the horizon of the place
must be taken into account and given weight inversely as
considered a point because of
the square of
its
distance
off.
For our purpose, however, a sufficiently accurate approximation may be got by taking in each determination
what would be the centre of mass of the solar zone above
the latitude of the lowest central point visible supposing
the Sun a flat surface.
The point whose codeclination is
considered then becomes
where 6
its
equator
the angle from the pole of the ecliptic toward

;
and
tan(2 3 .5-*).
tan 23. 5
Something is omitted by this process because the visible

zone really descends lower at the sides than in the centre,
but on the other hand the effect on the tropical belt of the
Earth is relatively greater than on the polar ones because
of the less distance of the centre of the Sun.
The result
is
to understate the case against the supposed paleozoic

to increase the force of the reasoning.
Sun and thus
From the table it appears that the climate in the polar

regions would be unaffected in midwinter and midsummer,
the only seasonal difference being that spring would come
NOTES
235
on somewhat earlier than now. Thus the seasons would

still exist and the polar climate not be tropical at all.
The heat due the insolation at the equator at the equinox
is taken as unity in both cases because no greater heat
there is to be accounted for then than now.
INSOLATION
Equator
LATITUDE
at
Equinox
i.oo in
both cases.
236

10
ON THE INFLUENCE UPON THE CLIMATE

DIOXIDE
From some
OF CARBON
THE AIR
and elaborate calculations of Profes-
appears that an increase of carbonic acid

to thrice its present amount would raise the tem-
sor Arrhenius
in our air
careful
IN
it
perature as follows
CARBONIC ACID =
INCREASE IN TEMPERATURE OVER CARBONIC ACID
LATITUDE
NOTES
237
i to 3 would be
only two degrees centigrade greater at 65 N.
than at the equator the mean for the year at the upper
latitude being still only + 2.3 C. while it would be 32.8 C.
In the second place the seasons in the
at latitude 5 N.
;
polar regions would remain
now.
For
at latitude
substantially
what they are
7O-6o we should have
TEMPERATURE WITH CARBONIC ACID =

LATITUDE
238
vented reproduction. The plants became sickly and were

unable to flower and seed. The experiment, of course,
does not show that a different effect might not be produced on cryptogams such as constituted the flora of Carboniferous times, nor does
it demonstrate that with time

such changed surroundings might
not result in a positive gain to the plants concerned but it
certainly affords no evidence in favor of either supposition.
enough adaptation
to
ii
ATMOSPHERE OF MARS
Amount.
Of the amount of the Martian atmosphere
we have no certain knowledge. From its effects we know
that such an atmosphere exists and these effects are comWith regard
patible with an air thinner than our own.
to its density the best determination at present is to be
got from the planet's albedo, the albedo of a body being
its intrinsic brightness.
Now from the albedo of various
rocks, of forests, and of snow, and from the relative
amounts of each that appear upon the Martian disk, we
may calculate, taken in connection with the whole albedo
of
the planet, the proportionate albedoes of
its
surface
and its air. Nearly five-eighths of the surface is desert

which has an albedo of about .16, three-eighths a blue-green
with an albedo of .07, while less than one-sixth is of a
These would combine to
glistening white of roughly .75.
give an albedo of .13. This, however, is illuminated by
so much only of sunlight as penetrates the air, about threeWhence the apparent albedo of
quarters of the whole.
the surface seen from without must be
.10.
Now
as the
albedo of the planet is .27, and .10 is from the surface, the remaining .17 must be the albedo of the air.
Assuming the densities of the mundane and of the
total
Martian atmospheres to be proportionate to their
brilliancy,
NOTES
239
or as 75 to 17, which would seem something like the fact,

since the denser the air the more dust it would buoy up,
and
it,
of
chiefly by what it holds in suspension that we see

for the Martian air a density about two-ninths
it is
we have
our own
over each square unit of surface.
But, if the original mass of air on each planet was as

that planet's mass, we should have for the initial amounts
This would be dis9.3 for the Earth to i.o for Mars.

tributed as their respective surfaces, or in the ratio of 79 192
to
422O
much
2
,
2.7
now
and
ence between
plies
i
which would give 2.7 times as
Earth per unit of surface. The differ-
or as 3.5 to
air for the
amount the albedo im-
or the
4.5
present and the amount the planet would have
had, assuming proportionate masses to start with, may perhaps be attributed to the greater relative loss of air Mars
has sustained because of parting more quickly with
its air
envelope.
Surface density of its air.
To get the density of the
Martian air at the surface of the planet, which is of course
a very different thing from the amount of air above that
surface, we must divide the amount by the relative gravity
For the density of an atmosphere at any height

there.
if the density be
being proportionate to its own decrease
taken as proportional to the pressure, which is practically
true for gases at the atmospheric pressures considered, and
if the temperature be considered constant
then if
denote the density at any point,
dD = - Dg
dx,
where
g denotes the force of gravity at the surface of

the Earth and is constant for the distance concerned, and
is
reckoned outward from the surface.
Whence
D = Ae~ gx
being the density at the surface.
240
Correspondingly,
we have
being the density of
there.
for
Mars
its air at its
For the whole mass of
air
surface
and^
gravity
over a given point
we
have for the Earth
and
similarly for
Mars
I and therefore
Taking
g^ = .38, we have, since the
whole mass of air above a point on Earth is 4.5 what it is
on Mars,
g=
A=
Whence
as
A=
^'
30 inches or 760 'mm. barometric pressure,
A =
1
2.5 inches, or
64 mm.
12
THE MEAN TEMPERATURE OF MARS

DIVISION OF RADIANT ENERGY
So soon as a radiant ray
strikes matter
it
suffers division
Part of it is reflected, part absorbed, and

energy.
What is reflected is sent off again into
part transmitted.
space, performing no work in the way of heating the body.
of
its
Now
the
amount
pending for
its
reflected
is
not the same in
all cases, de-
proportion upon the character of the matter
the ray strikes.

If the surface of a planet be itself exposed unblanketed
by air, the absorbed and transmitted portions go to heat
the planet, directly or indirectly.
NOTES
241
If the planet be surrounded by air, the portion transmitted by this air, plus what is radiated or reflected from
it to the solid surface, must first be considered.
Then,
upon
this
how much
quota as a basis, must secondly be determined

The balance
the surface in its turn reflects.
alone goes to
warm
the ground or ocean.
LIGHT AND HEAT

Radiant energy
ing to the effect
is light,
we
heat, or actinism,
take note
tive equally to all wave-lengths,
of heat
flected,
we
merely accordwere sensi-
If our eyes
of.
could gauge the amount
eceived by a body by the amount of light it rethat is, by its intrinsic brightness, or albedo.
For this percentage deducted from unity would leave the

percentage of heat received. This procedure may still be
applied, provided account be also taken of the heat depletion suffered
by the
invisible rays.
Two
problems, then,
confront us.
We
must find the albedoes of the several planets in

order to compare one with another in its reception of heat,
and we must find the relation borne by the visible and in-
The latter problem may best

be attacked first.
Actinometers and pyrheliometers are instruments for
measuring in toto the heat received from the Sun and
they have been used by Violle, Crova, Hansky, and others
to the determination of this quantity at given places, and
visible rays to the subject.
so to a conclusion as to the
amount
of heat outside our
air,
or the Solar Constant.
Langley's great contribution to the

subject was the pointing out that the several wave-lengths
of the different rays were not of homogeneous action or
modification,
and that
Solar Constant
it
is
to
an exact determination of the
necessary to consider the action of
242
each separately, and then to sum them together. To this

end he invented his spectro-bolometer.
By means of this instrument Langley mapped the solar
radiation to an extension of the heat spectrum unsuspected
before. He then carried it up Mt. Whitney in California, and
discovered two important facts one, that the loss in the visi:
ble part of the spectrum was much greater, not only actually,
but relatively to the rest, than had been supposed and the
;
which the observations

were made, the larger the value obtained for the Solar ConBoth of these are pertinent to our present inquiry.
stant.
With a rock-salt prism, instead of a glass one, he next
extended still farther the limits of the heat spectrum toward
other, that the greater the altitude at
the red, the effect of the solar radiation proving not neg= 15/4.
ligible as far as X
In 1901 Professor Very, who had been his assistant

published an important memoir on the Solar Constant, based upon these bolometric observations, but with
earlier,
it got from spectral curves derived from simulactinometric and bolometric determinations at
a value for
taneous
Camp Whitney and Lone Pine, and extended from them

outside the atmosphere by taking both air and dust effects
into account in selectively reflecting and diffracting the
The air effect is proportionate to the air
mass, but the dust effect increases in greater ratio as one
nears the surface of the ground. The formulae he used
energy waves.
were adaptations of those by Rayleigh for accounting for

the selective reflection and diffraction of small particles.*
ENERGY OF VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE SPECTRUM

Planimetrical measurement of the area enclosed
by the
curve deduced for outside our atmosphere gives the following results
*
U.
S.
Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau, No. 254.
NOTES
DISTRIBUTION OF
HEAT
IN
243
THE SPECTRUM
244
To
get that for sea-level
we
shall take Crova's actinometric
at Montpellier (height 40 m.), made on

h
m under a barometer of
13, 1888, at i2 3O
761 mm.
measures
August
Simul-
taneously with these, other self -registering ones were taken

by him on Mt. Ventoux (height 2000 m.). The respective
calories
he obtained were,
NOTES
The
loss in the visible
245
spectrum
almost wholly from
is
selective or general reflection and from diffraction, that in

The absorpthe invisible one from selective absorption.
tive loss
by bands in the former is only about I per cent

and the loss by reflection in the latter prob-
of the whole,
ably not over 7 per cent of its depletion.

In view of the fact that the absorption
place high up in the
amount
but
Lone
for
when
it
comes
air,
10
fj.
by
it is
DEPLETION
We may
now
to take
Pine, the difference being insensible;

Camp Whitney it is clear from the
got rid of between
rising the 11,700
spectrum which
known
to
above that 9 per cent of
and
is
Very adopted the Alleghany
ft.
from
IN VISIBLE
1.2
sea-level.
RAYS
find the depletion in the visible part of the

is not in general the same as that for the
invisible part, decreasing relatively with the altitude and

reversely increasing as the air envelope becomes thicker.
It does this at a greater rate than the increase of the air
dust,
mass, because the particles suspended in the air
water globules, and ice
augment more rapidly than the air
mass as one approaches the ground.

Drawing the curve for transmission at the sea-level on
the same principles as those for outside the atmosphere at
Camp Whitney and at Lone Pine, and then measuring the
amounts of transmission of each within the limits of the
visual rays, from X = .393 /A the K line to X = .76
/u,
the
A band, we
get the following table
246
TRANSMISSION OF SOLAR RADIATION IN THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM
NOTES
247
248
VALUE OF Loss OF LIGHT A MINIMAL ONE

That the value above found for the percentage transmission of solar radiation to the Earth's surface is a maximal rather than a minimal amount, and the albedo a
minimal rather than a maximal one, is hinted by the fact
that the higher the observer ascends above the surface,
the greater his estimate of the solar constant becomes.
Thus Langley in his memoir on the Mt. Whitney expedition says
" In
accordance with the results of previous observers,
then, and of our own with other instruments, we find a
larger value for the Solar Constant as we deduce it from
observations through a smaller air mass."
The italics are
his.*
DEPLETION BY WATER-VAPOR ON MARS
We
are now in position to estimate the heat actually

received respectively at the surfaces of Mars and the
Earth.
The visual part of the spectrum containing 32 per
cent of the incident solar radiation gives us its quota di-
I albedo.
rectly from the albedo, since the heat received
The infra-red portion containing 65 per cent of the whole
depends upon the character of the air and of what it holds

The greater bulk of the depletion in this
part of the spectrum comes from the absorption by waterAt the
vapor, water itself, or ice and carbon dioxide.
Earth's surface the transmission in consequence is about
in suspension.
50 per cent
We
at
Camp Whitney
it
was about 59 per
cent.
greater through the

air of Mars, which is very thin, and if we did so we should
find a still larger fraction of solar heat to be received by
might, therefore, suppose
it still
the planet's surface so that such a supposition would

actually increase the cogency of the present argument.
;
* " Researches on Solar

Heat," p. 68.
NOTES
But the very thinness of the
air joined to
249
the lesser gravity
at the surface of the planet would lower the boiling-point

of water to something like 110 F.
The sublimation at
lower temperatures would be correspondingly increased.

Consequently the amount of water-vapor in the Martian
air must on that score be relatively greater than in our
own.
DEPLETION BY CARBON DIOXIDE

Carbon dioxide, because of its greater specific gravity,
would also be in relatively greater amount, so far as that
cause is considered. For the planet would part, cceteris
paribus, with its lighter gases the quickest.
Whence, as regards both water-vapor and carbon
dioxide we have reason to think them in relatively greater
quantity than in our

pressure.
own
air at
corresponding barometric
We may
the absorption
therefore assume provisionally that

due this cause is what it is with us at
Camp Whitney, or about 40 per cent of the whole, leaving

60 per cent of the heat transmitted.
It is distinctly to be noted that though this estimate
lowers the determination of the heat received at the surface of Mars, what is thus lost in reception goes to
the retention of the heat received all the greater.
make
ALBEDOES OF THE PLANETS
The
albedoes of the several planets, according to the
latest determinations, those
by Miiller at Potsdam, together

with that found above for the Earth and that obtained for
the Moon by Zollner, stand thus
:
Mercury
250

HEAT RECEIVED
We will
now apply
BY EARTH AND
MARS
the argument from the albedo.
HEAT RECEIVED AT THE SURFACES OF MARS AND THE EARTH
NOTES
about as .20 x .504- i.oo x .50= .60, and for

giving the ratio between the two planets that
the Earth
Mars
251
is
.99,
of .60 to .99.
Taking now Stefan's law that the radiation of a body

as the fourth power of its temperature, and remembering that, since the two planets maintain their respective
mean annual temperatures, they must radiate as much
heat as they receive, we have the following equation
from which to find the mean annual temperature of Mars,
x, in which 459.4 + 60 or 519.4 F. on the absolute
is
denotes
scale
Earth
mean
the
annual
temperature
of
the
x\ 519.4
::
(/i
or
.64
x .99
*=
5I94
^=531.4 Abs. =72
giving
2
\/i.524 x .415
.60
Iff,
F. or 22 C.
HEAT RECEIVED AND HEAT RETAINED

Such, then, would be the mean annual temperature of
the planet, were the heat retained as well there as here.
am
from saying that such is the temperature. For

is not the same on the two planets, being, on
account of its denser air, much better on the Earth. But
I
far
the retention
is the amount received is enough to suggest

very different ideas as to the climatic warmth from those
that such
hitherto entertained.
TEMPERATURE DEDUCED FROM HEAT RETAINED
To
obtain
some idea
of
the heat retained and of the
temperature in consequence we may proceed in this way

Let y = the radiant energy received at the surface of the
:
Earth.
252
= that similarly received on

e = the relative emissivity or
jj
tion
Mars.
the coefficient of radia-
from the surface of the Earth, giving the

of
ratio
the loss in twenty-four hours to the

in the same time, due to
amount received
factors
air,
*!
= the
other than the transmissibility of the

is separately considered.
which
same
coefficient for
Mars.
Clouds transmit approximately 20 per cent of the heat

reaching them; a clear sky at sea-level, 50 per cent.
Consequently as the sky is half the time cloudy, the mean
transmission through
For Mars
its air
envelope for the Earth
is
it is
To get, then, the mean temperature of the planet in

degrees, x, from the heat retained, which is the daily
mean receipt less the mean loss, we have the following equation, the mean temperature of the Earth being
[519.4 F. Abs.] 288 C. above absolute zero:
VXi - -35 e)
288.5
DETERMINATION OF
To find e we have the data that the fall in temperature

toward morning on the Earth under a clear night sky is
about 1 8 F. or 10 C. under a cloudy one, about 7 F.
or 4 C.
Taking the average day temperature from these
data at 292 Abs. on the centigrade scale, or 19 C., and
considering an average day sky and a clear night, we have
;
the transmission or loss
K-35
.50)* or .425*;
NOTES
253
while for an average day and a cloudy night
K-35
We
-20> or .275
form the following equation

292
292
10
whence
= VX
e.
determine e
-425 e)
f
ty(i--275*)
e
Since the radiation by day
by
to
it is
.47.
is
greater by about 1.15 than
night, being as
we have more approximately

.45 *
J(.40+.so>or
for a clear night
and average day and

J{.40
+ .20>
This gives
or .30 *
same
for a cloudy night under the

e
conditions.
.46,
It changes the final

or substantially what it was before.
result for the mean temperature of Mars by less than two-
tenths of a degree.
DETERMINATION OF
Since in the
receives
mean
el
the planet radiates as
much
heat as
it
and
f =<'<>.
the radiation must be in the same
ratio.
Whence, the loss
by radiation in twenty-four hours on Mars, so far as it
depends on the heat received, is
i.i e
254
or
by the more approximate calculation
above,
in the
paragraph
it still
.51.
Substituting these values in our equation (page 250),

mean temperature of Mars,
we
find x> the
= 8.7C.
= 470.7 R,
or
taking into account the heat radiated
away
as well as the
heat received and gauging the temperature by the heat

retained by the net, instead of the gross, amount of the
;
radiant energy received.

If we assume clouds to transmit less heat than 20 per
cent, we diminish y and increase (i
-35^), so that the
ultimate result
not greatly altered.
is
we
1
of the Earth's
take Arrhenius formula for the temperature
surface as affected by the air-envelope, we have as determined in his
If
paper on the
effect of
r*
where
=
A=
/3
are a
atmospheric absorption for solar heat,
Solar Constant, less loss by selective reflection by the
N = heat conveyed
to the surface
air,
from other points,
from other points,
albedo of the surface,
radiation constant.
values for these quantities found bolometrically for a clear sky
A=
.50,
i
.79
.32
visible portion,
/?
atmospheric absorption for earth-surface heat,
to the air
=
y =
air
- a)A(l + v) +
- 0v)
y(i + v
M - heat conveyed
v
The
carbon dioxide in the
a approximately,
.747
whole spectrum
albedo of the air x
NOTES
For the Earth
in its entirety
vection in one place
255
o and IV =o, since what
is
lost
by con-
gained in another.
Applying this same formula to the case of Mars, we have similarly
ttj
is
.40 approximately,
A =
.17
(i
.32)
whole spectrum
albedo of its
air
visible portion
^246.
1.5242
/?!
v,
ttj
Whence
approximately.
.13
for the
.87.
Earth under a clear sky
T4 _ A(i +
y(i
and
v
v
- vet)
- PV)'
A, a, and /8.
y approximately, we have for 7\
similarly for Mars, substituting its values for
Since in both a
But the Earth
/3
is
and y t
.50 cloud-covered,
Mars,
and the transmission of cloud
being not more than .20 (the value he takes),
TSÂ,
A
T*
for
we have
finally
.99
.60'
whence
7\
and
T being 519.4
.974 T,
Abs. on the Fahrenheit,

7\
505.7, that
is,
46.3 F. or 8
C,
same as we have deduced.

be .70 and to be in like proportion
Mars, we should have had
a
result substantially the

Had we assumed /J to
T*=
and
7\
to
for
1.140-
1.1011,
Vi
from what we had before, since it lowers the resulting temperature for Mars by only about 4 F. or 2 C.
which gives not
far
256
13
DUST STORM ON MARS*
On May 25th at I5 34 m G. M. T., Mr. V. M. Slipher

noticed a large projection about halfway down the terminator of the planet. He at once notified me and we
h
then proceeded to observe
What
first
impressed
it
by turns.
me was
its
size.
This, both in
The projection conlength and height, was excessive.

sisted of a long band of light, a little north of the centre
of the arc of the phase ellipse, lying parallel to the terminator but parted from it by a dark line half the band's own
h
To this effect I made a sketch of it at 1 5 37

next thing to strike the eye was its color. This was
not white nor whitish but ochre-orange, closely assimilated
width.
The
in tint to the subjacent parts of the disk, the region to the

north and west of the western end of the Deuteronilus.
Such distinctive complexion it kept throughout the time

was visible. Coincidentally Baltia, then close on the
terminator and north of the projection, showed white.
The seeing was 5 on a scale of 10 sufficiently good to
disclose the Phison and Euphrates double
the power
310 and the aperture that of the 24-inch.
As soon as possible micrometric measures were begun
of its position and length, the position angle taken being
it
that of the tangent to the terminator at the point directly

under the projection. For such tangent, together with the
projection's distance from the disk, furnishes all the data
necessary to determine
were repeated
At
its
location.
Measures of
this
angle
at intervals during the time of visibility.
the separation of the projection from the

41
terminator seemed to have sensibly lessened and I recorded
it
I5
in another sketch.
*
The whole
projection appeared to
Reprint of Lowell Observatory Bulletin, No.
i,
June
9, 1903.
NOTES
257
have moved bodily in. At 51, however, it seemed higher

again but then advanced rapidly toward the disk, for by 55
only the tip of it could be seen. Thus it showed for some
h
m
minutes, being last seen for certain at i6 8 and vanishh
m
ing completely after i6 io
.
My
measures and notes were as follows, where P. A.
denotes the position angle of the tangent to the terminator

as above described
:
37
I5
found about five minProjection on terminator

The projection is
utes before by Mr. Slipher.
long and is separated from the terminator by a
dark
line.
(Drawing.)
A. 2OO.4 along terminator.
41
P.
44
Projection less separated from terminator.
48
P.
(Drawing.)
A. Projection i99-9.
Length projection 0.^92
Just about gone
55
No
i6h iom P.
striking separation
A.
Projection
glimpses
now seems
higher again.
only the tip showing apparently.
now.
i99.8;
only
suspected
h
m
surely seen last at i6 8
by
Impression that projection had moved toward north as

regards Deuteronilus.
During the course of the observation a 12-in. diaphragm
was
tried
once but in this case without gain.
time Mr. Slipher's measures were these

h
I5
42
45
(?) P.
P.
A. Projection 2O3.
A. Projection 2O4.O.
Length
52
P.
i."s8.
A. Projection 2Oi.o.
/.
At
the
same
258
Of the apparent perpendicular distance of the top of

the projection from the terminator our respective estimates
were
By Mr.
By me,
Slipher, .067 of the radius of the disk.

.075 of the radius of the disk.
These estimates were got from measurements of our

drawings and from remembrance of the size of the projection as
To find
compared with the size of the

from these data the position
disk.
of the projection
shall
upon the planet we may proceed as follows:
We
determine the height of the highest point of the projection above the planet's surface.
first
Taking the centre of the disk for origin

axis of the phase ellipse for the axis of x,
let
and the minor
perpendicular from the projection upon the

minator.
distance to
ter-
the terminator perpendicular to the
axis.
phase
r= distance
from the centre of the disk
to the foot of
the perpendicular d.
t= distance
of the projection
from the
= angle between r and

% = exterior angle between d and r.
A = phase latitude of the tip, or its
iliary circle to the
<
centre.
t.
-\/r
= angle
phase
between the tangent
latitude in the aux-
ellipse.
to the terminator
under
the projection and the major axis of the ellipse.
= radius
of the disk, in seconds of arc.
a Q = radius of the disk in miles.

h^
= height of
of
= its
its
the projection in the plane of the circle
phase
latitude.
true height.
NOTES
259
angle in the plane of the phase latitude circle between the tip of the projection and the point on
the terminator.
= same
in the
plane passing through the origin, the
and the
observer,
tip.
6 = angle between r and the axis of x.
x and y the coordinates of the foot

x and jj those of the foot of d-^.
of d.
E = angle of the phase.

P = position angle of the
Q
B = latitude
X
polar axis.
position angle of the phase equator.

of the centre of the disk.
= longitude
By
of the centre of the disk.
a property of the ellipse

tan 6
also
Then
=-
sin^ + sec^cos2 ^
in the triangle
whence we can
made by
=6
and
findjj,
sin
and
fi
then since
find h.
d,
r,
and
we have
<f>,
d^ and then A, since
Now
we
we have
=(secJ; l
a cos A
'
i)aQ'CosA,
260
Since the height of the projection is always small with

regard to the radius of the disk, we may take
COS
and
tan f 1
and
=
cos
approx.,
9 sm E a
= (sec ^
)0
A approx.,
cos2 A approx.
cos
If, as in the present case, the projection is nearly on the

phase equator, the process admits of still greater simplifi-
cation.
For then both 9 and

tan |
and
become small and
- approx.,
asmE
:
= (sec |
i
)# approx.
In the present instance the height distance, from
estimate,
my
is
h=ij
From Mr.
Slipher's,
miles.
14 miles.
We can now find the position. Were the body causing

the projection upon the surface of the sphere, with radius
unity, we should have / equal to the sine of the angle from
the centre of the disk to the tip of the projection.
in reality the projection is raised above the surface,
be considered
Since
it
may
be upon the surface of another sphere

concentric with the first and of radius a + //.
The point
to
under it will not, therefore, be where the tip apBut since codirectional lines from the same point,
pears.
in this case the common centre of the two spheres, are
directly
altered in the ratio of their length, however projected, we

have for the point upon the planet's surface directly under
the projection a distance which we will call/.
NOTES
The angle between
its
direction
261
and that
to the planet's
pole, or 7, is
while the distance in angular measure to that pole is the

thus have two sides and the
colatitude of the centre.
We
included angle of a spherical triangle given from which to

find the colatitude of the point or the third side and the
lower angle or the longitude of the point from the centre
of the disk.
Thus
several
calculated the positions of the projection at the

to
moments when the measures were taken prove
be as subjoined.
G. M. TIME
262
allow o."i5 for irradiation, this makes it o."//.

Now the
diameter of the disk at the time was io."^6 according to
Mr. Crommelin's ephemeris which takes the value to be

9/'3O at distance unity. Mr. Slipher's measure makes it
greater, but as his estimates from his drawing make it
we may,
perhaps, consider the above as a fair meashave, then, for its value in degrees upon the
planet's surface and in miles respectively
less
We
ure.
Length
On
of projection
= 8.2 = 300
miles.
the next evening,
May 27th, the return of the projection's longitudes off the terminator was duly awaited.
They were due about 38 later than on the preceding
night, but in order that if the projection had moved to the
eastward in the interval it might also be caught, observa-
were begun some time beforehand.

measures read as follows
tions
My
notes and
40
Cannot certainly see anything on terminator,

though I can suspect at times something at
its
centre but cannot be sure.
44^ Suspect something
just
Seeing
3.
below centre of termi-
nator.
52
Distinctly suspicious.
58
Certainly have seen a small projection.
I95.8.
1
Thought
P.
Seeing
to see
it
P.
A.
4.
again.
A. I96.6, had previously thought it higher

(up terminator). Were it anything like that
of last night, it must certainly have been seen.
17
Can see nothing on
27
Suspect projection again but cannot be sure.

Have been observing about
P. A. I96.2.
half the time.
terminator.
Seeing a good
5.
NOTES
16
39
40
41
44
No
No
No
No
263
projection visible.
Seeing
3.
projection visible.
Seeing
4.
projection visible.
Seeing
4.
projection visible.
i6 h i5 m I made a drawing of the whole planet under

seeing as good as on the night before, using an 1 8-inch
At
diaphragm upon the 24-inch objective, which diaphragm

was also employed throughout the observations recorded
above.
Mr. Slipher, who observed with me by turns, could not

detect any projection.
From these observations it is at once evident that the
something which caused the projection of May 26th, had

ceased to exist in situ and in size on May 2/th. It had
changed its place as the position angles show, and
had greatly diminished in extent during the twenty-four

For the position of the terminator with
was substantially the same as on the
to
the
surface
regard
hours elapsed.
day before.
Q-P having changed
+ o.i3, B
o.02, and
in
E + o.2g.
the interval only
The
chief
effect
of
these slight alterations of phase aspect would have been

to delay the advent of the projection by about one minute
of time.
If
we
take
now
the
mean
two measures of the
of the
h
h
m we find for the
posiposition angle at I5 58 and i6 5
h
In
tion of the tip of the projection at i6 3
,
G. M. T.
264
over the surface of the planet from

latitude 18 31' N., longitude 39 45',
to latitude 25
29' N., longitude 31
43',
on
May
26th,
on
May
27th,
taking the time of greatest apparition on both occasions.

It, therefore, moved 7 in latitude to 8 in longitude in the
twenty-four hours, or 390 miles, at the rate of sixteen miles
an hour. From this we infer
First, that it was not a
:
mountain or mountains illuminated
and,
by the sun
second, that it was what alone fits the observations, an
enormous cloud travelling northeast and dissipating as it
;
went.
Turning now from the observations of

of
May
27th to those
26th, with the recognition of the rate of shift defrom this comparison of the two sets, we see that
May
duced
the change of place recorded by the first night's observations is to be ascribed to the second of the two possible
suppositions mentioned in their discussion, or to the form
and orientation
and W. by N.
of the cloud.
Its longer axis lay E.
by
S.
Its axis lay, then,
right angles to the direction of
its
roughly speaking, at
motion.
This is further
made
evident by the measures of May 27th in which the

same tilt of the cloud's axis to the meridians is disclosed.
We
shall
the same
now
tale.
see that Mr. Slipher's observations tell

we deduce from his measures, as has
If
been done by Mr. Lampland, the resulting positions of the

apparent centre of the projection at different times on
May
26th,
G.
we
M.
T.
find as follows
NOTES
Here again
is
evident a
tilt
265
of the axis of the projection
such that the following end lay farther

north and farther west than the preceding end.
It is of interest to inquire under what conditions, diurnal
and seasonal, the cloud came into being. As to the time
to the meridians,
was the sunrise one.

when it was half an
part of the planet, and con-
of day, the terminator in question
The
cloud, therefore,
was
first
seen
hour before sunrise upon its

tinued to be visible up to the rising of the sun.
was within the

of the
The
place
tropics, in the desert region to the south
Lacus Niliacus.
With regard
to the
Martian season
of the year it was, in this the northern hemisphere of the

planet, at the time, according to the data of Crommelin's
excellent ephemeris, what corresponds to the first of
August with us and the sun was overhead
in
latitude
N. The cloud, then, when first seen was almost

It then travelled north, dissipating
exactly under the sun.
as it went, and was practically dissolved again by the time
N. latitude.
it had reached 25
Finally, its color leads me to believe it not a cloud of
Other phenomena of the
water-vapor, but a cloud of dust.
1
7'
planet bear out this supposition.

On May 28th no trace of it could be perceived by Mr.
Slipher.
14
MARS ON THE CAUSE OF AN ICE-AGE

In a paper read some years ago before the American
*
Philosophical Society the writer showed that Mars was at
present in the condition to offer a crucial criterion on the
correctness of Croll's ingenious theory as to the cause of
our own Glacial Epochs, and that the evidence presented by
the planet on the subject did not wholly support the theory.
* " Mars on Glacial
Epochs."
No. 164.
Proceedings Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol.
XXXIX,
2 66
Croll's idea was that increased eccentricity of orbit such as

was true of the Earth in the past brought effects in its
train,
change of ocean currents, increased precipitation,
and so forth,
which caused a glaciation of the hemisphere
possessing the long cold winters and the short hot summers.
Study of Mars showed that this was putting the
cart before the horse; that increased precipitation from
whatever cause, and not increased eccentricity, was the
trueflrimum mobile in the matter.

The evidence offered by Mars consisted in the greatest
and least size of its two polar caps. The minima were
of the maxima that of the northern cap had been
determined in 1897 at the Lowell Observatory. But for
the southern cap only seasonal comparisons with the north-
known
ern at corresponding dates enabled
its
maximum
to
be
inferred.
Since then the actual
maxima
have been observed for the
first
more than support the deductions
We
therefore,
may,
of
time,
the
and
southern cap
their direct data
of the previous paper.
conveniently
review
the
subject
again.
The
eccentricity of the Earth's orbit at present
is
.0168.
In the past it has been greater, fluctuating up and down

between values whose extreme upper limit is .0747, according to Leverrier's calculations. Its highest amounts
At the
are those invoked to account for glacial epochs.
present time the orbit of Mars is possessed of an eccen-
and a half times our own, or .0933. It is,

more favorable condition for eccentricity to tell than our Earth ever can have been.
The planet's axial tilt, too, upon which the differential
action of the eccentricity in the two hemispheres depends,
tricity
about
therefore,
five
now
in a
about that of the Earth, being, according to the latest

measures, those at Flagstaff in 1907, 23 13' against the
Earth's 23 27'.
is
NOTES
267
Furthermore, these two quantities in the two orbits are

circumstanced much the same, the line of apsides and that
of the solstices falling in both not far apart.
With Mars
the aphelion of the orbit lies in longitude 153 19', the
summer solstice of the northern hemisphere in longitude
176 48'
the
21',
with our Earth the aphelion is in longitude 280

solstice of the northern hemisphere in
summer
longitude 270. Thus both planets pass the points of

which the near coincidence is vital to the effective working
With Mars
and aphelion with
of the eccentricity, in fairly close succession.
the
summer
solstices follow perihelion
the Earth they precede them. This has the effect in the
northern hemisphere of Mars of curtailing the end of sum-
mer
as
compared with
its
in the case of the
Earth
other hemisphere.
On
beginning, and of prolonging it

similarly affecting winter in the
the other hand, in the southern
hemisphere of Mars summer is delayed into the autumn,

while on the Earth it is clipped.
On Mars, then, at present eccentricity and tilt are such
as to counterpart what the Earth has had in the past, only
accentuated, while their positioning
the moment in the two.
becomes now
is
not very different at
what the result of

on Mars. It betrays itself
of course in the maxima and minima of the two caps.
For a glacial epoch means that the minimum of that hemiWhat has been learned on
sphere's cap is a maximum.
It
of interest to note
such increased eccentricity
is
this score, then, is given in the following table
268
MARS
NORTH POLAR CAP
Minima
1886
1888
1901
1903
1905
1907
NOTES
269
Perusal of the figures proves startling to the theory that

For
eccentricity of orbit is responsible for glacial epochs.
they show that at its minimum the southern cap, which is
the cap of the hemisphere of extremes where glaciation
should appear, is not only not larger than the northern but
is actually the smaller of the two.
And this in face of a
greater precipitation in that hemisphere betrayed by the
cap itself. For at its maximum it surpasses, as the table
shows, the northern cap
at
its
corresponding season.
Eccentricity, therefore, in the case of Mars, far from causing even a relative glacial epoch, produces exactly the
reverse.
From
the respective
maxima and minima
of the Martian
appears that the short hot summer of the hemisphere of extremes is able to dispose of the greater deposit
caps
of
it
snow
of that hemisphere's long cold winter.
Secondly,
that that hemisphere's precipitation is greater than that of

the short mild winter of the hemisphere of means and
;
thirdly, that its short summer because hot is

in melting the accumulated ice and snow
but cooler summer of
its
antipodes.
For
more
than the long

it reduces a
larger maximum to start with to a smaller

the end.
With a
certain
existent at the
amount
effective
minimum
in
of precipitation, then, to wit that
moment on Mars,
eccentricity is powerless
to cause even an incipient glacial epoch.
Suppose, now,
the precipitation to be increased generally over the planet.
The melting powers
of the
summers remain unchanged,
approximately, except that with more deposit more fog or

cloud would be raised which might tend to handicap the
hotter.
With
precipitation equally increased the deposit

in the long cold winter in the climate of
would be more
Its maximum would be raised and relatively

But
to a greater extent than in the other hemisphere.
since the quantity melted in the short hot summer re-
extremes.
2 ;o
mained as before or even diminished, the minimum would

be correspondingly raised until with increase of precipitation the minimum of the climate of extremes actually surpassed the minimum of means and glaciation set in.
Here, then,
precipitation,
we see that by altering the amount of the

from any cause whatsoever, an anti-glacial
changed into a glacial one. No such upsetting

change in the eccentricity, but merely a
Eccengreater or less accentuation of the phenomena.
condition
is
of state follows a
tricity affects the degree, precipitation the very sign of the

resulting action.
Although, therefore, both are essential
to any distinction between the condition of the two hemi-
spheres, it is the amount of the precipitation that really

And the cause of the amount need
settles the matter.
have nothing to do with the eccentricity. Whatever conduces to sufficient increase of precipitation will cause a
glacial
epoch irrespective of a large or a small
Furthermore, as no planet at any time
is
eccentricity.
without some
eccentricity of orbit, it is precipitation that determines a

epoch or the reverse. Mars, then, throws this light
glacial
upon the problem it teaches us that glaciation need not

from eccentricity, and never will do so unaided by
a factor which has no necessary dependence on eccen:
result
tricity at all.
15
TIDAL EFFECTS
'
'
By unhampered age may be denoted
that placid course
by which a planet goes to its death from intrinsic cause alone.

For a planet, like a man, may end its
Like him it is subject
life for other reason than senility.
of evolution
to
many vicissitudes
in the course of its career.
One
cause
of world-extinction, perhaps the commonest of all, is the

tidal action due the Sun.
For every planet that rotates
NOTES
angularly faster or slower than
it
271
revolves
is
perforce sub-
enormous
Since its body is not

partitive strains.
strains
become
these
tides, superficial or
absolutely rigid
bodily, which act as brakes to bring the rotation and the
jected to
Eventually such synchronousness

only a question of time. When it befalls
the planet that body ever after turns in perpetuity the
same face to the Sun. This fate has already befallen
revolution to coincide.
must
result
it is
Mercury and Venus, and must
in
time overtake the
rest.
One
side of the planet is thenceforward forever baked

the other forever frozen. Whatever water originally ex;
isted there will
have circulated, caught up by the heated
currents of the sunward side, to the hemisphere that is

turned away, there to be deposited as ice. This alone
would terminate all possibility of

a mummified mass through space.
life,
and the planet
roll
16
ON THE
VISIBILITY OF FINE LINES
The minimum visibile of the normal human eye is commonly taken at i' of arc. In other words, the separating
power of the eye by which two objects may be distinguished as distinct has this for its minimum distance of
The limit is not, however, the same for all
effectibility.
eyes, varying
upon what
is
is
from individual
known
to individual,
and depends
to oculists as acuteness of vision.
It
something quite apart from near-sight or far-sight and
resides apparently in the fineness of the retinal rods,

eyes having these much coarser than others. Nor is
some
it
the
same thing
ability is
other.
as sensitiveness to impression, though the one

often taken erroneously as guarantee for the
Eyes, however, have two quite distinct capabilities,
sensitiveness or the
power
of distinguishing faint contrasts
272
MARS
AS
THE ABODE OF LIFE
such as detecting faint
stars,
and acuteness or the power
of resolution of parts to which is due the detection of planThe existence of the one faculty does not in
etary detail.
the least vouch for the presence of the other.

Indeed,
experience with many observers has shown me that the
rarely, if ever, found in a high degree together.
Although points may not be distinguished as a rule if
they lie closer together than i' of arc, it is an interesting'
two are
and, at
much
first,
curious fact that a line, having a breadth
minimum
visibile and much less even

be seen were it a point, can
be distinctly and easily perceived. Michelson has shown
theoretically that this must be so, and has further experimented practically to the same conclusion. Before knowing of Michelson's work some experiments of my own had
shown me that such was the case, as indeed every one unconsciously evidences when he sees a spider-web.
My
first experiments sufficed to show me a line whose breadth
was less than 2. "6 of arc. It was a telegraph wire, seen
against the sky, whose distance away was then measured.
Recently I repeated the experiment with more care and
with the results which follow.
On May 6 of this year a wire was stretched by Mr.
Lampland and the writer from the top of the dome to the
top of the anemometer stand near it in such a manner that
it could be seen against the sky down a vista of half a
mile to the west. The wire was an iron wire of the usual
kind, .0726 inch in diameter, brownish and somewhat
In color, therefore, it was not very dark. We berusty.
gan to observe it from a distance of 500 feet, at which it
was instantly unmistakable, up to 2100 feet, where it wholly
ceased to be visible. The distances at which it became
less and less perceptible, the character of that perception,
and the angular width of the wire at the several distances
The remarks are mine,
are given in the subjoined table.
less
than the
than what would enable
it
to
NOTES
from
my
273
observations, but they were almost exactly con-
curred in by Mr. Lampland.

VISIBILITY OF
DISTANCE
A WIRE
.0726 INCH IN
DIAMETER
274
tinguish of itself, apart from position, the reality or questionableness of the impression.
At 1900 feet and still
more
false
at 2000 feet consciousness was unable

from the true.
To apply
face of
this
now
to those
Mars known
to part the
tenuous lines upon the sur-
as the "canals" of the planet.
It
well to say in premise that, when seen under good

conditions of air and observer, they are not bands or
may be
washes or separating shades, but perfectly definite lines

which range all the way from such as might be made by
a pen and india-ink to gossamers like spider-webs seen to
As a mean case of distance we may take
the naked eye.
the planet to subtend in diameter an arc of 14".
Suppose
also that a power of 310 be used, which is also a mean
power. If the telescope lost no light and the definition
through it were as good as to the naked eye, it should be
possible to observe a line on the planet whose width was
'-
^x
I4."o
Now
of the planet's diameter.
310
the planet's diameter in miles
then the width would be
4220 x
^
I4."o
or
|f
of a mile.
is
4220
In miles
x _!_
310
Say f of a
mile.
when
Were
its apparent
the planet at a near opposition
is over 24" and a power of 450 were used, we
should have about one-quarter of this for the width which
diameter
might be seen, or
ft of a mile.
As the telescope does lose both in light and in definition

over the naked eye, it would not be possible to reach this
limit.
If, however, we suppose the naked eye to be three
times as effective, it would seem not to favor the telescope.
NOTES
At
this estimate
275
J mile would be the limiting perceptible
width.
Why a line can be seen when its width is but of the

minimum visibile seems to be due to summation of sensations.
What would be far too minute an effect upon any
one
retinal rod to
produce an impression becomes quite
recognizable in consciousness
ilarly excited.
when many
Psychologically
it is
in a
row are sim-
of interest to note that
there are stimuli perceptible so faint and so fleeting as to
be even below
this limit,
and
that,
unable to
rise into direct
consciousness, leave only an indefinite subconsciousness

of their presence which the brain is unable to part from
its
own
internal reverberations.
twilight of doubt, since, as
we
It is a narrow limbo, this

see in the present instance,
below o."59 the object produced no effect, and above o."6g

the brain was cognizant of objectivity as such.
NOTES ON VISUAL EXPERIMENT
The following visual experiment was performed at the

request of Director Lowell, and the notes may be considered as supplementary to those of the experiment on
the visibility of a wire*
the experiments being identical,
except that in the last instance a disk, having a fine line
same width as wire ruled across its face, was observed
of
along with the wire.
As a check against any influence that a knowledge of

the positions of the wire and line might introduce, the observer V. M. S. had nothing to do with the preparation and
arrangement of the experiment, and made his observations
going toward the disk and wire, the observations being
at the extreme limit of visibility for the line and
begun
wire.
Lowell Observatory, Bulletin No.
2.
276
For each
series the results are practically the
same
for
the two observers
the one having no knowledge as to

the positions of the objects and making his observations
going towards them, the other beginning observations near
the objects and going
away from them.

V. M. SLIPHER.
C. O.
LAMPLAND.
December, 1903.
Wooden disk eight feet in diameter, covered with white

paper, with fine blue line, .07 inch wide, ruled across its
Line on disk makes about same angle with horiface.
zontal as wire stretched above
cable, stretched
it.
from top of dome
Disk suspended from

to a pine to the south-
Plane of disk nearly in the meridian. Wire same

width (.07 in.) and color as that used in the original experiment. (Lowell Observatory Bulletin No. 2.)
west.
FIRST SERIES
Station
100
ft.
c. O.
Wire and lines on disk very distinct.
Angular width disk, 4 35' lines, 12." 48.
v. M. s.
Line stronger than wire.
:
200
ft.
About the same as the 100
ft.
ft.
Perhaps
c. O. L.
Angular width disk, i 31/7 lines, 4/'i 6.

Line the stronger.
Probably due to background offering
:
ft.
c. o. L.
line the stronger.
400
station.
Angular width disk, 2 17/5 lines, 6."24v. M. s.

Line stronger than wire.
Both wire and line on disk strong and well seen.
:
300
L.
v. M. s.
greater contrast.
About as well seen and as evident as at 300 ft. station.
Angular width : disk, i 8/8 lines, 3. "12.
c. O. L.
500
ft.
Wire and
Wire and
line equally
sharp and evident.
line evident
and
Angular width disk, 55' lines, 2. "50.

Disk in shadow, yet line well seen, as is also wire.
:
600
ft.
v. M. s.
distinct at first glance.
permanently
c. o. L.
visible, perhaps.
v. M.
s.
Line more
NOTES
277
Line on disk distinct and evident, but becoming more
Wire
Illumination very bright and glaring.

c. o. L.
evident first glance.
Angular width
700
ft.
Poor
ft.
45/8
disk,
v. M.
Inaccessible.
39/3
disk,
v.
lines, 2. "08.
M.
c. o. L.
lines, I. "78.
s.
Wire comes out very distinctly

disk becoming more difficult
from
this station,
tion.
c. o. L.
Angular width
900
ft.
Can
ft.
Wire more
ft.
somewhat
Line on
difficult at
times
lines, I. "56.
34/4;
disk,
in
shadow of tree.
v. M.
disk, 30/6; lines, i."39difficult but perfectly evident.
s.
becoming
difficult,
nation.
c. o. L.
but glimpse
it
Line on disk also
definitely with
good
illumi-
Angular width disk, 27/5 lines, i."25.

Can see wire and line. Shadow is on disk.
v. M. s.
Both wire and line on disk perfectly and distinctly seen.
:
noo
stronger at times.
but perfectly evident with good illumina-
Disk
Angular width
1000
see wire.
and
s.
station for observation.
Angular width
800
Inaccessible.
difficult.
distinct
c. o. L.
Angular width
1
200
ft.
times
ft.
disk, 25'
lines, I."i4.
when angle of illumination changes.
Angular width
1300
v. M. s.
Certainly glimpse line; poor glimpses of wire.
Wire rather difficult and at times not seen, but glimpsed perLine on disk glimpsed distinctly at
fectly at intervals.
22/9;
disk,
c. O. L.
lines, I."o4.
v. M. s.
Certainly glimpse line and wire.
difficult now, but glimpsed at times.
Line on disk fairly
well glimpsed as wind swings disk, but becoming difficult
Wire
somewhat
faint.
Angular width
1400
ft.
c. o. L.
21/2;
disk,
not glimpse either wire or

v. M. s.
Line on disk glimpsed
and
ft.
line.
Hasty observations.
at times as disk swings,
Wire glimpsed but
difficult.
Angular width
1450
lines, o."96.
Do
difficult.
but
faint, diffuse,
c. o. L.
lines, o."Bg.
disk, 19/6
Cannot certainly glimpse line. I
Certainly glimpsed wire.
get glimpses of a fictitious as well as what I take to be a
real line.
It is (if
Angular width
glimpsed)
illy
defined.
disk, 19'; lines, o. "86.
v. M. s.
278
1500
ft.
Wire
Line on disk seen at times, but
it.
Shadow
diffuse.
Angular width
1600
ft.
Not
at this station extremely difficult.
glimpse
Wire not
of tree on part of disk.
certain that I
now
feint
and
c. o. L.
disk, 18/3; lines, o. "83.
certainly glimpsed
Shadow
equally strong.
imaginary wires seem about
of tree on disk, obscuring line.
c. o. L.
Angular width
disk,
17/2;
lines, o/'/S.
SECOND SERIES
Same
and wire for comparison, as used
disk,
in the first
series of these observations.

Station.
ico
ft.
Wire and
200
ft.
300
ft.
on disk very
line
distinct
station remarks hold.
and
clear cut.
v. M. s.
c. o. L.
(Observations
made
going towards wire and disk.)
About the same as
at 100
Line the stronger.
station.
ft.
c. o. L.
300
400
ft.
ft.
400 ft. station remarks hold.

Well defined at first glance
c. o. L.
perhaps the stronger.
Line easier than wire and more
grounds
Distinct
and
ft.
definite.
seen at
well
first
glance.
back-
(Line appears the
Line more definite than wire.

;
(Some telephone wires pass

these are easier and more definite than
v. M. s.
wire.)
Distinct and well seen at first glance.
ft.
to
c. o. L.
before the disk
600
(Due
v. M. s.
?)
stronger).
500
v. M. s.
both wire and line on disk, line
No appreciable difference
from 400 ft. station.

c. o. L.
Line easier than wire, except where the latter crosses cables.
v. M. s.
(Cables from which disk is suspended.)
Wire and
line
on disk seen with
but fainter than at 500
ft.
perfect ease
station
seen at
and
first
distinctly,
glance.
C. O. L.
700
800
ft.
900
ft.
ft.
Line easier than wire.
v. M. s.
Disk inaccessible. Wire seen.

v. M. s.
Poor station. Trees interfere with observations.
v. M. s.
Wire and line only fairly seen.
Wire quite well seen but somewhat faint and
disk glimpsed at times but
difficult.
c. o. L.
diffuse.
Line on
Disk very bright
NOTES
279
Illumination not the best for seeing line.

Later Line seen
Faint.
quite well when the disk was swung by the wind.
:
c. o. L.
1000
ft.
v. M. s.
Inaccessible.
Wire glimpsed
uoo
ft.
Disk obscured by
at instants.
Line well glimpsed
Wire glimpsed, but
wire doubtfully.
faint
and
for favorable illumination.
200
ft.
1300
ft.
M.
and not
diffuse
c. O. L.
trees.
s.
visible
all
the
Line on disk distinctly seen when disk swings around
time.
v.
c. o. L.
Glimpse wire rather doubtful. Line and wire glimpsed somewhat more certainly than at 1300 ft. station.
v. M. s.
Wire very difficult
glimpsed but faint and diffuse. Line on
disk glimpsed but faint.
c. o. L.
See some markings on disk as before,
quadrant. Perhaps glimpse wire.
i.e.,
in second
Line
more
and fourth
definitely
v. M. s.
glimpsed.
Wire very difficult

diffuse and someglimpsed at intervals
what uncertain. Line on disk also very difficult most of the
time very faint and diffuse. As disk swings from wind it
;
c. o. L.
glimpsed at times.
Glimpse line and have occasional glimpses of fictitious markings
I once
(on disk)
imagined I glimpsed wire. There is a
dark spot in second quadrant, and glimpse line from o to
is distinctly
1400
ft.
290.
Cannot
v. M. s.
certainly say that
glimpse wire
now
of about same
Line on disk fairly well

strength as imaginary wires.
glimpsed at times, as disk swings, but faint and diffuse.
c. o. L.
1500
ft.
Cannot see
uncertain.
wire.
Suspect
it
and
line
on disk
at times, but
c. O. L.
17
CANALS OF MARS
At the opposition of 1907, 264 canals were seen and

drawn by the writer a large number also by Mr. C. O.
Lampland and many, including some new ones, by Mr.
E. C. Slipher in South America, not yet catalogued and
;
mapped.
2 8o
Of
the 264 canals mapped, 85 were new.

Owing to the
and to the Martian season of the year, these
were mostly not only in the southern hemisphere but in the
tilt
of the axis
more southern part

was as follows
of
it.
The
position of the
new
canals
1) 32 in the light regions.

2) 34 in the dark regions or in those of intermediate tints.
3) 12 in or through the southern 'islands.'
4) _7 at the edges of dark regions.
85 in
Added
all.
to those already recorded these
336
101
+ 32 =
+ 53 =
make
368 in the light regions.

154 in the dark ones.
522 in
(i
(2, 3,
all.
Of the canals seen 28 were double or about ^ of the whole

number showing. Those not hitherto so seen were the
Cyclops II
Cambyses
Ambrosia
(?)
Glaucus
Bias
making 56 doubles
in
all.
18
POSITION OF THE Axis OF
MARS
WHICH DETERMINES THE SEASONS ON THE PLANET
The position of the pole of Mars, determined by Lowell

in 1905 from a synthesis of his own observations on the
polar caps and of previous ones of the same, was
:
R.A. 3i;.5
Dec.
54$
NOTES
This gave for the
tilt
281
of the Martian equator to the Martian
ecliptic
23
59'.
This position of the axis of Mars was adopted by the British

Nautical Almanac. The same is to be incorporated in the
American Ephemeris.
In 1907 two very full series of observations on the south
cap were obtained at Flagstaff which confirmed the several
previous series taken there, suggesting that still greater
weight should be given them in the synthesis than had
The resulting inclination of the
previously been assigned.
Martian equator upon the Martian ecliptic is
23
13'.
INDEX
Axial
Aeria, 209.
Air, 12.
thinning
no bar
of,
to a species, 96,
97-
tilt,
Notes 266.
Notes 266.
Axis of Mars, Notes 280.
of Earth, 71,
of Mars, 77,
on mountain
tops, 98.
of Mars, 139, 186.
density at Martian surface,
Notes
239-240.
Albedo,
of Mars, 78, 84.
of Venus, 78.
164.
of each planet, 84, Notes 249.

of Earth, Notes 247.
Amphibia,
Animal
Bolometer,
use in surface
Canals,
discovery of, 146.
geometric look" of, 147.
as straight lines, 148:
breadth of, 149, 160.
length
Martian markings, 195.
Ascraeus Lucus, 157.

Asia, deserts of, 125.
Asteroids,
found
less evident
double, i59-i67,/l9tf^
than
earlier,
i.
(gravitational,
Atmosphere,
of Mars, 77,
Notes 238.
cloud, 78.
evidence from albedo, 78.
proved by limblight, 79.

by changes in surface features, 80.
polar caps
first
to betray, 80.
circulation of, 130.
~ amount
of,
of, 172-175, Notes 249.

quickening according to latitude, 1 75.
quickening starts at polar caps, 1 76.
cartouches
i.
shown by
direction of, 164-165.'

subject to change, 167.
research, new method of, 168.

career of, 171.
Astronomy,
physical,
of, 149.
dark regions, 152-153.

rendezvous at special points, 152.
photographed, 154.
superposed over main features, 155.
in
211.
of canals,
era, 45.
Campbell, 138.
Artificiality,
Ceenozoic time, 45.
Cambrian
Arequipa, 153.
Arethusa Lucus, 196.
deter-
Boltzmann, 86.
life,
Antarctic zones, 183.

Aqueducts of Carthage, 128.
Arabia, 125.
Arctic zones of Mars, 183.
Areolas of Mars, 151.
later
temperature
mination, 85.
53.
on peaks, 103.
dependent on temperature, 103.
of
Beer, 81.
Blondet, M., 48, Notes 232.
Blue band,
surrounding polar caps of Mars, 81-82.
Blue-green areas of Mars, 104-106, 133,
Notes 238.
vegetation explains behavior, 177.
advent of water down

not cracks, 191.
not rivers,
nerve and-CIJ5Iy 210.
'
the,
181.
INDEX
28 4
Carbon dioxide,
amount in atmosphere
Day,
in paleozoic
times, 51.
a bar to the passage of heat, 51.
on Mars, 104, 107.
influence on climate, Notes 236-237.
on
effect of,
Notes 237.
planets,
Carboniferous periods, 45, 53.

heat of, 47-48.
little light in, 47-48.
Carets of Mars, 212.
Carthage,
aqueducts of, 128.
desert character now, 129.
Cartouches, of canals, 172-175, Notes
249.
Casius, wedge of, 133.

Ceraunius, 1 73, 1 76.
Chagos Archipelago, 121.
Chart,
bathymetric, 33.
life
a manifestation
of, 37.
22, 52, 77-78,
85-86.
warm
seas, 46.
in past ages, 71.
Cowper,
Laplacian law
of, 24.
meteoric, 28.
of the Earth, 14.
of the Earth's surface rocks, 14.
Desert-belts,
girdling Earth, 124, 129.
on Mars, 131.
Deserts,
on Earth, 124.
on Mars, 134.
Devonian era,
46.
in,
Djihoun, 161, 203.

Douglass, A. E., 153, 200.
Dust storms on Mars, 22, 89, Notes
256-265.
of, 13.
Elements,
existing if water be present, 39-40.
Elysium, 160.
Eocene period,
85.
Conifers, 70.
Continents of Mars, 146.

Coral reefs,
in
larger satellites in, 12.
Earth, planetary career
Clouds,
found only
Moon and
Density,
Eccentricity,
of Earth's orbit, Notes 266.
of Mars' orbit, Notes 266.
affinity,
relation to plants, 36.

relation to stones, 37.
on Mars,
on Earth,
stage,
of planetary career, 12.
plants found
Chalcedony,
tree trunks changed to, 127.
Challenger expedition, 42, 59, 62-63.
Chemical
length of Martian, 77.
Dead
17.
72.
Eumenides-Orcus, 149, 151, 156.

Euphrates, 213, Notes 256.
Europe,
gain of land
in,
120.
Evolution,
planetary,
3-34of life, 35-69.
i,
Cretaceous period, 64, 71.

Croll, 112-113, Notes 265.
Earth not Sun the motive force
Crommelin, Notes 262.

Crova, Notes 244.
52, 7 2
effect of
Crusts of planet,
formed over molten mass, 13-14.
general principle of, 69.

steps of, 108-110.
of Earth and Mars, 73, 186.
crinkling of, result of cooling, 14-15.
of,
environment upon, 54.
crinkling of, where most pronounced,

Fal, 57-
15-
knowledge of, derived from Earth,

Moon, Mars, 14, 16.
Crustacea, 60.
Cryptogams, 47,
Cycads, 70-71.
70.
Fauna, 45, 58.

Fossils,
evidencing planetologic eras, 44-46,

70-71.
Galitzine, 86.
Dana, Professor, 119.

Darwin, Sir George, 26.
Ganges, 205.
Gardiner, Stanley, 121.
INDEX
Lapparent, de, 48, 68, Notes 233.
Generation, spontaneous, 37, 67.

Geology, a part of planetology, 13.
Life,
Glaciation,
Mars not suffering from wholesale,
89.
Gravity, on Mars, 210, Notes 232.
Gymnosperms,
origin of, 35.

an inevitable
of
phase
planetary
evolution, 37, 66.
a manifestation of chemical
70.
affinity,
37, 38.
water essential
Habitability of Mars, 96-97.

Habitat, of animals, 129.
of Mars, 215.
destined to pass away, 216.
Haeckel, 39.
Heat,
substances vary with, 8.
radiation of, in planetary evolution,
9-10, 25.
of paleozoic times excessive, 48-51.
acquired by the Moon, Notes 230.
of Martian surface, Notes 231.
received by Earth and Mars, Notes
250.
retained by Earth
and Mars, Notes
posing origin the same, 24-25.

compared for Earth and Mars, 27.
developed by planetary contraction,

Notes 225-229.
Hibernation, 90, 96.
Himalaya,
snow line and timber line on, 99.
138.
142.
of, 1 79.
Limblight,
proves existence of atmosphere on
Mars, 79.
Little Colorado, 127.
size of, 214.
the cause
Lower
Silurian era,
in, 46.
Man, first appearance

Mare Acidalium, 133.
Mare I car turn, 158.
Mass,
of, 68.
15, 16, 31, 39.
the fundamental factor of planetary

evolution, 9.
comparative, of Earth,
Moon, Mars,
16.
Maxwell, Clerk, 139.

May-flies, of Carboniferous era, 47.
Mercury, markings of, 192-193.
rotary retardation of, 207.
90, 95, 99.
212.
Ice-age,
Mars on
of manifestation, 107.
of,
chemical constituents
Madler, 81.
for heterogeneous body, 8, 24.

evaluated for Earth and Moon sup-
i,
mode
types
wings of insects found

Lucus Phoenicis, 161.
251-255-
Icarii Luci,
53, 55, 68.
adaptability of, 56, 96, 97.

deep-sea, 57-64.
cosmic character cf, 64.
did not reach Earth from without, 66.
the outcome of planetary cooling, 66.
London,
Heat of condensation,
dependent on mass, 7-8, 23.
for homogeneous body, 7-8, 24.
Huygens,
to, 39.
outgrows the sea,
Habitation,
of,
Notes 265.
Merriam, Dr.,
Mesozoic time,
45, 71.
rocks, 12.
Illumination, slant, 17.

heights of mountains measured by, 18.
Indo-Pacific, coral-reef region, 121.
Isoflors in Arizona, 100.
Metamorphic
Janssen, 138.
Jurassic period, 71.
Meteorites, 4, 34.
constitution of, 4, 6.
age of, 12.

akin to furnace slag, 13, 14.
Meteoric swarms,
gravitational heat
of, 7, 8, 67.
size of, 4.
Lampland, C. O., 154-155, Notes
264,
272, 276-279.
Landscape, the result of cooling, 14.
Langley, 85, 88, Notes 241.

Laplace, i, 24.
velocity of, 4, 5, Notes 220-225.

fused by friction with atmosphere, 4.
worship
of, 4, 5.
relation to solar system, 4-6.
oldest bits of matter,
5.
INDEX
286
Meteorites
Continued.
occluded gases in, 6.
Notes 225.
Mind,
beings revealed by, no.
evidence of, 143-144.
effect on planetary markings, 215.
eaters in, 68.
Molecule, organic, 35-36.

six elements of the, 37-38.
relation of atoms to, producing vital
stage,
12.
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter

in,
of
momentum,
of solar system, 3, Notes 219.

of Alpha Centauri, Notes 220.
Mountains,
1 8.
on Moon, 19,
Mt. Whitney,
bolometer
Moon more profusely endowed with,

32
basins of, unchanged, 32-34.
basins of, on Mars, 132.
character of bottoms of, 33, 34.
cooling of, occasioned development of
higher forms of life, 43.
of Earth, disappearing, 118.
-
on Earth, 141.
absent on Mars, 112, 187.
Oligocene period, 72.
Orbit,
Organisms,
Oxygen,
proportional to mass of planet, 15.

none on Mars, 16, 19, 20-22.
heights measured by slant illumination,
23, 27,
Notes 229-230.
investigations
at,
Notes
242.
Muller, 84.
the chief factor in all organisms, 38.

one-half the substance of the Earth's
surface, 38.
on Mars, 104, 107, 137.

connection with life, 179.
Paleozoic time, 45.
light less and heat
i.
and heat
of,
not explained by
Sun, 49-50.
Earth
Nilokeras, 161.
Nitrogen, on Mars, 104, 107.
connection with life, 179.
responsible for heat of,
itself
So, 52Palestine, 129.
North America, gain of land in, 119.

Novae,
an analogue of prehistoric cataclysms,
6.
Permean
period,
54.
Petrified forests of Arizona, 125, 126.

Phison, 158, 213, Notes 256.
Phcenix Lake, 149.
Pickering,
W.
H., 153, 157.
Pigments, put on by the Sun, 72.
Oases,
first
more than now,
48, 51.
light
Newton,
different
evolution of, 205.

Origin of Moon, 25.
Darwinian theory of, 26.
explained by heat investigation, 25-27.
12.
Moment
on
eccentricity of Earth's, Notes 266.

eccentricity of Mars', Notes 266.
actions, 37.
Molten
size
planets, 30-32.
Michelson, Notes 272.
Miocene period, 68, 72.

edible plants and plant
relative
Oceans,
density of, 28.

members of solar system,
Planet,
seen, 157.
form, demonstration of function, 157,

195-
cooling the
probable meaning of, 213-214.

Oblateness of Mars, 199.
Obliquity of Martian ecliptic, Notes 281
Oceans, 12.
origin of, 28.
distribution of, on Earth
28-30.
history of, dependent on size, u.

internal heat of, its initial motive
life
power, 13.
shape of, 197.

behavior of, 197.
mode by which
worked, 9-10,
.
energy
Planetology,
the connecting link between nebular
hypotheses and the Darwinian
theory,
and Mars,
its
13, 28.
six eras
2.
of,
geologic part
11-12.
of,
13-14.
INDEX
Plant
287
San Francisco Peaks,
life.
Carboniferous, 46-48, 51.

a necessity to, 58.
not existent in deep seas, 63.
entrance of plant eaters with, 68.
light
Plateau,
life on, 103.

Sarasin, 57.
Schiaparelli,
temperature
of,
compared with
as
90, 127.
zones of vegetation on, 93-94.

animal life on, 95-97.
104,
146,
147,
151,
152,
170.
Sea-bottoms,
on Earth, 118.
peaks, 99.
Pliocene period, 72.
Polar caps,
on Mars, 118.
of Mars, So, 204.

constitution of, 81-82.
121.
Sea-level, lowering of,
Seas,
home
mundane
not solid carbonic acid, 8182.

of Earth, ourselves dwellers in, 90.
the earliest
diminish, 114.
sedimentary formations dependent on,
snows
of,
1 80.
43-44-
drying up of, 123.

Seasons,
absence of, when Earth was screened
Portus Sigaeus, 158.
from Sun, 51.

advent registered in changed vegeta-
Precipitation,
of snow, Notes 269-280.
Pressure,
substances vary with,
tion, 71-72.
long on Mars, 78.
two, of Martian growth, 183.
relative length of, determined, 113.
Seaweeds, 45.
Sedimentary formations,
fourth evolutionary stage, 12, 43.
8.
Projections,
on Martian terminator,
20.
not indicative of mountains, 21.

to dust clouds, 22.
due
Proponiis, 133.
Protonilus, 158.
dependent on
Protoplasm,
35-
nine-tenths water, 41.

first existed in water at a high temperature, 42.
formed, the moment cooling permitted, 67.
Pseboas Lucus, 158.
of,
from atmosphere and
Sky, light of, by day, Notes 246.

Sladen expedition, 121.
Slipher, E. C., Notes 279.
Slipher, V.
M., 138, Notes 256, 276.
Slope exposure, 102.
Snow,
on Earth, 130.
Reptiles, advent of,
54.
the
191.
Moon, Mars,
exception to theoretic order, 23.
Notes 269-270.
Solar constant, Notes 242.

Solar system,
catastrophic origin of, 3.
moment of momentum of, 3, Notes 219.
Rotation of Mars, 75-76.

Roughness,
relative, of Earth,
180.
precipitation of,
Snow-fall,
in Alaska, 141.
on Mars, 141.
surface of planet, 83-84.

Rainfall,
Moon,
Silurian era, 45.
of polar caps,
Radiant energy,
Rills, of
seas, 43, 44.
Silicon, 38.
possible with formation of water,
reflection
life,
41-42, 68.
inland, 121.
canals from, 197.

of, 204.
Notes, 268.
water
first
of
meteoric constitution
meteorites,
16.
members
of,
of,
5.
Notes 225.
Species,
supplanting of others by one, 206.

unification of, 207.
Sabaeus Sinus, 212.
Spectroscope, the, 137.
Sahara, the, 125.
Spectrum, energy
of,
Notes 242.
INDEX
288
Stefan, 86.
Struggle for existence, 204-205.
Struve, Hermann, 200.
Twilight,
short on Mars, 78.
Summer,
Upper
the
life
season, 90, 95, 96.

on, by Dr. Merriam,
Silurian era,
insects
found
in, 46.
investigation
90-91, 95.
bearing upon the habitability of Mars,
each planet
96.
Sun,
paleozoic, 49, Notes 232-235.
causes seasons, 50.
not the source of Earth's early heat,
So.
70.
stage, the, 12.
Mars
Surface features of
visible, 73.
permanent in
place, 77.
changes in, 80.
smoother than Earth's, 186-187.

Surface heat,
of
Moon,
87, 88.
of Mars,
89.
their air compatible with great, 87.
Surface of equilibrium, 201.
Teisserenc de Bort, Notes 247.

Telluric lines in spectrum, 137.
Temperature,
of Mars, 89.
due to the Sun, 83.
mean, Notes 240-255.

within which life can exist,
Terraqueous stage, 12.
Earth in, 12, 13.
Mars
39, 90.
in, 12.
Tertiary era, 71.

Thirst, planetary mode of death, 207.
Tibetan tablelands,
on climate, 99.
effects, Notes 270.
effect
Tidal
Tokio, size of, 214.

Trees, deciduous,
first
appearance
of,
life,
53.
a different stage
for,
106.
on peaks, 103.
Vegetal quickening, 177.
Vegetation,
luxuriance of, in paleozoic times, 51.
explains behavior of canals, 177.
sprouting time, on Earth, 180.
speed of, 181.
spread of, 181.
sprouting time on Mars, 182.
Venus, 178.
markings on, 192-193.
rotary retardation of, 207.
visibility of fine lines, Notes 269-279.
Vernal quickening, 178.
Very, Professor, 87, 88, Notes 242, 243.
Vogel, 138.
new determination of, 83-86.

in summer and winter, 87.
Terrestrial stage, 12;
sets
64-65.
Vegetal life,
effect of plateaux upon, 99, 102.
blue-green and ochre color suggest
it,
becomes dominant, 70.

by Earth's cooling,
first let in
Sun
Variation, spontaneous,
the motive principle of
Volcanic phenomena,
proportional to mass of planet, 16.
occur where crust is most permeable,
1 6.
Water,
in proportion to mass of planet, 31.
essential to life, 39.
boiling points of,
on Earth and Mars,
39, Notes 231-232.

specific heat of, 51.
relative amounts on Earth
and Mars,
141.
the answer to the riddle, 198-203.

of polar caps, 204.
loss of supply, 208.
71.
Triassic period,
(new red sandstone), 70.
Water-vapor,
in the air of
effect
Mars, 103, 135, 139.

on spectrum, Notes 248.
Trilobites, 45.
Trivium Charontis, 149.

Tropic of Cancer, 125.
Tropic of Capricorn, 125.
Year, length of Martian, 78.

Zones, area
of,
163.
QB
Lowell-Mars as the abode of life.
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THE LIBRARY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

THE ABODE OF LIFE

DIRECTOR OF THE OBSERVATORY AT FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA; NON-RESIDENT PROFESSOR

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped.

Published December, 1908.

PROFESSOR ABBOTT LAWRENCE LOWELL, LL.D.

TRUSTEE OF THE LOWELL INSTITUTE

since, at the invitation

Eleven years had elapsed

of the former trustee, he had

for their delivery

unusual interest was manifested, the course proving

So great was the demand for

seats that the hall

could not contain the crowd, and the lectures had to

be repeated in the afternoons, to audiences almost as

eight lectures were then published, with slight

changes, in six papers in the Century Magazine, and

were subsequently wanted by Macmillan and

dealing specifically with

Mars, the theme

which Professor Lowell has long had in mind and of

not the mere aggregating of matter, but

what that aggregation inevitably brings forth. The

in this light that

the Earth in the process.

object of the founding of the Observatory at

Flagstaff was the study of the planets

for fourteen years

the purpose, en-

to prosecute this study to

any other observatory at present.

the data thus collected, light has been thrown

the evolution of the planets as worlds, resulting

of which the present book

in all theses, the

cogency of the conclusion hangs

the validity of each step in the argument.

each of these should be based on

natural laws and the general principles

Their truth can only be adequately

appreciated by those able to follow the physical and

many, professional and unprofessional

of comprehending provided the steps

worth the trying to attempt to write for both

the general text has been printed complete in

while the demonstrations of the several steps

have been collected

ence to the places in the text where they severally

All illustrations of the planet

The meteorites gravitate together, generating heat

Substances vary with heat and pressure

the fundamental factor

Present aspects of the planets our guide

Geologic part of planetology .

Moon, and Mars

Mountains absent on Mars

or three thousand feet limit of elevation

Internal heat of the three bodies

Darwinian theory of lunar origin