222 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



in the Egyptian oasis of the Fayum, where the intensely salt 

 waters of the Birket el Kerum are within a few yards of some 

 of the most fertile land on earth. 



To sum up : 



Recent investigation of Mars has revealed to us a world of 

 great beauty but filled with signs of age, for it has evidently 

 reached that apocalyptic period when there is no more sea. 

 We have found reason to believe in the existence of a highly 

 developed and intelligent race making a last stand against the 

 increasing deserts of its world. The canals are evidences of 

 tremendous and united efforts to eke out the decreasing water 

 supply to the last drop. In this struggle we see, in some 

 sense, a forecast of what the earth also must come to in the 

 fullness of time. 



We set out to learn about another planet. In return we 

 learn much of our own and incidentally our eyes are opened 

 to the demonstration of a truth long held by instinct, that we 

 are not alone in the cosmos — that other worlds beyond the 

 earth are no longer the dreams of fantastic poetry but firmly 

 established facts of observational science. We see how the 

 law of evolution which has shaped us to fit our surroundings 

 has fitted other creatures in another world to cope with 

 their special needs. 



The falling apple led Newton to the law of gravity on the 

 moon. In the same way the appearance of sprouting vegetation 

 has led us step by step to recognise the law of evolution on 

 Mars — a world where, as on earth but with differences, winter 

 and summer, frost and snow, seedtime and harvest-time con- 

 tinue so long as there is water to support them. 



No doubt the differences between Mars and the earth may 

 have led the thinkers on the former planet to be sure that no 

 intelligent being could exist on the earth owing to the reeking 

 wet and perennial clouds which enwrap it. But probably by 

 this time they too have abandoned the puerile and absurd idea 

 that they inhabit the only world where intelligent life is possible. 

 It is well at least for us to realise not merely Man's place in 

 the universe but that of Mars also. 



