134 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



situated for astronomical observations. 



That the earth is the only inhabited 

 spot in the universe no one is rash 

 enough to assert. Of the bodies of 

 our solar system, life at all approxi- 

 mating what we have on the earth is 

 possible only on Mars. It resembles 

 the earth in a great many features, its 

 day is about the same length as ours, 

 it is tilted in its orbit approximately 

 the same amount, so that the seasons 

 progress nearly the same as for the 

 earth, with the polar ice caps to show 

 the effect of winter. Mars is much 

 smaller than the earth, only 4,200 

 miles in diameter, instead of 7,918, and 

 is probably much older. Life is found 

 in such abundance on the earth in all 

 varieties and under such adverse con- 

 ditions, in the midst of the tropical 

 desert and in the rigors of the Arctic 

 winter. The South Pole expedition 

 found that small animals frozen in the 

 ice for three years resumed their vital- 

 ity when thawed out, and deep sea 

 soundings have brought to light ma- 

 rines found living under almost in- 

 comprehensible pressures. 



Verily, life exists on the earth under 

 apparently impossible conditions ! 

 Such things we must remember when 

 we turn our telescopes on Mars and 

 find there conditions utterly opposite 

 to life as we know it on the earth. 

 That there is life on Mars undoubtedly 

 is possible, that there is life of some 

 sort there seems almost certain, but 

 that it has been proven that Mars is 

 inhabited by thinking, rational human 

 beings "is another story." To prove 

 this would be the greatest triumph of 

 the age. But to hold communication 

 with them by mirrors or wireless or by 

 some other means! It is almost too 

 great a leap of the imagination! 



The difficulties of signalling opera- 

 tions are readily apparent . If we 

 place ourselves on the earth almost in 

 a straight line between sun and Mars, 

 it doesn't at once seem clear how we 

 could reflecl lighl through an angle 

 of almost [80 degrees, or how if we 

 were the men on Mars it would be pos- 

 sible to see the signals from earth with 

 it almost in line with the sun. To see 

 our signals it would require that the. 

 people <m Mars pay far- '-loser atten- 



tion to appearances on earth than we 

 are paying to infinitessimal changes of 

 light in the evening star Venus. 



We must also confess our ignorance 

 of the methods whereby the learned 

 professor from Amherst, even if he 

 in his specially constructed balloon, 

 should succeed in reaching the great 

 altitude of ten miles from mother 

 earth, is going to recognize the 

 "sounds" from Mars, 38,499,990 miles 

 away, more readily than those from 

 earth but ten miles off. Indeed we 

 read many strange things these days ! 



Mars, the god of war for the an- 

 cients, has become the planet of war 

 for the astronomers, for there is unfor- 

 tunately a great lack of unanimity 

 among observers of Mars. Let us 

 hope that the 1909 opposition may 

 bring a little more order out of the 

 chaos ! 



THE PLANETS 



The month of July is very impor- 

 tant in planetary history. Mercury is 

 a morning star and reaches its great- 

 est western elongation on the 7th. 

 Venus is an evening star and is be- 

 coming more and more conspicuous 

 each night. On July 15 it sets more 

 than an hour and a half later 

 than the sun. On July 1st Mars is a 

 morning star in the constellation 

 Pisces and rises at 11 P. M. ; at the 

 middle of the month it rises half an 

 hour earlier. Its motion, among the 

 stars is direct. Jupiter still continues 

 to be a brilliant object in the heavens 

 though it is slowly getting further 

 west each night. Saturn is a morn- 

 ing star, rising about midnight. It is 

 at quadrature July 15. On July 11 

 Uranus reaches opposition, and may 

 readily be picked itp as a sixth magni- 

 tude star by the help of the map. On 

 the 9th of the month Neptune is in 

 conjunction with the sun. 



Mr. O. J. Lee, at the Yerkes obser- 

 vatory, during the past few months 

 has made a number of photographs 

 with the two-foot reflector in an at- 

 tempt to locate 1 1 alley's comet, and 

 found that it must have been fainter 

 than the 17th magnitude since it was 

 not discovered on his plates. The 

 comet is now almost in line with the 



