514 MARS, EECENT STUDIES OF. 



MARYLAND. 



those that bent downward drained the dis- 

 placed waters into the depressions thus formed, 

 and they became seas, and the mandate was 

 fulfilled in that world also, "Let the waters 

 under the heaven be gathered together unto 

 one place, and let the dry land appear." Forces 

 so generated could not act with equal potency 

 at every point, and there must be locations of 

 greater and less resistance ; therefore parts of 

 the wrinkling rock sea-bottom would sink 

 deeper than others beneath the normal level, 

 while other parts would be elevated above it 

 to a correspondingly unequal altitude, llence 

 Mars has its deep and shallow seas, its sea-level 

 marshes, and mountains, with all sorts of inter- 

 mediate relations, and the curves in several of 

 the canals indicate that the engineers were 

 flanking the difficulties that interposed between 

 them and their objective point. There is noth- 

 ing in the nature of the forces that upheave 

 the land of a world from its waters that could 

 leave such markings on its surface as those 

 shown by the map ; nor is it conceivable that 

 Nature, in her methods of world-making, could 

 leave upon her land-surfaces such markings as 

 would bear the interpretation of engineering 

 economy without a broken link in the chain of 

 evidence. 



It has already been asserted that these as- 

 sumed canals can not be artificial, because 

 they are eighty miles wide ; but it is equally 

 inconceivable that the forces of nature could, 

 by the laws of accident, have constructed such 

 an intricate system of markings, and observed 

 an equal width in every case. The map given 

 with the report has reduced them to forty- 

 three miles wide, and a little investigation will 

 show that this is still greatly in excess. If, 

 when our observer is measuring their width 

 with his micrometer, the water should be dis- 

 turbed by the slightest breeze, the light would 

 be reflected from them at all sorts of angles, 

 and therefore it would be spread over the mi- 

 crometer-lines to a much greater extent than 

 the real width of the object under observa- 

 tion. But let us assume that no breeze is stir- 

 ring the water. The surface then becomes a 

 section of a polished ball, analogous to a pol- 

 ished glass ball, and as such its action upon 

 light is dispersive ; it therefore arrives at the 

 earth in the character of divergent light, and 

 must consequently occupy a width upon the 

 micrometer greater than that actually due to 

 an object at that distance. Hence we have 

 probably not yet obtained the actual width of 

 these canals. 



Assuming that the weight of the evidence 

 is in favor of the belief that the markings on 

 the maps show a great system of engineering 

 which connects by water-ways every part of 

 the continent of the planet with its ocean- 

 navigation, let us glance at the logical signifi- 

 cance of such a state of things. Those who 

 produced such a comprehensive system were 

 not merely great designers, but they must have 

 had instrumental means of " running their 



lines," "making and plotting field-notes," 

 " taking levels on the surface of a globe," and 

 " correcting them," as we do ; which implies 

 that they are familiar with the science of math- 

 ematics. The construction of those canals im- 

 plies the necessity of locks. Locks could not 

 be constructed without a knowledge of archi- 

 tecture, which, of course, would not be confined 

 within the limits of lock-building. We have 

 an axiom that architecture is the mother of 

 art; both architecture and engineering require 

 the most absolute accuracy of drawing, and 

 merge too naturally into art to permit us to 

 doubt that a people who could conceive such a 

 comprehensive system of engineering would 

 neglect the cultivation of the picturesque. That 

 they are navigators is proved by the fact that 

 their entire canal system is interoceanic ; for 

 nowhere do we find a single instance of a canal 

 that is not in direct communication with its 

 great southern ocean or the less expansive seas 

 of its northern hemisphere. Look at Lake Nil- 

 lacus, three of its six canals run southward, one 

 taking the most direct route to the ocean, 

 and two diverging to the right and left, on 

 their way there, just enough to serve the eco- 

 nomic purposes of the great sections of coun- 

 try that they traverse. Two others run di- 

 rect from the lake to popular centers, one of 

 which is in direct canal communication \vith 

 the northern sea, while the sixth canal from 

 the lake makes a long stretch westward, but a 

 few hundred miles from the lake forms a 

 junction with another canal, which thence 

 proceeds in the most direct route to the north- 

 ern sea. It is also worth our while to ob- 

 serve the fact that the system is not based on 

 financial economy. A glance at the map will 

 show that the original engineering scheme 

 was the interpenetration of their entire cir- 

 cumplanetary continent with navigable wa- 

 ter-ways, swerving from an equal division of 

 land-sections only where they could utilize 

 natural water-ways or communicate with pop- 

 ulous centers, which seems to prove that 

 Mammon is not worshiped on that planet, but 

 has been banished to this. For this great 

 system of navigable water-ways interpene- 

 trates every part of their world alike, making 

 a unit of the social relations of its entire people 

 and precluding the possibility of barbaric con- 

 ditions existing on any part of their planet. 

 Let us change its name, for it is evidently a 

 world where " Peace on earth, good will to 

 men " is a realization, and it should no longer 

 be called after the God of War. 



MARYLAND. State Government. The follow- 

 ing were the State officers during the year. 

 Governor, Elihu E Jackson, Democrat ; Sec- 

 retary of State, E. W. Le Compte ; Treasurer, 

 Stevenson Archer ; Comptroller, L. Victor 

 Baughman ; Attorney - General, William P. 

 Whyte; Secretary of 'State Board of Educa- 

 tion, M. A. Newell ; Tax Commissioner, Levin 

 Woodford; Chief- Justice of the Court of Ap- 

 peals, Richard A. Alvey ; Associate Justices, 



