Is Mars Alive ? 



By Waldemar Ksempffert 



IT was in 1877 that the 

 Italian astronomer, 

 Schiaperelli, detected 

 on the planet Mars those 

 curiously straight lines 

 which he christened canali 

 and which have since been 

 a bone of contention among 

 astronomers. Later he also 

 saw his "canals" double, 

 very curiously, until they 

 looked like 

 parallel rail- 

 way tracks — 

 something 

 which has not 

 been satisfac- 

 torily explain- 

 ed to this day. 

 Now that Mars 

 is about to ap- 

 p r o a c h the 

 earth again, a 



E. C. Slipher, of Doctor Lowell's staff, took this instru- 

 ment with him to South America. The drawings of the 

 "canals" made by Mr. Slipher with this instrument 

 agreed in detail with those made at Flagstaff, Arizona 



The Seven Hundred 



Puzzling Canals 



and What They 



Mean 



ception of our animal and 

 plant life or even of our 

 geographical and physical 

 conditions. 



Far simpler is the task 

 of the earthly astronomer 

 who studies 

 Mars. The 

 planet is never 

 obscured. No 

 clouds, no 

 veils of mist 

 can d i m the 

 view ; for the 

 Martian atmo- 

 sphere is ever 

 dry, rare and 

 severe, except 

 around the 

 melting caps. 

 A weather 



number of observers, headed by Pro- 

 fessor W. H. Pickering of Harvard, are 

 to add their opinions to the dozens which 

 have been delivered in past years, all 

 without materially affecting the validity 

 of Schiaperelli's work. 



Although Mars can never approach us 

 nearer than thirty-five million miles 

 (which is much nearer than it will ap- 

 proach in February), we know more 

 about its surface markings, in some re- 

 spects, than we know about our own 

 Earth. If the Earth were viewed as we 

 view Mars, the only evidence of human 

 handiwork that we could see would be 

 the extensive grain fields of Canada and 

 the United States. Of natural phenom- 

 ena we would note the melting of the 

 Himalayan and Rocky Mountain snows 

 and the consequent flourishing of vege- 

 tation ; the great caps of snow that cover 

 the poles ; the continents and oceans ; 

 and the clouds that girdle the Earth. If 

 a Martian were asked to fathom the 

 mystery of a planet of which he knew 

 only these things, we would hardly ex- 

 pect him to form a very accurate con- 



prophet would have nothing to do on 

 Mars. There is no weather — only the 

 changes of the seasons. 



Watching the Snows of Mars 



Soon after the telescope was invented 

 and used for astronomical observation 

 it was discovered that there is snow on 

 Mars. During each Martian winter 

 great white caps settle down on the 

 poles ; during each spring and summer 

 they dwindle and disappear. In the dead 

 of winter these white expanses may 

 measure thirty-three hundred miles in 

 extent. 



Besides the snow, astronomers long 

 ago discovered that there are curious 

 blue-green and russet areas on the plan- 

 et. At a time when astronomy was not 

 as advanced as it is now, the blue-green 

 areas were supposed to be seas and the 

 russet expanses continents, with the re- 

 sult that both were christened with pic- 

 turesque but inapt names drawn from 

 classical mythology. 



Some years after Schiaperelli discov- 

 ered the famous canals of Mars, Pro- 



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