48 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



savor strongly of paradox, inasmuch as, under the rules 

 of geometry, the surfaces of spheres increase only as the 

 squares of their diameters, whereas their volumes in- 

 crease as the cubes. That is to say, given supplies of 

 water proportional to their masses, the share of each 

 square mile of Mars' surface would be but four-ninths 

 as large as of the like area of the earth 's. While all this 

 is very true, it is no less true that the extent to which 

 water will spread does not depend solely on its quantity, 

 but quite as much on the character of the topography of 

 the surface on which it flows or rests. Now, one of the 

 most striking peculiarities of Mars is his extraordinary 

 smoothness as compared with either the earth or the 

 moon. It is by reasoning such as this that I have been 

 led to conclude that Mars' natural surface is half marsh 

 and half open sea. 



I take it that the interest displayed by the public in 

 Mars centers entirely round the question as to whether 

 it is inhabited by an intelligent race of beings; refute 

 this hypothesis definitively and that interest will speedily 

 die out. Whoever will give himself the trouble of weigh- 

 ing the evidence pro and con cannot but arrive at last at 

 the conclusion that the Lowellian hypothesis rests solely 

 on these two facts (if, indeed, they be facts), namely; 

 (1) the presence on Mars of a seemingly systematic net- 

 work of straight lines of very great length, with dots 

 marking their numerous intersections, and (2) a total 

 absence of seas and oceans. The theory holds that such 

 geometrical accuracy as these lines exhibit betray a plan- 

 ning intelligence, that there must have been a pressing 

 motive behind so elaborate an enterprise, and that that 

 motive can have been nothing else than to utilize the 

 meagre supply of water yet remaining. Ergo, the lines 

 are cultivated strips of land bordering on canals. 



Now, it is a sound legal maxim that when the reason 

 for the law ceases the law itself ceases. Since closer 

 observation, then, reveals indisputable evidences of 

 ample water supplies on our neighboring planet, the mo- 

 tive for the building of the alleged canals fails, and the 



