THE PLANETS MARS AND VENUS 353 



ficial aid toward the equator in the timed flow of 51 miles 

 daily for the huge distance of 3,000 miles, and how, in 

 precise step with this flow, the canals, beginning with the 

 uppermost in latitude, successively darken with the re- 

 vived growth of vegetation. Dramatically he contrasts 

 the regular po/eward trend of our sprouting season with 

 the reversed order on Mars, and seems to derive a dis- 

 coverer's elation from the circumstances that one is as 

 regular and sequential as the other! Now, there are 

 three conclusive answers to this pretty fancy which Mr. 

 Lowell, for the sake of bolstering up his pet idea, stu- 

 diously ignores. One is, that unless Mars were much 

 hotter than our earth, the frost in the polar latitudes, 

 where Lowell assumes vegetation to get the earliest start, 

 must be perpetual, and vegetation altogether impossible, 

 whether with or without water, be it warm or cold. The 

 second reason is, that the water freshly melted from the 

 polar drifts w^ould be veritable ice-water, and would be 

 no stimulant to plant-life in a warm, let alone in so frigid 

 a climate; and, third, it is only by screwing up his esti- 

 mate of Mars' temperature to the last notch that he can 

 convince himself or others that life, even on Mars' equa- 

 tor, is possible, not to speak of canals and oases at its 

 very poles! Then there is the sensible, economical rea- 

 son, that the canny Martians of the tropics, did they ac- 

 tually exist, should long ago have learned to take thought 

 for the future and to provide stores of water against the 

 opening of the new season, so as not to be dependent upon 

 their Esquimaux for their early spring vegetables! 



4. The southern snow cap at the full covers over a 

 quarter of the planet's surface, and the northern cap 

 considerably more than a fifth. The snow must come 

 from evaporation, must it not? But Mr. Lowell denies 

 the existence of any evaporating surface save only of his 

 canals! Were the caps a permanent feature, this point 

 might be overlooked ; but the snow disappears every sum- 

 mer, and of course must be as often restored. It seems 

 to me that if Mr. Lowell had not had his fantastic theory 

 in mind, he would have reasoned, sensibly, that the caps 



