August 21, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



235 



there was in nearly every case a dark circular 

 or oval spot acting as the hub from which the 

 canals radiated as spokes. To these swollen 

 junctions Mr. Lowell applies the name 'oases.' 

 A few of these spots were observed by Schia- 

 parelli and others, but the Flagstaff observers 

 have greatly extended the list. 



As explained above, Mr. Lowell accepts the 

 suggestion made by Schiaparelli and others 

 that the canals form the planet's hydrographic 

 system ; that the changes observed may be due 

 to vegetation, to irrigation on a large scale; He 

 holds that the visible canals and the ' oases ' are 

 due to vegetation along the lines of the real 

 canals ; and that the whole system essentially 

 proves, or at least renders it very probable, 

 that Mars is inhabited by a highly intelligent 

 race whose chief concern is irrigation. His 

 argument is made with great skill. Every fact 

 is considered to point in that direction, and 

 every observed phenomenon is considered to 

 be accounted for, though in explaining the mys- 

 terious doubling of the canals he admits that 

 "we are here very much in the dark." It is 

 held that the canals being vegetal in character, 

 and watered from the melting snow at the 

 poles, are seasonal, developing in the order of 

 their distance (in time) from the poles, and 

 reach their highest development at or shortly 

 after the time of summer solstice. Such, in 

 fact, is the train of phenomena which Mr. 

 Lowell claims to have observed, starting from 

 the south pole and extending to about 40° 

 north latitude. Schiaparelli observed similar 

 phenomena in the vicinity of the north pole, 

 when that region was in position for observa- 

 tion. His sketches made at or shortly after 

 the northern summer solstice cover the region 

 from the north pole to about 40° south latitude. 



Let us examine Mr. Lowell's irrigation 

 scheme. A hydraulic engineer would ask some 

 questions which Mr. Lowell does not discuss in 

 his book. In the southern summer Mr. Lowell 

 has the planet's surface covered with canals 

 running in every direction, from the south pole 

 to at least 43° north latitude ; as far as the 

 tilted position of Mars permitted him to see. 

 We do not know but that they extended en- 

 tirely to the north pole. In the northern sum- 

 mer Schiaparelli' s system of canals extended 



from the north pole southward to 30° south lati- 

 tude, or further; in fact, as far as the position of 

 the planet permitted him to see. And it is agreed 

 by Mr. Lowell that his principal canals are 

 identical with Schiaparelli' s. So we are asked 

 to believe that the equatorial region of Mars, 

 forming a strip at least 70° wide, can be and is 

 irrigated from both the north and south poles ; 

 the ' canals ' in the two cases of opposite flow 

 being identical ! The corresponding problem 

 on the Earth would be to irrigate San Francisco, 

 Chicago, New York, Rome, Tokyo, from the 

 snow melting at the South Pole ; and to irrigate 

 Valparaiso, Cape of Good Hope, Australia, 

 from the snow melting at our North Pole : all 

 the irrigated land lying between New York, 

 etc., on the north and the Cape of Good Hope, 

 etc. , on the south to be irrigated alike from the 

 North and South Poles. Mr. Lowell ventures 

 no explanation of how this engineering problem 

 is to be worked out, though he states that the 

 canals form a system ' ' precisely counterparting 

 what a system of irrigation would look like ; 

 and, lastly, that there is a set of spots placed 

 where we should expect to find the land thus 

 artificially fertilized, and behaving as such con- 

 structed 'oases' should." 



If the visible canals are due to irrigated veg- 

 etation in strips 30 to 60 and more miles wide, 

 traversing the planet's surface in straight lines 

 in every direction, all the canals hundreds and 

 many of them thousands of miles long, from 

 four to ten canals radiating from a common 

 point, intersecting at all angles a great many 

 other canals radiating from other centers, how 

 is the water distributed over this large and 

 complex area ? It starts from the polar snows, 

 we are told, and flows thousands of miles to 

 and beyond the torrid zone, spreading in a gen- 

 eral way over the whole planet. Do these 

 streams lie in the valleys, or on the slopes and 

 ridges? There is no evidence whatever that 

 the surface is remarkably level. The canals, 

 apparently, , do not turn aside for anything. 

 The path of least resistance seems to be un- 

 known. 



The crater Tycho, on our moon, is the center 

 of a system of markings radiating in all direc- 

 tions in straight lines, hundreds and thousands 

 of miles. They cross hills and valleys with per- 



