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£. WALTER MAUNDEE, F.R.A.S., ON THE 



and we cannot discuss that about which we are totally ignorant. 

 Our survey, therefore, is confined to the planets of the solar 

 system and we turn naturally to Mars, the one that is next 

 beyond us in distance from the sun, because its position enables 

 it to be easily observed from time to time, and its surface is 

 the one that we know best. 



But Mars at its average distance is 140,000,000 miles from 

 us ; 34,000,000 miles even at its nearest approach. The mere 

 mention of distances so great, so far beyond our power to 

 appreciate, seems at once to put it out of the question that Mars 

 should be able to offer us any evidence, one way or the other, as 

 to whether it is inhabited by intelligent beings. That we should 

 be able to gather any evidence at all, for or against, is a 

 remarkable achievement. 



It is more remarkable still that an able and experienced 

 astronomer should have convinced himself that he has obtained 

 evidence of the actual handiwork upon Mars of highly intelligent 

 and capable beings. This discovery — if discovery it be — is 

 asserted by Mr. Percival Lowell, a wealthy American, who for 

 the last eighteen years has been studying the surface of Mars 

 with the most admirable diligence and skill. According to him, 

 the surface of the planet is covered by a network of very tine 

 lines, looking like the meshes of a spider's web. These lines, 

 popularly known as canals," are, as Mr. Lowell describes them, 

 so narrow, hard, regular and straight that he considers we are 

 shut up to believe them to be artificial constructions, the work 

 of very intelligent engineers. The points, too, where the 

 " canals " intersect are often marked by dots, usually known as 

 " oases," which are just as regular in their way, being, according 

 to Mr. Lowell, truly circular. And he claims that the object 

 of these two types of structure is quite clear. Five parts out of 

 seven of the surface of our own globe are occupied by our 

 oceans, but on Mars there are no great oceans, and at best only 

 two or three small seas. The store of water on Mars has run 

 low, and Mr. Low^ell's theory is that the inhabitants have 

 constructed vast irrigation works, by which the water from one 

 polar cap or the other is brought, as it melts, to lower latitudes. 

 The long, dark lines seen on the planet are not, according to 

 him, the actual " canals " themselves, but the straths of vegeta- 

 tion springing up along their banks. Where several " canals " 

 meet, there a circular area of considerable size is brought under 

 cultivation, and these are the " oases." Clearly such vast 

 engineering works, extending, as they do, to every portion of the 

 planet, could not be carried out without the ordered co -opera- 



