Marvels of the Universe 723 
True, we have the telescope to help us, but 
this at its best only means that we can see 
Mars as well as we could see M. Antoniadi’s 
drawing at distances of from twelve to twenty 
feet, or as we can see the sun or the full moon 
with a child’s shilling spy-glass. The difficulty 
of the enormous distance of the planet is indeed 
reduced : it is not overcome. 
But Mars, when seen under good conditions 
and in a_ perfect telescope of eight inches 
aperture and upwards, shows a _ remarkable 
structure, well-brought out in the accompanying 
sketch (page 724) made by the late Major Moles- 
worth on April 2nd, 1903. The planet is covered 
by a network of long, narrow lines, arranged in a 
kind of geometrical pattern, roughly resembling 
a spider’s web; and this net-work appears to 
Professor Lowell, the astronomer of Flagstaff, 
Arizona, U.S.A., so manifestly “ unnatural,” CANALS IN MARS? 
that he considers it to be proof of the agency These two drawings support the contention that it is only 
off Tghiyaintelligont Teeimgs, Tile lems iit tine) Sh arco Oe ee ce UO 
these narrow lines—the notorious “ Canals ’’— 
must be artificial waterways ; or, rather, the belts of vegetation lining the banks of such water- 
ways and irrigated from them. 
In a previous article it was shown that from a consideration of two facts relating to Mars that 
we know with certainty—the feeble action of gravity at its surface, and its distance from the sun— 
it may reasonably be inferred that the mean temperature of the planet is everywhere below the 
freezing-point of water, so that its seas are ice 
to the bottom. Such a world can be no fit 
home for life; except, perchance, in its lowest, 
most rudimentary forms; and a world in the 
grip of a frost so intense could not be one where 
titanic hydraulic engineering works would ever 
be dreamed of or carried out with success. 
But the network of the “ Canals’”’ exists ; 
if it is not the outcome of the efforts of 
Martian engineers and “ navvies,”’ how can it be 
explained ? 
This explanation is simple. These “ Canals”’ 
look so regular because Mars is too far away 
for us to see their irregularities; they look 
straight, because Mars is too far away for us 
to see their crookedness. <A straight line is 
the smallest object that we can perceive, 
and the smallest object that we can perceive 
necessarily looks like a straight line. The 
explanation of the narrow, straight “ Canals ”’ 
WespinguliMiocbysclchesmailliongmilessehatrexten dy eycularil pointe ofiiunctionl chen viewer! iat/la\ distance of 
between them and ourselves. Unity stcct: 
CANALS IN MARS? 
—which contract into a continuous. series of lines with 
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