CANALS IN MARS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 15

CANALS IN MARS.

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR LOWELL. LIFE ON THE PLANET. Professor Lowell, the eminent American astronomer, who paid a visit to London recently to lecture before the Royal Institution, addressed a meeting of the British Astronomical Society. Ho stated at the outset that the site of the observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, was selected from among other places because it had the steadiest air. , Slight tremors in the air often blotted out the finest details. They had studied the planet Jlars with extreme careinlness; and they believed they, had succeeded at ■ Flagstaff in learning some thiii"s about it. Their photographs ot J'lars, Saturn, and Jupiter showed to what a degree of delicacy it was possible to uttaia under the new process. He supposed they would want to know his reasons for continuing his statement concerning the curious markings on Jlars. lu the first place, many thousands of observations had been taken m an air that was exceptionally.steady. His own observations were confirmed by everyone of his assistants. He had sometimes been unable to distinguish the drawings of his assistants from his own. In tiio second place, they had made very careful observations to determine what was the limit of visibility of the human eye. These observations were somewhat in the nature of a revelation. Eyes wore born, not mndp. There were two kinds of eyes —the eye • which was good for form and the eye" which was good for contrast, lo an ordinary individual a speck on tlio ocean was 'a mere speck, but to an expereinced sailor it was a three-masted ship. Experiments which had been mauo at Arizona by means of observation ot distant telegraph wires had shown the possibility of detecting, a one-iundred.li port of 'the minimum visibility of the human eye. , Observations were also made as to whether the lines or markings in Mars were probably a series of dots. In his opinion, to have such a series of dots m i>l ace: of lines would only increase the artificiality of the markings many fold. Ihe dstance apart which these sections must be in order to appear as sections and not as lines must be somewhere between seven anil fifteen miles. . He had had views of Jfars which were like steel engravings. He had seen lines or canals-whcn ho spoke of canals ho did not mean ditches-which led him to the belief that Mars was inhabited. Ihe planet showed signs of somo kind or lile, not human life. These canals they believed" to bo strips of vegetation which developed in accordance with-the meltine of the snow of the polar caps. Drnlin? with the differences m <eloscopes, Professor Lowell said that when large apertures were used, , there was a greater likelihood of the image being disturbed by air waves passing in front of it than there was in the ufo of smaller apertures. These tremors- sometimes broke up circular lines into little mosaics. In practice it had been found that big telescopes split up rings into dots, owing no doubt to the disturbance by the aiv waves. There were nvany pitfalls in the paths of astronomers, Professor Lowell concluded, and the safest course was to take observations continuously, ami not intermittently. His fifteen years observations had led him to that conclusion. He was 'always a sceptical man. and he had always erred on tho side of being too careful. . Tho audience loudly applauded the professor as he resumed his seat. The chairman (Mr. IT. P. Hollis) and Mr. E. AV. M'aunder. of Greenwich Observatory, paid him graceful compliments.