THE PLANET OF WAR,

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 520, 18 May 1869, Page 3

THE PLANET OF WAR,

(Prom "Once a Week.") Fifteen years have passed since the ominous conjunction of Mars and Cor ■Leo^yrjig held by the fanciful to betoken, or rather tbacowdrwith, the breaking out ot the war oetween s Ts^»j{ c% TTrance' ranee an( j England, on the one hant^aS^nxa^.-.. - the other. And now again Mars has returned to the breast of Leo— absit omen— and rises each evening, towards the east, as Orion sinks low in its western grave. The discovery that the white spots on Mars resemble our terrestrial snows closely in character, and the highly probable conclusion which may thence be deduced that these spots are really srow caps, appear to us to be among the most striking, results ever obtained by astrono-mers:',-Until the time of this discovery we had absolutely no evidence whatever that the surfaca of the planets present similar relations to those of our own earth. These noble globes sweeping in their widely-extended orbits around the sun, might, for aught that was known to the contrary, be as dissimilar from the earth as the moon is known to be. The surface of Jupiter, for example; seems to be nearly always hidden under a dense vaporous envelope, nor have any physical changes been observed among his belts which could be associated with terrestrial atmospheric changes. But the discovery that Mars has snowy poles involved a series of important conclusions, which at once marked this planet as fit to be the abode of living creatures. Here is our jirst result. We establish the existence fef widely- extended oceans upon the ruddy planet of war. But, next, we must account for the transfer of aqueous vapor from the temperate zones to the polar regions. This transfer proves the existence of a Martial atmosphere sufficiently dense to waft clouds. And not only so, but we learn the existence of air-currents from equatorial to polar regions. Such air-currents involve the necessity of return currents. Thence, as on our earth, there must arise trade-winds, and countertrades. In fact, there must be a system of serial circulation resembling in all important habitudes that which prevails upon our own earth. With oceans, atmosphere, and clouds, Mars at once presents itself to our contemplation as the probable abode of life. But it may be asked whether there is nothing in the aspect of Mars, except the polar snow-*;aps, to justify us in deducing so many concluisions respecting Martial habitudes. Fortunately we have such evidence in abundance. There are spots on Mars, so distinct in outline, and so constant in figure, as to enable astronomers to determine •with the ntmost accuracy the rotationperiod of the planet. These spots, according to the opinion of. most observers, have a greenish tint; though others describe them as having a light indigo or neutral tint color. The remainder of the surface of Mars has a redish tint. This color, however, is less marked when large telescopes are used than when Mars is seen with the naked eye or by means of a small telescope. It seems not unreasonable to conclude that the ruddy portion of Mars' surface is land, and the greenish part water. According to this view it appears that the Martial oceans, though of large extent, are not so disproportioned to the continents as our own oceans. In fact, they rather fall short of the continents in extent. Their arrangement is also peculiar. The Martial continents, of which there seem to b» four, are arranged round the equator of the . planet, while the principal seas lie in the temperate zones. liong inlets extend between the continents, and either connect the northern and the southern seas or run very nearly across from one to the other In the midst of the seas there are large islands, and in a long strip of land, surrounding the northern polar seas, there is a large inland sea or lake. Then, also, we have clear evidence of atmospheric processes much resembling those which 1 take pVice on our earth. Then, again,

there seem to be diurnal atmospheric changes. Lastly, we might doubt whether the liquid which forms the Martial occam i be really water, were it not for the subtle j evidence of the spectroscope. When the sun is low down, so that his rays shine through a considerable depth of air, the solar spectrum is seen to be crossed by several lines not sc on at other time?-. It has been proved that several of these lines, and nearly all of those which apj eir near the hour of sunset, are due to me presence of aqueous vapor in the atmosphere. Now the spectrum produced by the light of Mars (which, of course, is reflected solar light) has been found to exhibit these very lines, When Mars is so high above the horizon that the lines cannot be ascribed to our own atmosphere. This proof of the existence of aqueous vapor in the Martial atmosphere is beyond d'spute. Like the existence of the polar snow-caps, it proves also that there is a Martial atmosphere, that there are Martial oceans, and, finally, that active processes of change are continually taking place on this distant globe, which are altogether meaningless unless they teach us that Mars is the abode of living creatures to whose wants the physical relations of the planet are adapted.