MARS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1019, 20 July 1911, Page 4

MARS.

The following illuminating paragraph is securing wide publicity: Something has happened to Mars! Professor Howell, one of the ablest presentday astronomers, as the result of his remarkable investigations at Falstaff, Arizona, where he has a magnificent instrument for observing that mysterious planet, maintained some while back that the Martians were engaged in a fierce fight with Nature for their existence, and were energetically constructing huge, canals to lead the water melted at the poles to the arid wastes upon which they depend for their existence. About the same time M Antoniadi described at length before the Astronomical Association how at the end of last year mysterious mists and markings obliterated certain famous landmarks on the planet. Many scientists are inclined to the belief that disaster swift and sudden has swept over the planet. Exactly what that disaster is no one seems ready to state in so many words, but the opinion seems to be that Mars has been visited by some catastrophe, more terrible, more devastating, and more extensive in its effects than any cataclysm which has visited the earth, and it is feared that the struggles of the Martians, supposing human life existed, have ended for ever.