ARE MARTIAN " CANAIS " VOLCANIC CRACKS?
In the January Harper, .Mr William H. Pickering, of the Harvard Observatory, demonstrates with much force of. personal conviction that the theory of MaTtian civilisation set forth by Professor Lowell ia based on facts capable of another interpretation.
— Canals or Bushes? —
"If we are to insist oh a, Martian .civilisation at all hazards," writes Mr Pickering, "a more defensible explanation of the canals might be founded on the photograph of a somewhat insignificant hill in the Azores known as Cabeco Gordo, which was passed on the way to the summit of the volcano Pico, near Fayal. There is a bush or low tree, known as the tJrze, which grows on the slopes of the volcano, and which is analogous in character to our pines and spruces. This hill was originally covered with it, but most of it lias now been cut down by the shepheids in order to afford pasturage "Z Jto their flocks. Narrow areas of it have been permitted to stand, however, in order to furnish protection to the animals against the terrifw winder winds sometimes occurring at these aJtilßdes. Similar markings might verj inreadily,, be, produced artificially on Maxs, and 'we are not even obliged to assume that any portion of its surface is of a desert character. It must be remembered, that the canals of Mars axe not a few feet, but several miles, in breadth. Imagine that the whole surface of the planet was originally covered with some form of bush or tree, which in the northern and equatorial regions has now been largely destroyed. Its continued presence in the southern regions would account for the so-called seas, while narrow, more 01 less continuous strips of it would account for the canals. "The vegetation, both field and woodland, would be supported by the atmospheric circulation, just as it is upon the earth, and no gigantic engineering feats whatever are required of the assumed m•habitents. "But is it necessary to assume a Martian civilisation? Astronomers generallyi think not. The only argument m its favour is the artificial appearance of tfi« drawings of the canal system of the planet. What the public generally does not under* stand, however, is that while the drawings may look thoroughly artificial, and may be most, carefully made, yet t>he planet itself, if sufficiently well seen, might not look artificial ait all. "But if we deny that the canals ara artificial, how,- then, can they be explained? The alternative hypothesis, and the >ne which 'A is believed 1 from tut writer's correspondence is generally preferred by those astronomers interested in M«rs, is that the canals ara due to volcanic cracks lying between craterlete on the Martian surface. Water vapour escaping from these craterlets and cracks nourishes the vegetation growing along their sides, and it is this vegetation which is visible in our telescopes. "This latter view has the distinct ad-. vantage that it also explains the canal*
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on the moon, which, as seen through a rmall telescope, are indistinguishable from those on Mars. They also go through the ■ame changes and transformations ;n; n ihe course of a lunation that the Martian canals do in the course of she Martian, year, ;md differ from them only in the fact th.it they are on a much smal!ti scale. — Cl\ .h.-atiim or Vegetation? — "Urdei the reduced atmospheiic pres- ■ ~yrt ~~ probable almost *otal lack of
free oxygen upon Mare, we can still see I no reason why vegetation should fail to ' exist. But is it likely that civilisation 1 should be found there also? We do not 1 definitely deny that some form of civilisation under these circumstances might be possible, but why invoke its aid to explain , the various observed phenomena, such as 1 the canals, if we can furnish a better, or even a neaily as good, explanation of them by some othei hjrjothe&ißi' l
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 79
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717ARE MARTIAN " CANAIS " VOLCANIC CRACKS? Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 79
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