MR. PERCIVAL LOWELL'S DISCOVERIES AND THEORIES.
_The Observatory in Arizona._
In 1894, after a careful search for the best atmospheric conditions, Mr.
Lowell established his observatory near the town of Flagstaff in
Arizona, in a very dry and uniform climate, and at an elevation of 7300
feet above the sea. He then possessed a fine equatorial telescope of 18
inches aperture and 26 feet focal length, besides two smaller ones, all
of the best quality. To these he added in 1896 a telescope with 24 inch
object glass, the last work of the celebrated firm of Alvan Clark &
Sons, with which he has made his later discoveries. He thus became
perhaps more favourably situated than any astronomer in the northern
hemisphere, and during the last twelve years has made a specialty of the
study of Mars, besides doing much valuable astronomical work on other
planets.
_Mr, Lowell's recent Books upon Mars._
In 1905 Mr. Lowell published an illustrated volume giving a full account
of his observations of Mars from 1894 to 1903, chiefly for the use of
astronomers; and he has now given us a popular volume summarising the
whole of his work on the planet, and published both in America and
England by the Macmillan Company. This very interesting volume is fully
illustrated with twenty plates, four of them coloured, and more than
forty figures in the text, showing the great variety of details from
which the larger general maps have been constructed.
_Non-natural Features of Mars._
But what renders this work especially interesting to all intelligent
readers is, that the author has here, for the first time, fully set
forth his views both as to the habitability of Mars and as to its being
actually inhabited by beings comparable with ourselves in intellect. The
larger part of the work is in fact devoted to a detailed description of
what he terms the 'Non-natural Features' of the planet's surface,
including especially a full account of the 'Canals,' single and double;
the 'Oases,' as he terms the dark spots at their intersections; and the
varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons;
while the five concluding chapters deal with the possibility of animal
life and the evidence in favour of it. He also upholds the theory of the
canals having been constructed for the purpose of 'husbanding' the
scanty water-supply that exists; and throughout the whole of this
argument he clearly shows that he considers the evidence to be
satisfactory, and that the only intelligible explanation of the whole of
the phenomena he so clearly sets forth is, that the inhabitants of Mars
have carried out on their small and naturally inhospitable planet a vast
system of irrigation-works, far greater both in its extent, in its
utility, and its effect upon their world as a habitation for civilised
beings, than anything we have yet done upon our earth, where our
destructive agencies are perhaps more prominent than those of an
improving and recuperative character.
_A Challenge to the Thinking World._
This volume is therefore in the nature of a challenge, not so much to
astronomers as to the educated world at large, to investigate the
evidence for so portentous a conclusion. To do this requires only a
general acquaintance with modern science, more especially with mechanics
and physics, while the main contention (with which I shall chiefly deal)
that the features termed 'canals' are really works of art and
necessitate the presence of intelligent organic beings, requires only
care and judgment in drawing conclusions from admitted facts. As I have
already paid some attention to this problem and have expressed the
opinion that Mars is not habitable,[2] judging from the evidence then
available, and as few men of science have the leisure required for a
careful examination of so speculative a subject, I propose here to point
out what the facts, as stated by Mr. Lowell himself, do _not_ render
even probable much less prove. Incidentally, I may be able to adduce
evidence of a more or less weighty character, which seems to negative
the possibility of any high form of animal life on Mars, and, _a
fortiori_, the development of such life as might culminate in a being
equal or superior to ourselves. As most popular works on Astronomy for
the last ten years at least, as well as many scientific periodicals and
popular magazines, have reproduced some of the maps of Mars by
Schiaparelli, Lowell, and others, the general appearance of its surface
will be familiar to most readers, who will thus be fully able to
appreciate Mr. Lowell's account of his own further discoveries which I
may have to quote. One of the _best_ of these maps I am able to give as
a frontispiece to this volume, and to this I shall mainly refer.
[Footnote 2: _Man's Place in the Universe_ p. 267 (1903).]
_The Canals as described by Mr. Lowell._
In the clear atmosphere of Arizona, Mr. Lowell has been able on various
favourable occasions to detect a network of straight lines, meeting or
crossing each other at various angles, and often extending to a thousand
or even over two thousand miles in length. They are seen to cross both
the light and the dark regions of the planet's surface, often extending
up to or starting from the polar snow-caps. Most of these lines are so
fine as only to be visible on special occasions of atmospheric clearness
and steadiness, which hardly ever occur at lowland stations, even with
the best instruments, and almost all are seen to be as perfectly
straight as if drawn with a ruler.
_The Double Canals._
Under exceptionally favourable conditions, many of the lines that have
been already seen single appear double--a pair of equally fine lines
exactly parallel throughout their whole length, and appearing, as Mr.
Lowell says, "clear cut upon the disc, its twin lines like the rails of
a railway track." Both Schiaparelli and Lowell were at first so
surprised at this phenomenon that they thought it must be an optical
illusion, and it was only after many observations in different years,
and by the application of every conceivable test, that they both became
convinced that they witnessed a real feature of the planet's surface.
Mr. Lowell says he has now seen them hundreds of times, and that his
first view of one was 'the most startlingly impressive' sight he has
ever witnessed.
_Dimensions of the Canals._
A few dimensions of these strange objects must be given in order that
readers may appreciate their full strangeness and inexplicability. Out
of more than four hundred canals seen and recorded by Mr. Lowell,
fifty-one, or about one eighth, are either constantly or occasionally
seen to be double, the appearance of duplicity being more or less
periodical. Of 'canals' generally, Mr. Lowell states that they vary in
length from a few hundred to a few thousand miles long, one of the
largest being the Phison, which he terms 'a typical double canal,' and
which is said to be 2250 miles long, while the distance between its two
constituents is about 130 miles.[3] The actual width of each canal is
from a minimum of about a mile up to several miles, in one case over
twenty. A great feature of the doubles is, that they are strictly
parallel throughout their whole course, and that in almost all cases
they are so truly straight as to form parts of a great circle of the
planet's sphere. A few however follow a gradual but very distinct curve,
and such of these as are double present the same strict parallelism as
those which are straight.
[Footnote 3: This is on the opposite side of Mars from that shown in the
frontispiece.]
_Canals extend across the Seas._
It was only after seventeen years of observation of the canals that it
was found that they extended also into and across the dark spots and
surfaces which by the earlier observers were termed seas, and which then
formed the only clearly distinguishable and permanent marks on the
planet's surface. At the present time, Professor Lowell states that this
"curious triangulation has been traced over almost every portion of the
planet's surface, whether dark or light, whether greenish, ochre, or
brown in colour." In some parts they are much closer together than in
others, "forming a perfect network of lines and spots, so that to
identify them all was a matter of extreme difficulty." Two such portions
are figured at pages 247 and 256 of Mr. Lowell's volume.
_The Oases._
The curious circular black spots which are seen at the intersections of
many of the canals, and which in some parts of the surface are very
numerous, are said to be more difficult of detection than even the
lines, being often blurred or rendered completely invisible by slight
irregularities in our own atmosphere, while the canals themselves
continue visible. About 180 of these have now been found, and the more
prominent of them are estimated to vary from 75 to 100 miles in
diameter. There are however many much smaller, down to minute and barely
visible black points. Yet they all seem a little larger than the canals
which enter them. Where the canals are double, the spots (or 'oases' as
Mr. Lowell terms them) lie between the two parallel canals.
No one can read this book without admiration for the extreme
perseverance in long continued and successful observation, the results
of which are here recorded; and I myself accept unreservedly the
substantial accuracy of the whole series. It must however always be
remembered that the growth of knowledge of the detailed markings has
been very gradual, and that much of it has only been seen under very
rare and exceptional conditions. It is therefore quite possible that, if
at some future time a further considerable advance in instrumental power
should be made, or a still more favourable locality be found, the new
discoveries might so modify present appearances as to render a
satisfactory explanation of them more easy than it is at present.
But though I wish to do the fullest justice to Mr. Lowell's technical
skill and long years of persevering work, which have brought to light
the most complex and remarkable appearances that any of the heavenly
bodies present to us, I am obliged absolutely to part company with him
as regards the startling theory of artificial production which he thinks
alone adequate to explain them. So much is this the case, that the very
phenomena, which to him seem to demonstrate the intervention of
intelligent beings working for the improvement of their own environment,
are those which seem to me to bear the unmistakable impress of being due
to natural forces, while they are wholly unintelligible as being useful
works of art. I refer of course to the great system of what are termed
'canals,' whether single or double. Of these I shall give my own
interpretation later on.