Phobos.
“Deimos is exceedingly valuable also as a sort of stepping stone from
which to get onto Phobos. Once on Deimos and it is as easy getting onto
Phobos as to step from one car to another in a running train. Phobos
is 5,807 miles from the center of Mars. When the three are in line
it is 8,740 miles from Deimos. Deimos travels 3,016½ miles an hour,
Phobos 4,777. A body thrown off from Deimos towards Mars will retain
the velocity of Deimos and will acquire in falling that 8,740 miles an
additional velocity enough to bring its speed up to that of Phobos. So
our Lunarians by close calculation and timely departure from Deimos have
had little or no trouble in lighting on Phobos without a perceptible jar
and have conveyed by that route all the machinery and apparatus they
needed in making their improvements there.”
“Was Phobos worth improving then?”
“No, its motive power was simply harnessed so as to be utilized on Mars.
They did it in this way.
“A large number of powerful steel magnets were prepared on Mars together
with the materials for a large basket or crate stout enough to hold
them, also four cables made of wire, each two inches in diameter. These
materials done up in proper shape were taken up the cable by repulsion to
Deimos then again by repulsion cast off with a company of Lunarians in
one of their cars to sail down to Phobos.”
“I should think that being encumbered with such a lot of stuff would have
added greatly to the risk of the trip,” said I.
“Not at all, the more metal the better, since it can be made light or
heavy at will and so kept under control while other materials could
not be made light. It is always desirable to have more than half the
weight of our outfit in iron or steel on that account. Well, they landed
this material on Phobos and there put it together. The different parts
were insulated from each other to provide for the use of repulsion or
gravitation as the case might require.
“They staked off an exact square five and a half miles on each side,
which was about as large a one as they could get on Phobos and at each
corner they firmly anchored one end of one of the cables. At the center
of the square Mars appeared directly overhead. At this point the crate
was put together upside down and its load of magnets arranged inside of
it also upside down. The cables 3,760 miles long were coiled in a pile
each to itself and the end fastened to the corners of the crate. On Mars
this outfit weighed many tons, but on Phobos it was so light that one man
could lift it. Wires connected with a battery passed through the cables
to regulate the weight of the concern. A small amount of repulsion
raised it and carried it to the limit of the attraction of Phobos. The
momentum taking it a little further, and within the dominance of that of
Mars when light attraction was turned on and the crate rose or rather
fell slowly toward Mars. When the cables were stretched out and the crate
hung by them, it was within a few feet of the ground in some places, at
others as much as one or two hundred. Its motion was from west to east at
the incredible speed of 1,160 miles an hour. Its actual rate of travel is
1,681 miles per hour, but the revolution of Mars on its axis is at the
rate 521 miles in the same direction, so the difference constitutes the
apparent motion of the crate of Magnets. In order to get electric power
from these it was only necessary to set up insulated slabs of soft iron
along the route of the magnets in such position that they would pass
close to them as they swept by. This was done at different places along
the route, and covered altogether, distances aggregating more than three
thousand miles. Of the remaining distance around the planet a part was
over the sea and some over low land, where the scaffolding would be too
high to pay. The electricity generated in these stationary armatures was
run off to storage batteries wherever required in the equatorial regions
of the planet. So, with the cable to Deimos and the big dynamo of Phobos.
Mars is supplied with unlimited power at nominal cost.”
“But doesn’t the plant require renewal? I should think it would rust out
after awhile.”
“Yes the cable has been renewed twice. The last one put up is 12 inches
in diameter. It is easy now to put one up, with the one already up to
steady and steer it. It only has to fall up as you might say, under
the influence of repulsion. The occasion of putting up the last cable,
however, was not rust, but a singular accident. During the winter there
are generally only two or three men left at the pole to keep the shaft
oiled and see that everything is all right. One winter the men left in
charge undertook to move some heavy timbers and steel beams that had
been left on the top of the mountain, and managed to get them into such
a position that they were caught by the cable which slowly carried them
around until they partly fell into a crevice and became immovable. The
cable bent itself around the obstruction, and in doing so was thrown
so far down over the edge of the mountain which as I told you had been
turned off to resemble a capstan, that it began to be wound around it as
if it were a great spool. The men telegraphed to the general manager who
came up with a crowd of engineers and workmen, but they could not do a
thing except to keep the cable raised by repulsion as much as possible
to keep it from catching some obstruction on the ground. The cable made
the complete circuit of the railway track in a trifle over 5½ days. The
mountain stem had been whittled down to about a mile in diameter so that
each revolution wound up a little over three miles of cable, which was at
the rate of a little over half a mile a day.
“The cable was so injured where it had been wound up that they were
afraid it would break if they loosened it, and so they concluded to make
a new one. There did not seem to be any great hurry about it, and so it
dragged along for four years without much being done. By that time almost
700 miles of cable had been wound up and Deimos had been drawn up that
much nearer to Mars. Some thought this a good thing and proposed to let
him wind himself down within a hundred miles or so of Mars, so that he
would be of some account as a moon, for he gave very little light where
he was. Others wanted him pulled down to the ground so they could cut him
up and get the gold, silver, iron and other valuables he might contain;
enough they said to make all the Martians rich. But the more prudent
pointed out that if he was pulled down too far he would interfere with
Lucy Phobos and spoil her work. It had been observed that the cable had
been getting slower and slower and was now moving only a little more
than half as fast as it did at first, and the industries depending on
it were getting short of power. The mathematicians figured that Deimos
would never wind himself up any closer than 12,700 miles or 1,847 miles
from where he was in the first place, for the reason that drawing him in
towards Mars increased his speed so that when he was wound up to 12,700
miles he would revolve around the planet in 24 hours and 40 minutes, the
same time it takes Mars to roll over. Consequently Deimos would appear
to stand over the same spot all the time, the cable would cease to move
and the winding up process would stop, and of course all the machinery
connected with it would stop too. After a full discussion of the matter,
it was concluded to let Deimos get back to his original orbit, so that
the manufacturing that had been started and was operated by the power
furnished by the cable might not suffer any further loss.
The New Cable.
“The new cable was run up alongside of the old and the upper end fastened
to Deimos while the eye in the lower end was placed over the shaft. The
cable was then deprived of weight and the 700 miles of slack floated
about in space like a big cobweb. It was now supposed that if the old
cable was cut Deimos would rapidly move out to his old position. But he
did nothing of the kind. He seemed to be satisfied with his new route,
and for several months he persistently kept on without getting any
further away, his slack cable sagging out behind. They now undertook to
compel him, and they succeeded in this way. They gave the cable full
weight repulsion. This caused it to straighten out upward, and the
slack went on up 350 miles above Deimos curving back to him. The whole
thing looked like a fish pole and line with Deimos dangling at the
end of it. It had the desired effect, however, for its strain upward
exerted considerable power on Deimos disturbing the equilibrium that had
been established between the centripetal and centrifugal forces that
controlled his motion. It took about two years, however, to get him back
to his old route. He was tipped over twice in the process, on account
of the cable having been fastened on the underside; first while the loop
of the cable was above it, and second when it got out to the end of the
cable it was canted back again.”
“It was a funny experience, the little moon had,” I observed. “I suppose
it got down to its former gait so as to allow of the old retrograde speed
of cable at the Mars end?”
“Yes of course, the speed of Deimos decreased with its distance from
Mars. It has occurred to them since, that they ought to have had a still
longer cable, so as to have got him still further off with a still slower
movement. They would have got more power by it.
“The last time I was on Mars a remarkable circumstance took place that
I shall never forget. I was one of a party that accompanied the King on
a visit to the pole to inspect the plant and view the landscape. From
this lofty elevation the view is charming, and there is also a strange
fascination in watching the solemn revolution of the great cable moving
with the deliberation and precise regularity of the hour hand of some
enormous time piece. There is a little cabin built over the shaft at the
pole which revolves with the cable. The man whose business it is to oil
the shaft constantly stays in that cabin, and even sleeps there. While
we were admiring the view we suddenly heard a scream from the man in the
cabin. The eye of the cable is oval and is not filled by the shaft at its
inside end. Upon rushing into the cabin we found the unfortunate man had
been asleep and allowed one of his feet to drop into this space and it
had been slowly drawn in between the cable and the shaft until it was so
fastened that he could not pull it out with the most frantic exertions,
and every minute took it further crushing as it went. At last the man
called for an ax, and it was handed to him, when without a moment’s
hesitation, with two or three strokes he severed his leg just above the
knee. I was terribly shocked, but the poor man made light of it, and
declared he would have another leg in its place as good as that one in
five months. Less than two weeks afterwards I saw him and his leg had
already started to grow out and in five months he was walking on it the
same as the others.”
“That was remarkable,” said I, “but it is said the star fishes on
earth—what! are you going?”
The professor during his talk had been arranging his car, a process I
had been endeavoring to keep the run of without losing his conversation.
He had erected a cab or house over the lower part or body of it, had
fastened it down with a sort of clamps, that appeared to make the joints
air tight, leaving open a small door on one side. The material of this
cab was a thick leathery substance, evidently very tough and stiff and
very transparent. He had also an instrument that I directly perceived was
an air pump, for he used it in pumping air into a number of flasks—those
that he had emptied, I suppose, on his trip down from the moon. As he
filled them he placed them inside of the cab and having walked around and
carefully inspected everything to his satisfaction, he paused and turned
his great benignant eyes upon me in a hesitating manner that seemed to
say that he had something more to tell me which nevertheless he hesitated
to communicate. After a few moments he overcame his scruples if he had
any, and reaching into one of his middle pockets he brought forth a thin
piece of stuff resembling parchment covered on both sides by an adhesive
substance like that used on postage stamps. In shape it was like the moon
at its first quarter. He pressed this piece against his forehead and left
it sticking there for only a moment then handed it to me with a gesture
that appeared to indicate that I should press it against mine. I did
this, but it did not stick and there came into my head a very strange and
muddled sensation not unlike a headache. I pulled it off. The Professor
was looking at me and evidently perceived my trouble, for he directed
me by a gesture to turn it over. The effect of this was as wonderful
as it was agreeable. The Professor seemed to me to be talking through
a telephone and while I could not say that I understood him any better
than by his usual method, it was, to me, a new method, and disclosed
new faculties and possibilities showing in a new light the genius and
versatility of this wonderful race.
The information that he chose this novel way of communicating to me,
related to the rumor in circulation in Mars as stated sometime back, that
a company of speculators made up of Lunarians and extensive promotors
living on the Earth were actually planning to impose a new orbit on
Mars and had so far progressed with the scheme, that the stock was all
subscribed. It was understood the Lunarians were to do the actual work;
in fact it was conceded that they were the only people in the solar
system that possessed a plant at all commensurate with the magnitude of
the undertaking or were sufficiently skilled or experienced to handle
it. The Lunarians were too shrewd or wary to undertake such a contract
without assuring themselves of their ability to perform it. It was to
inform themselves on this point, that the Professor had agreed to make
the long trip to Mars directly after his return to the Moon. This was a
larger undertaking than they had yet attempted. They understood perfectly
the mathematical principles, involved, but the very immensity of the
apparatus required to be used and handled made an appalling task, and yet
they declared if they could do it at all, they could do it easily. They
relied of course on their great secret—the repulsion of gravitation.
The great scheme was therefore not the hoax they were willing to have
the general public believe it to be, but a well considered project, by
some of the most astute financiers and physicists in the solar system.
The following are some of the principal names and firms enlisted in the
enterprise. U. L. & V; J. Y. & Co., K. G. Q.; A. W. Z. & Sons; H. O. &
Co.; R. H. R. Sons and Co.; M. D. C. C. C.; J. X. & J.; I. & P.; D. J. &
N.; L. H. I. & F.; N. B.; S. I. & Co.; C. M. & Co.; R. T. & X.; C. E. The
timidity of capital is notorious; likewise its gullibility and therefore
its instinct for secrecy and slyness. But the above array of names is an
ample guaranty against trifling.
There had occurred to me from the first, the interesting question, what
the business could be that would impose such a long and fatiguing journey
on the Professor as a visit to Mars; I remembered the evasive reply he
gave me when asked in regard to the great scheme for the abduction of
that planet. I presume it was the tension on my mind, relating to this
subject, that gave him an inkling telepathically of my wish to learn
more of this great scheme and led him to pause and comply as related
above. As to their ability to work out so vast an enterprise; it may be
doubted. When Mars is in a direct line between Jupiter and the Sun, if
they could give it a vigorous repulsory push from Jupiter while the sun’s
attraction remains in activity, both his orbit and time would approximate
those of the Earth. It might take several such repulsory pushes to
secure the degree of conformity required for the adjustment of the three
orbits—Moon, Mars and Earth. There is no denying the imminent risk to be
incurred even by such experts as our Lunarians, in handling three bulky
globes in such close proximity, for it is not Mars alone that will be
involved in any change that may be brought about; but all three. It will
prove a much greater contract than handling Deimos and Phobos.
These thoughts passed rapidly through my brain, while the Professor
after another hasty inspection of his car, suddenly stepped inside and
closed the door, fastening it with clamps like the rest. While he was
doing this I eagerly inquired if he would not meet me again sometime and
resume the story of my race in the far future beyond the one hundredth
millennium.
He nodded his head affirmatively with a most benignant smile of his great
kindly eyes, and said something I could only partially understand—“I
will meet you here August — 9 — — —,” something preceded and something
followed the nine, but I cannot tell what. The nine probably refers to
the year—but nine occurs in every remaining year of this century, and
in every one of the next. He waved his hand to me, then reached forward
from his seat in the back of the car touched a button—or something—and
began at once to rise, rather rapidly from the first, and increasing in
speed so fast that the car as I gazed after it, dwindled with wonderful
rapidity and soon went out. Before he shut himself in his car I had
instinctively taken off my hat, and I stood there holding it in my hand,
but without sufficient presence of mind to frame an appropriate farewell.
The fact is, his personality was overpowering and in his presence—I speak
only for myself—one felt small and insignificant.
“Well! can you make it out?” The words startled me and looking up I saw
Allan Ocheltree standing before me with a bucket of water in his hand. I
could not realize for a few moments where I was. Looking down I saw in my
hands the stake with the red blotches on that I had tried to read before
I met the Professor. But that was long ago. I had but little idea how
long, but it must have been tedious for Allan during the long period I
was interviewing the Professor. I wondered how he had occupied himself,
and why he had not disturbed the interview—though I was exceedingly
grateful that he had not. Perhaps he had seen the Professor himself. I
asked him.
“What are you giving me?” said he, “I have seen no professor.”
“But he has only this moment left me, perhaps he is still in sight,”
said I, and I at once turned an eager gaze toward the sky overhead and
directly descried a small black speck. “There! what’s that—I believe
that’s the Professor.”
“That,” said Allan coolly, “is a crane, you can see it moving toward
the east. It is going home to Crane Island. What’s the matter, are you
dreaming?”
I briefly explained.
“Well,” said Allan, “you must have fallen into a doze and got to
dreaming. Don’t give yourself any worry about the way I have put in the
time, I have been very agreeably occupied getting this bucket of water.”
“Do you mean to say,” said I, “that all this interview has taken only”—
“I mean to say that you have been sitting down there on that bank holding
that piece of stick with the blurred keel marks on it, just long enough
for me to walk to that rock yonder dip up a bucket of water and walk
back. Here, time me with your watch and I will show you how long it took.”
Whereupon he threw away the water in his bucket, walked to the rock,
refilled it and walked back—in one minute and forty seconds! Thus may
one get an idea of the quickness of thought. I had heard of it before,
but never realized it so completely.
As we went on with our preparations for our dinner I gave Allan some
further account of what I seemed to have heard and seen, and he became
quite interested in it.
“I think,” said he, “you ought to write it down, and do it at once before
you forget it. You had better go right back to your cottage at the other
end of the lake. I’ll go with you, perhaps I can help you. I can write
while you dictate.”
I thought myself, I ought to write it down, and was pleased that he made
the suggestion. It was soon arranged. After dinner we piled our things
in the Sally Ann and were soon under way. Instead of rowing back to the
outlet of Halsteds Bay, we steered for a narrow depression in the long
point of land that separates the Bay from the upper lake. At this place
which is only a few yards wide, we made a portage by dragging the boat
over by main strength, and in a minute were in the lake, and just in time
to hail a little steamer on its way down. They threw us a line which we
made fast to the Sally Ann, and were thus towed back to Excelsior. Here
Allan left me to go and settle his board bill and get his things, with
the understanding that he would come over to my cottage next morning,
while the steamer pursued her way toward the St. Louis hotel. Opposite
Cottagewood I threw off the line and in a few minutes was back in my
cottage. This terminated the cruise of the Sally Ann.
That night I dreamed over the entire interview with the Professor, I
believe verbatim.
Next morning a messenger came with a note from Allan saying that he
had found awaiting him a telegram from a favorite niece demanding his
presence at her wedding due to come off at St. Louis at a time that
required his immediate departure. This he considered imperative and he
had accordingly started the night before. He would try and come back
after the wedding was over, he said.
I began to write up the “interview” that day, and that night I dreamed
it all over again. It seemed to be now well fixed in my mind and I wrote
rapidly. A week later I got another note from Allan. Business had claimed
him again and he regretted that he would have to forego any further
outing till next season. I have never heard from him since.
I wrote vigorously on the interview, and finished it in two weeks. I was
very tired and glad to get back to the city and to work so as to rest up
from the fatigues of my outing.
APPENDIX.
See page 17, Mitchel Discovery.
The Reader will remember that the Professor stated that the alternating
gravity currents—the secret of which the Lunarians so tightly
gripped—could be applied only to metals and has no effect on organic
substances. In order to get the use of these currents for moving or
controlling such bodies, it must be acquired through the manipulation
of the metals. Thus if a piece of metal be attached to a block of wood,
according to the Professor, the greater quantity of the metal will
control the movement. If a box be constructed of metal so as to hold non
reversible materials of course they will share the movement of the metal.
The following account of the discovery by Professor Mitchell, taken from
a paper of the period, is suggestive of a connection between that and the
discovery by the Lunarians.
Sometime in the sixth decade of this century (19th) a very remarkable
discovery was said to have been made by the celebrated astronomer, Prof.
O. M. Mitchel, then of Cincinnati, and director of Dudley and Cincinnati
Observatories. He discovered either a new metal or an amalgam, alloy
or compound, which when formed into plates possessed the property of
preventing the passage through it of the influence of gravitation. In
short it effectually stopped the passage of the lines of force that
constitute gravitation, so that if a cage or box were made of such
material any solid body placed inside of it would lose its weight and
not tend to fall. If a man were to get inside of such a box, he would
find himself destitute of weight toward the ground. But if he should
open the top of the box he would admit the influence of gravity from
that direction, coming from the moon, planets or stars that might happen
to be in that direction at the moment and it would at once commence to
rise. Acting upon the obvious suggestions enforced by such experiments
the Professor caused a cage to be built large enough to contain 4 or
5 persons, and in order to secure secrecy had it conveyed in pieces,
together with all needed apparatus and stores, to a solitary and obscure
circular hollow or depression in the valley of the Mississippi not far
from Natchez, and called the Devil’s Punch-bowl. Here the cage was put
together and the numerous openings in the plates on all sides covered
by movable sliding lids of the same material, were carefully closed
and secured, all the scientific apparatus, the provisions’ flasks of
compressed air etc., were conveyed within, and lastly the voyagers
themselves. By opening the ports in the direction of the moon they
soon began to fall toward her. As they approached her, by a judicious
manipulation of the sliding doors they were enabled to make a complete
revolution around her. They did not land, reserving that adventure for
another trip. On their return to earth they steadied themselves in a
position some miles up, and allowed the earth to revolve under them
until the Devils punch-bowl came directly beneath them, when they dropped
into it. They dismantled and secreted their machine intending to return.
Shortly after this the Civil war came on, during which Prof. Mitchel
became a general in the service and died at Beaufort, South Carolina,
October 30, 1862, and the secret of his discovery as I suppose died with
him.
P. S.:—Notice! If any of the companions of Professor Mitchell on the
above trip to the moon are still living they would greatly oblige the
author by sending him their address.
Over Population.
See page 155.
Taking our stand in the future alongside of the men and women that will
then be pressing their brains against the apparently insoluble problem of
over-population, we will share their amazement at the insane panic that
penetrated the American people of the 19th century to give away and on
any terms to get rid of their magnificent domain and have it pass into
the control and ownership of any undesirable bipeds that would take it
as a gift. They acted as if they thought land was an encumbrance and
something that was impoverishing and ruining the nation. If they had held
out an exclusive welcome to the hardy and liberty loving people of the
north of Europe, the stock that fought for liberty and independence in
the first place, it would have been at least more rational. But under any
conditions, why such a panic to fill up the country with people? Carlyle
speaking of the prosperity of America 50 or 60 years ago said: “You may
boast of your free institutions and your dimmocracy and all that, but
America is prosperous, because you have a great deal of land for a very
few people.”
He was right.
As long as land was abundant or rather as long as people were scarce,
there was enough of the necessaries of life to give a competence and
comfort to all. When the country is filled up there is no longer the
profusion that nature set out for us at first. The land that we ought
to have reserved for our children, educated in our ways and inheriting
our ideas is given to foreigners, and our own are disinherited. The
miraculous insanity of this, is that we view this prospect with more
than complacency and are anxious to help it along. We not only crowd
the country with immigrants, many of whom we are obliged to class
as objectionable, but we encourage a double rate of increase by the
Apotheosis of the parents of large families, as if fecundity were a merit
or there were any danger of “race suicide”. The danger is greater that
nature out of patience with our colossal stupidity will visit homicide on
the whole race, just as she has so often done on parts of it.
The danger the Professor sees ahead is no dream. Neither is the final
remedy he so confidently proposes. Even now, are some of these vital
questions being solved, and along the Professor’s lines. We shall learn
to begin our study of sociology with the Bees and the Ants; older races
than we are, and in practical hard sense far ahead.
Many people do not know that we have gone to sleep directly over a weak
spot in the Earth’s crust, that although it gives many warnings by
growlings and grumblings, it fails to wake us up. We turn over and half
awake, we mutter—it isn’t going to be much of a quake I guess. If some
crank does not succeed in sounding the alarm loud enough and none but
a crank will be likely to sound it at all, the citizen peers out—“’tis
nothing but that crank,” he says, and he rolls over as if he thought it
better to be overwhelmed by a quake than saved by a crank. So much the
worse if even the crank cannot save us.
The questions that we seem desirous to push aside are the most persistent
in pressing for solution. What is the aim of the aimless multitudes that
swarm to our shores? What do any of us live for? To live? Is living worth
it, if it cannot be done in comfort? The old theological query shows
up—“What is the chief end of man”? As they answered; it was nothing at
all to man and of paltry insignificance to anybody else.
Worker Sex.
See page 182.
I inferred from a remark the Professor dropped that he regarded the
present human race as gradually developing a third or worker sex from
those present, especially the female; and this without any artificial
effort. It is evident to the most superficial observation that the women
are pushing ahead into occupations that a few years ago were monopolized
by the men. The men, are being dispossessed of their employments, and
the women usurp their places. Women thus employed and self supporting,
cannot reasonably be expected to see anything very alluring in a marriage
that presents a prospect to the woman of being obliged to support a
husband and children as well as herself. This condition of things will
certainly cause a decline in matrimony, has already done it in fact;
amongst the women of the greatest enterprise.
See page 199, Abolition of the Stomach.
The Professor’s plan of the abortion or extinction of the digestive
apparatus is in direct continuance of evolution. There are many cases
in nature in which a process or system is abandoned or superseded by a
different one, and new organs and new functions may totally displace
others. For example the Amphibians are supplied with gills, and are able
to live continuously under water, but they begin to live part of the time
in the air, and lungs are developed which at first begin to do part of
the office of aerating the blood of the animal, and gradually assume the
whole of the function, the gills becoming atrophied and abolished.
The prognostication of the Professor in regard to the metamorphosis of
the digestive apparatus is neither wild nor extravagant. The unborn
infant lives on food digested by its mother and introduced into its
system. After its birth the food is digested and supplied by its own
internal laboratory, instead of that of the mother. It might just as
well be supplied by a chemical laboratory. The only essential condition
is that the food be perfectly assimilable by the tissues and without
any surplus of substances not required. The transfer of the food supply
from the circulation of the mother to its production by the chemist
is reached by several stages or changes. First it is from the mothers
circulation supported by exterior supplies of food. Next it is furnished
by the circulation of the infant supported by exterior supplies; commonly
beginning with the natural lacteal secretion, then after a time the
demand changes from this to stronger food; also to acquired habits in
taste the use of stimulants, narcotics etc. Thus nature changes the
organism in the most radical way to keep it in conformity with conditions
that are necessary for its support, and likewise changes its environment
to furnish the conditions with which conformity is essential. If we
consider how great the changes are, in the structure and functions of
one body during the living of one life; we cannot feel surprised at the
changes in human anatomy that we know to have occurred in the long ages
up which we have so laboriously toiled, nor at the further changes which
the foresight of the Professor points out to us, and for which he helps
himself to such a prodigal allowance of time. The changes we have met
and passed are far greater than those assumed for the future. As to our
evolution we are certainly not yet half through.
See page 225, Notes on Mars.
The following notes of the conditions of Mars and its tiny satellites
are furnished by our mundane astronomers, and will give an idea of
the problems that demanded solution by the Lunarians in their famous
contract. Gravity on Mars is four-tenths as much as on the Earth. The
atmospheric pressure is two and a quarter pounds per square inch against
15 pounds on the Earth. The climate of the poles is much milder than
the same regions of Earth, although there are heavy falls of snow. In
June and July 1892, 1,600,000 square miles of snow melted off in the
southern zone of Mars. April 9, 1890, 3,000,000 square miles of snow
fell. Ice is not formed anywhere except close to the poles in winter
time. The channels are connected from sea to sea. They are 60 miles wide
and from 3,000 to 4,000 miles long in a straight line. There are many of
the channels that are duplicates, the duplicate being parallel with and
200 to 400 miles from the main channel. There are from 7 to 20 of these
duplicate channels. Most of the surface of Mars is boggy syrtis, neither
sea nor good dry land. Clouds float 20 miles high—4 times as high as on
Earth.
The year of Mars is equal to 687 of our days. His day is 24 hours and 37
minutes. His diameter is about 4,500 miles; his distance from the sun
145,000,000 of miles; his nearest position to the Earth 35,000,000 miles.
The moon Phobos is 8 to 9 miles in diameter. It is 3,760 miles from the
surface of Mars, and revolves around him in 7 hours and 39 minutes, at a
rate of 79.6 per minute. It rises in the west and sets in the east. Its
orbit is 36,486 miles. Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west,
so to Mars, does the Earth, Sun and Moon. The diameter of Deimos 6 to 7
miles, distance from the surface of Mars 12,500 miles and his revolution
is performed in 30 hours and 18 minutes, rate 50 miles a minute.
FOOTNOTES
[1] After reaching home and looking over the notes of the survey, I found
the number of the stake to be between 1175 and 1185, and it was set on
Saturday afternoon, October 25, 1879.
[2] Plastidule is the lowest, or unit molecule of protoplasm.
[3] The Professor probably referred to the instruction found in Matt. 19:
12.
[4] A Kik is worth about 10 cents American money.
[5] I have gone over these figures and I find the King was correct.
Author.