MARS AND ITS MYSTERY
MARS
AND ITS MYSTERY
BY
EDWARD S. MORSE
Member National Academy of Sciences
Author of "Japanese Homes and their Surroundings,"
"Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes," etc.
ILLUSTRATED
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1906
Copyright, 1906,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
All rights reserved
Published October, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
To
PERCIVAL LOWELL
WHO HAS BY HIS ENERGY AND SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT
ESTABLISHED A NEW STANDARD FOR
THE STUDY OF MARS
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
PREFACE
The following pages have been written for thegeneral reader. The controversies over the interpretationof the curious markings of Mars and thewide divergence of opinion as to their nature firstturned my attention to the matter. The questionof intelligence in other worlds is of perennialinterest to everyone, and that question maypossibly be settled by an unprejudiced study ofour neighboring planet Mars. Knowing themany analogies between Mars and the Earth, weare justified in asking what conditions reallyexist in Mars. Instead of flouting at every attemptto interpret the various and complicatedmarkings of its surface, we should soberly considerany rational explanation of these enigmasfrom the postulate that the two spheres, so neartogether in space, cannot be so far apart physically,and from the fact that as intelligence isbroadly modifying the appearance of the surfaceof the Earth, a similar intelligence may also bemarking the face of Mars.
A student familiar with a general knowledgeof the heavens, a fair acquaintance with thesurface features of the Earth, with an appreciationof the doctrine of probabilities, and capableviiiof estimating the value of evidence, is quite aswell equipped to examine and discuss the natureof the markings of Mars as the astronomer. If,furthermore, he is gifted with imagination andis free from all prejudice in the matter, he mayhave a slight advantage. Astronomers are probablythe most exact of all students as to theirfacts, and in this discussion there is no attemptto introduce evidence they do not supply, asthe frequent quotations from their writings willshow.
Having studied Mars through nearly one presentationof the planet with the great refractor atthe Lowell Observatory, what I saw with myown eyes, uninfluenced by what others saw, willbe presented in a short chapter at the end ofthis book.
I wish to express my obligations to ProfessorPercival Lowell for the privileges of his observatory,for many of the illustrations in this book,and for his unbounded hospitality during myvisit to Flagstaff. I am also deeply indebted toMr. Russell