Labels: text | screenshot | machine OCR: FIRST OBSERVATIONS THE CANALS OF MARS OBSERVATIONS "Trying to fill the 'canals' with a meager surplus of water, OF SPACE PROBES and channel it from one side of the equator to the opposing hemisphere across harsh deserts and beneath a cloudless sky, as Mr. Lowell describes, would be more the work of madmen than intelligent beings. We can be absolutely certain that every single drop of this water would evaporate or seep into the soil in the first 150 kilometers." As far as Wallace was concerned, there could be no intelligent life on Mars. But, he made no pronouncement on the possible existence of microorganisms. Despite Wallace's criticism, Lowell's canal theory remained popular. It was an attractive myth, which in addition echoed the technical achievements of the day-the Suez Canal had been completed in 1869, the Corinth Canal in 1893. The Panama Canal was opened some ten years later. During the same period, locks were installed on the American Great Lakes, canals were cut through the state of New York, and vast irrigation schemes were being developed in the south- western United States. In short, canals were fashionable on Earth ... why not on Mars? MARS BETAT
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