| 68 | The Solar System |
supposition that the "canals" are not the result of chance falls completely in line with our result.
Water is very scarce on the planet, and is absolutely essential to life. Vegetation exists there, and it is therefore highly probable that organic life is to be found there, too. This becomes a posteriori probable, when we behold a system of lines inexplicable on any other ground and precisely what would be needed for the diffusion of water over the planet's surface.
What we find is this:—
(25) A network of fine dark lines meshing the deserts.
(26) The lines are uniform throughout and from five to thirty-five miles in width,[1]
(27) and hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles long,
(28) usually, if not always, following arcs of great circles,
(29) starting from topographically important points in the dark regions,
(30) and traveling to other equally conspicuous points;
(31) both terminals show dark spots, a caret in the coastline and what seems around spot in the desert;- ↑ Tests by the writer on telegraph lines show that a line can be seen, owing to its length, when its width is 2".5, to the naked eye. This would mean about 5 miles on Mars.
