CHAPTER IV
What is on Mars?
"I only wish you _would_ come along with me," replied the doctor. "Ihave no idea what intelligent, educated person I can persuade toaccompany me, unless he is given an interest in the discoveries. You arethe person most interested in the enterprise, and you should go. If itis money-making that detains you here, you may rest assured that weshall find fortunes for both of us somewhere."
"I am a slave to the excitement of my business," I answered. "I couldnot possibly spend two or three months in a lonely cell, flying throughspace, without a ticker or a quotation of the market. Besides, there arepeople on the earth I should not care to leave, unless I was certain ofgetting back soon."
"You may be sure of excitement enough, and of a continuously novel kind.Besides, of what interest are the people of this earth, who are allalike, and whom we have known all our lives, compared with the raptureof finding a new and different race, of investigating anothercivilization, and exploring an entire new world?"
"I shall have to warn my friends about you and have myself watched, lestyou persuade me and run away with me when the time comes. If youradventures are half as exciting and varied as your theories, I shouldhate to miss them. But tell me why you have chosen Mars for a firstvisit."
"Because of all the planets he is the one which most resembles the Earthin all the essential conditions of life. He is the Earth's littlebrother, situated next farther out in the path from the Sun. He has thesame seasons, day and night of the same length, and zones of about thesame extent. He possesses air, water, and sufficient heat to makehabitation by us quite possible. Moreover, his gravity problem will notput earthly visitors at a disadvantage, as it would on the very largeplanets, but rather at a distinct advantage over the Martians."
"What do you expect to find on Mars?" I queried.
"That is a very comprehensive question, and any answer is the merestguess-work, guided by a few known facts," replied the doctor. "Theprincipal controlling fact is the reduced gravitational attraction ofMars, which will make things weigh about one-third as much as on theEarth. The air will be far less dense than here. In the mineral kingdomthe dense metals will be very rare. I doubt if platinum will be found atall; gold and silver very little; iron, lead, and copper will becomparatively scarce, while aluminium may be the common and usefulmetal. Gases should abound, and doubtless many entirely new to us willbe there. It is not unlikely that many of these will serve as foods forthe animals and intelligent beings. It is also quite possible that theheavier gases may run in channels, like rivers, and be alive with wingedfish and chameleons."
"How about vegetation?" I suggested.
"The vegetable kingdom will certainly not be rank and luxurious, becausethere is not enough sunlight or heat for that; nor will it be gnarledand tough, but more likely spongy and cactus-like. The weak gravity willoppose but a mild resistance to the activity and climbing propensitiesof vegetable sap, however, which is likely to result in very tall,slender trees. The forces that lie hidden in an acorn should be able tobuild a most grandly towering oak on Mars. Among the animals the speciesof upright, two-legged things is apt to abound. There is no reason forfour legs when the body weighs but little. On the Earth an extremelystrong development of the lower limbs is necessary for upright things,as is shown in the cases of kangaroos and men. In order that a cow mightgo comfortably on two legs, she would have to be furnished with thehind-legs of an elephant; but not so on Mars. Creeping things would bevery few, and it is possible that fish may fly in the water with a shortpair of wings. What four-legged animals there are will very likely belarge and monstrous; for an enormous animal could exist comfortably andmove about easily without clumsiness. For instance, an earthly elephanttransferred to Mars would weigh only one-third as much, and so theremight well be elephants three times as large as ours, perfectly able tohandle themselves with ease."
"By the same reasoning then, I suppose the intelligent beings, or whatwe call men, will be great giants twenty-five feet high?" I put in.
"Some have thought so, but I do not at all agree with them," replied thedoctor. "I stick to the theory of small men for small planets, and largemen for large planets. There is no possible reason for a large man onMars, where muscular development is uncalled for and useless, and wherethe inhabitable space is small. If there are men on Jupiter, they mustof necessity be enormously strong to hold themselves up and resistgravitation. If they walk upright (which I think unlikely), their legsmust be very large and as solid as iron. The Martian legs are likely tobe small and puny, and I believe the upper limbs will be much morestrongly developed. In fact, on Mars the Creator had His one greatopportunity of making a _flying man_, and I do not think He hasoverlooked it. With a rather small, tightly-knit frame, and the upperlimbs developed into wings as long as the body, flying against the weakMartian gravitation would be perfectly easy, and a vast advantage overwalking."
"Ah! then perhaps they will fly out to meet you!" I ejaculated.
"If they do, they will be stricken with fear to see that we fly withoutwings and so much more rapidly," he answered, and continued: "If aflying race has been created there, we shall probably find theatmosphere deeper and relatively (though not actually) denser than theEarth's. This would serve to add buoyancy and still further diminishweight, thus making flying quite natural and simple. I certainly do notbelieve that the Martians are subjected to the tedium of walking. Ifthey do not fly, they will at least make long, swift, graceful hops orjumps of some ten or fifteen feet each. This would require a more hingeddevelopment of the lower limbs, like a bird's. It is also possible thatthe lower limbs may have the prehensile function, and do all thehandling and working."
"But how about intelligence and intellectual development? That is themain thing, after all," said I.
"To answer that takes one into the realm of pure speculation. There arebut few facts to guide one's guesses. But the trip yonder is worthmaking, if only to learn that. I do not incline to the opinion thattheir civilization is vastly older and more developed than ours.Granting the nebular theory of the origin of the universe (which is,after all, only a guess), it is not even then certain that Mars wasthrown off the central sun before the Earth. It is much smaller, and mayhave been thrown off later and travelled farther for this reason.Another good reason for believing in a less advanced civilization is thelength of the Martian year and consequent sluggishness of the seasons.He requires 687 of our days to complete his sun revolution, making hisyears nearly twice as long as ours. I believe his whole development isat a correspondingly slow rate of speed."
"Which do you think is the most advanced and enlightened planet, then?"I ventured.
"That one which finds a way to visit the others first," he answered,with a touch of pride.
"But there may be a tinge of personal conceit in that idea," Isuggested.
"Possibly a mere tinge, but the essence of it is apparent truth," hedeclared. "That planet which has learned the most, made the greatestdiscoveries and the most useful inventions, is the best and fittestteacher of the others, and will be the sharpest and keenest to gathernew information and formulate new science. It is eminently fit thatrepresentatives of such a planet should visit the others, and eminentlyunfit that any primitive civilization engaged in base wars and strivingfor mere conquest should be allowed that privilege. An all-wise Creatorwould not permit a huge, strong, ignorant race entirely to overrun andextinguish one weaker but more intelligent. He might permit a strong,intelligent, masterful race to rule and direct a weaker and dependentone, as a schoolmaster rules and guides a child."
"Then you think we are the wise and masterful race?"
"As no other race has yet discovered us; as they have all left the SpaceProblem unsolved, and as it has been uncovered to us, that is myirresistible conclusion."
"Still, you will not go with ideas of conquest, but to teach and tolearn?"
"We shall take with us swords, shields, and fire-arms, for defence.Unless I mistake the nature
of their metals, our steel will resist anyweapon they can manufacture. But what explosives or what noxious gasesthey may have, all strange to us, it is impossible to conjecture.Therefore, we shall go with peace in our hands."
"What progress do you think they have made in inventions?" I suggested,as the doctor hesitated.
"If they are winged men, I should say they have never felt that urgentneed of railroads, steam boats, telegraphs and telephones, which was themother of their invention here. Flying or air-travelling machines willno more have occurred to them than a walking machine to us. They willhave thoroughly explored every part of their planet, and it is possiblethat their cities will have been built on high plateaus, or even onmountain peaks. But they will not have builded greatly, for they willhave been able to use the great architecture of nature in a wayimpossible to us."
"Have you heard the theory advanced by some humorous scientist not longago, that the organs of locomotion and prehension would some day, or onsome planet, be supplanted by machinery, and that digestive apparatuswould give way for artificially prepared blood?" I asked.
"Oh, yes, that fanciful idea is novel, but irrational. It makes man onlya fraction of a being. On every planet, no matter what the advancementof civilization, we shall find _complete beings_, not dependent onadventitious machinery for locomotion or labour, or on artificial oranimal blood for nutriment. Think how helpless such a creature would beat the loss or rusting of his machinery, and at the exhaustion of justthe right sort of nutritive fluid. Our digestive apparatus will converta thousand different foods into blood. Suppose we could live only onbuffalo meat? We should all have been dead long ago. We might as wellimagine men as mere fungus brains, swimming in rivers of blood; or asbeings beyond the necessity of personal thought, and living on brainsandwiches, cut from the thinking heads of others. Eating is not only anecessity, but a pleasure----"
"That is just what I was thinking," I interposed, looking at my watch,for it was growing late.
"Well, now I have told you how I would have peopled Mars had the orderbeen sent to me here to do it," said the doctor, "will you go along withme, and see how nearly I am right?"
"I am afraid not," I replied; "my business ties forbid. However, I wantto see you make the start and the moment you return!"