Mars

Nearer to men than it had come for two years, but seven million miles less near than it had come two years ago, came Mars. Faintly reddish in tinge, it rose to the zenith, a bright disc 76 times smaller (optically) than Earth's full moon, giving U. S. astronomers a far better view than they had in 1924, when Mars hung low on the horizon. Being the only planet near enough for men to study with their telescopes, Mars has for centuries excited speculation as to whether or not it is inhabited, speculation which had lately given way to the practical certainty that it has no animal life but may have vegetation. Prime objects of scrutiny were to be the dark streaks which some hold to be canals, some to be forests; and the polar caps, which may be either ice or optical illusions caused by the 100-mile-thick Martian atmosphere.