The question has been raised whether the Martians have riot tried to enter into communication with us (says Cumille Flammarion in tlie ILnn'iiu'turinn) and if the luminous points sometimes observed by the telescope may not be signals. A careful examination of these luminous points leads rather to the conclusion that they are clouds elevated to a great height in the atmosphere of Mars, and illuminated by the setting sun. Certainly it is not impossible that. these neighbors of ours in the sky may have tried to signal to us. Perhaps they may have at their disposal sciences unknown to us. They may have been doing this 100.000 years, or 10,000 years or 300 year.-; before the invention of the telescope, and the inhabitants of the earth may have known nothing of these appeals. We have for so short a time observed Mars with good optical appliances, and our atmosphere is so often clouded, that the efforts of the Martians, supposing such to have been made, run great risk of not having been seen, and of remaining for a long while unperceived by the inhabitants of our planet. Still, for some years, astronomers ha reexamined with special care the luminous points of which we speak, in order to discover whether in truth they were not artificial lights at least for those amongst us who were far from the meridian illuminated by the setting or rising sun. On the other hand, it has been iisked whether we ourselves could not attempt some form of optical telegraphy with them. Ot:e of my friends, Charles Cross, has even already devised a system of intermittent lights to be thrown on Mars by means of powerful reflectors, and has found that these luminous points, seen from Mars, would be equivalent to the brightest of the planet Xeptune as seen from the earth, when they were examined by optical instruments analogous to our own.. But it is evident that terrestrial humanity has so many material and vulgar interests to think of that it cannot indulge itself in the luxury of such a celestial romance; and we only mention the project by way of saying that it does exist and has already been very seriously studied.
