It is for pleasure

to extend

RUSSEL F

Souris

Compliments

of the Season

CHING

Produce Dealer Phone I3

Although this is set in the Future. it is based on the Latest findings of research Workers who I laying the Foundations n' lnterplueter.) Travel.

The following is the text at he tape-recorded diary of a member of the British expedition which

1993. It is the only record of the

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Best Wishes I AN” To All ,HAPPY NEW YEAR our mend. . "3 A” ROLLO IAY LENNOX HOTEL agocgpy 7- PATTER5BY' P"”p' Mrs. Gert. Devoau Prop. scum Phone BI Rollo Bay Phone 31-32

May Christmas very best

the rest.

Five Houses

the

raring

To you and yours and all

J. F. STEWART

, General Merchant

Phone I3-'I

We trust that the

be yours to enjoy mas. May the New

and yours.

Morel

warmth of

friendship and family ties will

this Christ- Ycar bring

Health-and Prosperity to you

VILLAGE DINER

Meals, lunches., Maza- zinei and Confectionery

Phone 20

pace C risimas

By William King '

expedition so far recovered. .

mo Christmas Day: I have been struggling for an hour now to con- vince myself that this is really Christmas. The struggle is not merely a whim of mine. It is an order. For psychologyis an all-

lmportant factor in an expedition ,

like this.

landed on Mars on December 24th.r- It is not easy to convince your- A self that it's Christmas here on '

Mars- There are no decorations in a space-ship. There are no signs of the hustle and bustle to get the

Christmas dinner ready. T h e r e '

isn't much preparation necessary for dehydrated turkey. There was just the present from my wife - a tiny square box wrapped in tis- sue paper.

We agreed not to.open are pre- sents until this aftemoon - when we get back from our missions. But I held it in my hand and turned it over and over, trying to guess what was in it. I

You must forgive me if I seem to ramble - that is part of the orders. We have been instructed to

We're so glad at this time of year to wish you a . VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

Aldius Mackensie Imperial Oil Dealer General Repairs Morell Phone 16

ion can easily lose his grip. Talk- inns - even to a tape recorder -

Iieep I-Mr-H into our microphones almost continuously from the mo- ment we leave the ship to the mo- ment we return. Here on Mars.

helps a man keep a hold on him- self.

Lei me tell you a little about Mars. Take a tract of the Sahara Desert. transport it to the North Pole. and lift it to the Stratosphere and you have a sound approxima- tion of the conditions and the ter- rain- I am standing now in the middle of a vast red desert. It is thought to be composed of iron oxide - tiny shifting particles of rusty metal. Its exact composition is one of 'the mysteries we are here to solve. It is red because it

' oxygen on the planet. There is now

has absorbed virtually all of the

only the tiniest fraction of it left - at least here in the desert.

That partly explains why I am wdndering about in this cumber-

To all our friends and patrons all

Good Wishes for Christmas and I956

Percy's Grocery Groceries, Meets and Confcdionery Phone 39

VSouris

HI FOLKS

Just a word of Greeting and" Good Cheer for Christmas and The New (ear.

"hank you for past favors.

IANK'S

some pressurized suit which looks rather like the things you used to see years ago in the drawings which accompanied science fiction. Of course. it is a good deal more flexible and less like a suit of armour than those - freedom of movement is all important.

on

RIST

has

UN TY"

(Fr F,-' Fr'.'l

ivakk

gt

,r'.-'

--J, r, .-.--. .-,.--.

. . . It could be a Martian "spring" -- burbling steam like those gey- sers in New Zealand. Or a small

volcano?

What we know about the interior of Mars makes it seem doubtful. But still ..

No. I could swear there is some- thing movlng. . . .

Maybe I'm losing my grip. But here goes to find out . . .

NOTE:

The recording ends there. True to this word. the explorer dropped it beside the "canal" - or what he thought was the "canal" before he went to investigate The second British expedition landed on Mars in June. 1994. The first space- ship had been wrecked in a sand- storm. No survivors were found : and, where the "record" was lo- cated there was no sign of a "canal." Just more even desert. The second expedition found no "canals" and returned home after I day and a half when serious . sandstorms were sighted. A third y expedition will leave next year -- in the hope that the mystery can be cleared up. There is still no positive evidence that the explorer who recorded the above diary is

The other reasons are that the suit is heavy and that it is rela- tively impervious to shifts in tem- perature. It has to be heavy. A man on Mars weighs only a tenth as much as he does on Earth and I should shoot high in the air with every step were it not for the weights in the suit. The tempera- ture fluctuated from about 120 de- grees below zero lfahrenheitl at night to close to 90 degrees above sero in the afternoon.

But for the suit, life would be a continual shuffle from a Turkish both into a refrigerator - or al- most- Not quite. of course. because, there is almost no water vapour here. either. Without the damp. the heat and the cold arr much more tolerable.

Anyhow, here I am. as I said in the desert - to be precise in the desert just south of the Martian north pole.

We landed. yesterday, near the pole because our biggest job here is to track the "canals" which lead from the polar regions where there is ice in the six month long Mar- tian winter towards the equator. The "canals" are the long. straight criss-crossed lines which have fas- cinated astronomers ever sin c e Lowell mapped them in 1890. No one has ever been sure just what they are. But they may be water- ways - irrigation canals - dug by the "Martians" to preserve life on a dying planet.

It is even possible that. in them,

"4

To every friend near and far I

Our wishes follow where you are . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS

LESLIE BROS.

TEXACO DEALER

General Repairs ST. PETERS

Jeweler Seuris

Matthew 2. MacLean's Ltd.

General Merchants

Iouris L Irtdgetown

-6 Good cheerl s Good hoalthi Good luckl

. . . our GOOD WISHES

to our many friends!

It's a Pleasure to wish you once again a

MERRY CHRISTMAS K. E. MacCALLUM

General Merchant Dist. CII. Paint St. Peters Phone 5-)

there is oxygc .

It is even p.....siblc that there is something living in or near the "canals." It is almost certain. any- way, that there are plants growing near them - tiny lichen mosses.

This morning, I hope to find out.

My job is to find one of these "canals" and then report back to the ship as quickly as possible We can spend just about three days here and then we must return.

But to-day. I must find a "canal" and then get back. I hope to be back for the half hour in which we will have a real "Ch r i s tm a s" aboard the ship.

ONO:

,1 have been making good pro-

I must try to get back In the ship by four.

trated and dehydrated food - won't

grass. 1! the aslronomers' maps are right. I should reach the "canal" by noon. But a strong wind is whipping up. I have just radioed the ship and the men who headed north have been enveloped in a sandstorm - or should I say a metal storm? They have lost contact with the ship, for the mo- ment. anyway. I couldn't get much information from the ship because they asked to cut off in order to devote all their frequencies to at- tempts to make contact with the lost men.

The winds and the sands are our biggest enemies.

The dawn is just breaking. The Martian night - with its stars a thousand times clearer than any stars you can see from an earthly desert - is the sort of night which might well have inspired the men who watched on the first Christmas to believe a miracle was in the offing. -

But here the astral fireworks are another terrible hazard: meteors which burn themselves out on earth as they hurtle through thel atmosphere are likely to come straight through here - like so many howling blockbusters from hell itself-

But I must not dwell on things

like that. I must try to think about 1200

Christmas. I must keep up a stout! heart. But it is no good repeating, the official slogans. It is hard to think about Christmas when all you have to focus your mind on is a tiny box in red tissue paper.

.It is a good thing that we de- cided not to open the presents, though. It's surprising how a little lcuriosity helps to keep a man go- ng. I000:

The wind is growing stronger. ll can hear the bits of iron oxide, blowing against my suit. They; sound like pebbles bouncing off a1 tin can. The ship is still searching for the men who went north. 1

And something more ominous has happened: the man who went west - we must travel alone because! we haven't enough men to travel in pairs - found a "canal". Then. suddenly. he went off the air-

If I find one. I shall throw this record outside before I enter.

I am moving as fast as I can.

on Mars must make curious read- ing But, still. it helps. I get the feeling now and then that all this can't be real, that I'm Just a fig- ment in somebody's imagination. And that little box is the only re- minder of reality.

1100:

There it Is. I can see a faint tinge of green ahead. There seems to be a.depression behind. Wait. The wind is whipping up. the green has disappeared.

I can no longer make much pro- gress. I can't contact the ship. either. Sand in the radio gear probably. It's a little box, strap- ped to my chest and it's hard to get at.

No. wait, there are sounds on it now- Static. But regular static. Could someone be jamming the radio waves? Or is it just another trick of the Martian atmosphere?

The cloud of sand in front of me looks like a London fog. only it has this strange red colour. No nostalgia about that.

I think the wind is dropping a bit. Yes, I can see the "greenery" again now.

It” looks like a bed of moss. But there is definitely a depression be- hind lt. ' I Here we go.

There is a level stretch of smooth rock reaching away from one "bank" of the canal to the other and just below the tops of the banks.

it look: a: though someone . II

132

BEST WISHES

We wish you and those you

love, all the happiness that Christmas Day can bring.

Henrietta MacKlnnon

Groceries and Dry Goods ST. PETERS

The Christmas dinner - concen-

Cheeriest look much like the Christmas you'll CHRBTMAS GREETINGS Ibe having back on Earth. But A d ,there will be Ihr presents we

"I Ibrought from home A the pre-

GOOD WISHES sents which have stayed in their

in H" wrappers for nine long weeks while

NEW YEAR we seemed to hover motionless in

space and were really hurtling through it at 70.Q0fI miles an hour. I wonder what. my wife decided was appropriate for ii man on Mars”

The STAR GROCERY

. Ray White, Prop . Dist. Cll. Paint, Sourls

' At least. it can't he a tie. A tie

Phone 2! would have taken up too much

room. Even a tie is bulky on a

Phone to

H. L FOIICHERI

Groceries, M

i CHR-ISTMAS GREETINGS I. We wish you every ltjpplnggg I

For today and ,loade eh."-

To 'isrlghton every comm. I..." . Cf '-55'! New Year.

Mersuzo-s. smics mm...

eetsl leurle--.

,. to all our friends Sinoore Wishes for A HAPPY HOLIDAY

a .

RX-D K ”

MORELL

Iuy - Ienefh - Iulld

.Ptiene

, s

L

space ship. I'm sorry my mind keeps wand- ering back to that a man's

it there. But this could he an old river-bed and the rock could have been worn smooth. yet.

the bank, now-

has stopped) that the went north are definitely lost. Two men were sent to find them. They found them a good mile apart. Both were smothered in sand A and their oxygen tanks had appar- ently burst.

man who went west and found the

of us has any personal possessions

man touch about it.

or a man-hole cover.

1...j....j.mmj.:.j.

dead - though his chances of sur- vival seem slim. liis Christmas present A the present that occu- pied so large a place in his thoughts - was found opened in the space-ship. The contents were gone. . . - x

There is no telling for sure -

I am making my way south along

The ship reports (the "static"

To All

CHRISTMAS GREETING And HAPPY MOTORING ,in '56 MacDONALD'S Service Station Irving Products Souris Phone 28 .-

men who i

f&

GREETINGS And BEST WISHES To ONE and All.

Ladies' 8: Children's Wear

Mrs. Ruth Poole, Prop. iouris Phone II

A Very

No one has seen any sign of the

"canal."

Nothing interesting. yet. Just this slab of rock.

I must get back soon. I wonder what will turn up in that present from my wife-

That is the only contact we seem

H. r. MucooNALo

Building Materials

to have with the Earth. For Mars and Paint, is too far away for radio contact. ' Just those presents. waiting to be Kingsbo,-0 phone 5.31

opened. . . . A space-ship is -like a battleship converted into a hospital: neat.

Merry Christmas T

A Joyous Greeting to all This Christmas and Good Luck throughout "The New Year '

The Seaview Hotel Beulah I Edwin

compact. hygienic. smelling a little of air conditioning and disinf&t- ant. completely impersonal. None

with him. They would take up space urgently needed for equip- ment - equipment that may save our lives.

But we were each permitted to take one Christmas present with

To our frierjls and pat- us - one minute box with a hu-

rons sincere hanks. A MERRY IIHRISTMAS And A HAPPY I956

Souris Snack Bar

' Meals, lunches, Magazines and Confectionery

Ah. - . There's a hole in the rock. A round. smooth hole. Like a hatch

And there are rumblings there.

T-.. L J, Props. Sourls Phone It

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

JAY'S GARAGE

Texaco Dealer

General Repair! Morell Phone 8.

In appreciation of favors.

SEASON'S GREETINGS

past

:.s'y? ': O?

to all

CHEVERIE BROS. Groceries, Meats I Confectioner, Souris

O N.

A MERRY CHRISTMAS

May we take a few minutes from the hustle and bustle of every day wish you and yours un- bounding ioy for the Yule- tide Season.

. RICHARDS 3. son

Groceries - Meats and Confectionery

routine to

Merry Christmas

A real sincere Old-fashion- ed Christmas to you and your friends.

FLYNN'S Meats and Groceries St. Peters Phone 13-12

A Sincere

.Wish

reflections on a Christmas present

Tie wish you iThe pledsentest of Christ- K K . moses,

And a New Year

Filled with zest and eccom- Ev. TE1” pllshinent. ' II CD3 50 Sean's Geoe&p

team

.44

Souris

For The Brightest Christmas Ever

Ivy Ulrlhoneo undies light

. your way

In young, n4 9..., y ' .

New v... IT. 5 CHRISTMAS TIME ..'..'...l..-.... .........

Safely all the way.

SOURIS

intoion

m I

am

EASTERN" CHIPS INC. ,

Spud Island Chips

And through the New Your guide you

IUY-IENIPIT-IUILD

Good wishes to our many Good Friends.

Wheel Of Fortune Lodge

Mrs. Harry Francis, Prep. Fortune Iridge

Morell

Holiday Greetings!

DINGWELL & ROSSITER

General Merchant & Produce Dealers

TO All OUR CUSTOMERS

May the Yuletide; every blessing- Fill Christmas Day for you and yours. Phone I

Phone 86

CO-OP

Phone 50-4 I I 2:. "::':. ”'J.'2'?I . M ---v--vv Greetings our Thanks for sasrsnn PACKING co. JOI-tNNY'S seurts Phone 3 Service Station Imperial Products

led Point

Greetings

h' Al MEN'S In IOYT WEAR

Ist. W. I. leard Redd. Sourls

IUY -

ST. PETERS

ST. PETER'S CO-OP

IENEFIT - IUILD

Our wishes for your Ioa&, Happiness and Presperh are unlimited. May you have an extra share of CH

things good this coming

year.

;;......s"- W is ' ” i