The Light Flash From Mars

Prof. Pickering Makes a Statement in Regard to Alleged Signals.

Cambridge, Mass, Jan. 16. - Prof. Pickering of the Harvard Observatory today said:

"Early in December we received from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona a telegram that a shaft of light had been seen to project from Mars (the Lowell observatory makes a specialty of Mars) lasting seventy minutes.

"I wired these facts to Europe and sent out neostyle copies through this country. The observer there is a careful, reliable man and there is no reason to doubt that the light existed.

"It was given as from a well-known geographical point on Mars. That was all. Now the story has gone the world over. In Europe it is stated that I have been in communication with Mars, and all sorts of exaggerations have sprung up.

"Whatever the light was, we have no means of knowing. Whether it had intelligence of not, no one can say. It is absolutely inexplicable."