With main points in view the reader can now readily comprehend
the real Martian character, although it may be a disappointment
to some who have imagined the inhabitants of Mars as physically
different from themselves; or perhaps, as semi-spiritual
entities, who have possibly been transplanted from other worlds
to undergo a sort of probationary life amid a Paradise of
beautiful surroundings and things.


CHAPTER II.

POPULATION CENTERS, TEMPERATURE, CLIMATE

Although Mars is little more than half as large as your Earth,
its diameter being 4,200 miles, it contains a larger area of
habitable land than the latter, its surface area being
approximately 212,000,000 square miles as against 51,000,000
miles for your Earth. Hence our globe supports a larger
population about 13,160,000,000 people. Your population is in
the neighborhood of 1,645,000,000. Your land area is
161,000,000 square miles less than the land area of Mars. This
is for the reason that your oceans occupy a vast surface of your
Earth, and Mars has no oceans, as these dried up ages ago.
Consequently almost the entire surface of our planet (with
exception of some small areas covered with swamps, remnants of
ancient seas and oceans, and portions of the extreme Northerly
and Southerly Polar caps) is utilized by the Martian inhabitants.

Our planet is gridironed with canals, many hundreds of the main
ones being observable through your telescopes, and the art of