mountains. In some instances the walls of the canals were almost
perpendicular. Steep cuts, even in soft ground, seemed to be
characteristic of all the waterways observed by the writer.

On another occasion the writer was given a view of the North
Polar regions. At that time the deep snows that covered the
ground everywhere were melting. The country seemed to be very
hilly. As far as the eye could reach I observed low-lying hills
covered with a white mantle of snow. Patches of reddish earth
here and there indicated that the thaw was general and that the
snow had thinned out in spots. Between the hills I observed a
large body of water, and was informed that this was an artificial
reservoir which had been created by the damming of a large
valley. The sky on this occasion was hidden by a mist, a very
natural phenomenon in view of the fact that many thousands of
square miles of the country, covered with snow on this part of
Mars, was undergoing a rapid thaw.

That the large dark-colored areas on Mars, supposed by early
observers to be seas, are nothing more or less than low, swampy
land covered with rank vegetation, was evidenced to me on one
occasion when I was permitted to see the true character of these
portions of the planet.

The rank vegetation was about three feet high and of a greenish
red color. Interspersed throughout the mass of coarse-leafed
plants were high, dry stalks the remnants of an earlier crop of
Martian flora. The season seemed to be advanced and all plant
life was taking on autumnal tints.