could be abolished,
all the millions of money thus expended could be made available for
purposes which would be of real and permanent benefit to the people."

We travelled a distance of some miles, and then the vessel was brought
to a standstill.

What a splendid view we then had over the country all around us! the air
being so thin and clear that there was very little dimming of the
objects in the far distance. Across the country, in line after line,
were the canals which we had been so anxious to see, extending as far as
the eye could reach! With our glasses we made a detailed examination of
several.

Our sensational newspapers have had paragraphs about Martian canals a
hundred miles, or even hundreds of miles, wide! Scientific men have also
similarly exaggerated, and made remarks about the absurdity of the
supposition that such canals really existed.

There is very little excuse for such statements, because Professor
Lowell has always been careful to point out that the lines represented
broad bands of vegetation, and not the width of the canals.

Now the secret was out! What we actually saw was this: not a single wide
canal but a series of comparatively narrow canals, running parallel to
each other, with a very wide strip of vegetation between each. Usually
the canals were linked together in pairs by smaller cross canals running
diagonally from one canal to the other in alternate order. These were
the irrigation trenches. Thus from one of a pair of canals an irrigation
trench would branch out at an angle of about fifty degrees, and enter
the second canal. Higher up, on the same side, another trench would run
from the second canal at a similar angle, and enter the first canal, and
so on--_ad infinitum_. In the case of single canals curved loops
branched out and re-entered higher up, these loops being made on either
side, and similar loops were made on the outsides of paired canals.

As a result of this arrangement it did not matter whether the water
passed up the canal at one season of the year or down it at another
season, it could always move straight ahead; the irrigation trenches
were thus constantly flushed by one or other of the pairs, and there
could be no stagnation anywhere. Merna also told us that some canals are
provided with a network of trenches, whilst others are embanked so that
the water can be let out through sluices when necessary, and thus flood
the surrounding land. Thus every requirement can