t here was the thing
itself in successful working, as I found upon testing it.

On looking at some drawings of Saturn, which were hanging up in the
observatory, I noticed that this planet was depicted with two faint
outer rings which do not appear on our drawings of the planet. One of
these rings has, however, been discovered by M. Jarry-Desloges, but the
outermost ring is still unknown to our observers. This ring is a very
broad one, its particles being widely scattered, hence its extreme
faintness.

The Martians have also discovered two planets far beyond the orbit of
Neptune, and their knowledge of the other planets and also of the sun
and the stars is far ahead of ours.

I was also shown a comet which had recently become visible through their
telescopes, and found from its position that it was undoubtedly Halley's
comet, for which our astronomers were so eagerly watching. I wondered
whether any of them had been fortunate enough to discover it early in
August, as the Martian astronomers did. Its last appearance was in the
year 1835.

John remarked that "He thought Halley's comet might be termed 'Britain's
Comet,' for several of its appearances had coincided with the
occurrence of very important events and turning-points in our national
history, such as the Battle of Hastings, the Reformation, &c.," and he
added, "as it will be a conspicuous object in our skies in 1910, I
wonder whether any important event will occur in our country? In 1835,
when it last appeared, we had a political crisis!"

"Well, John," I replied, "I do not attach much importance to comets as
affecting mundane affairs; we have got rather beyond such beliefs as
that. Besides, when we left England early in August things were going on
all right in our political world, and there was no indication of any
serious crisis."

"Still," said John, "it would be rather curious if we did have a crisis
next year; and I should not be surprised!"

As we were walking home next day, M'Allister suddenly tripped over some
little projection and fell prone to the ground. John ran to his
assistance and raised him up, at the same time asking "If he were hurt?"

"No, not at all," said M'Allister; "I seemed to fall so lightly that I
scarcely felt it when I touched the ground."

"Ah, M'Allister!" I exclaimed, "if you had fallen like that upon our
earth, I think you would not have come off quite scatheless. You see,
upon Mars the gravitation is much less than on the