rs are provided, and these make good
the wastage caused by excessive evaporation where pipes cannot be used."

"Thank you, sir," I said; "the information you have now given me
entirely confirms the figures as to the area of the snow-cap, &c.,
mentioned by Professor Lowell, but as regards the depth of the snow and
the size of the area to be covered, he has with scientific caution
refrained from estimating to the full extent which the facts you mention
seem to warrant. In addition to this, no allowance has been made for the
water derived from the northern snow-cap."

Thus vanished the theory which was supposed to support the view that the
canals must be hopelessly unworkable, and could never be of any use for
irrigation purposes.

It had also been argued that no intelligent beings would construct
canals if the planet were generally flat, as it would only be necessary
to let the water flow over the surface as far as it would go, and thus
irrigate the parts reached by the water; whilst if it were not flat, the
canals could not be constructed at all.

I asked Tellurio "What he thought of this suggestion?"

He replied, "Well, sir--here we have a planet believed to possess only a
very scanty supply of water, which must require the most careful
husbanding and economy in distribution; yet it seems to have been calmly
suggested that we would deliberately waste the precious fluid by
allowing it to flow at random over the small portion of our land which
it would reach, where it might or might not be required! Our engineers,
I may say, are quite capable of overcoming any difficulties arising
from inequalities of the ground.

"If, as has been contended, the loss by evaporation would be so great in
canals where the water is fairly deep as to result in depletion of the
supply, it is clear there must be a hundred times greater loss from the
same cause if the water is allowed to spread in a very shallow pool over
a large area where it would be totally unprotected from the sun! Then,
again, every part of our planet not reached by the water would become
desert.

"No, sir," Tellurio added, "the Martians are far too intelligent to
waste the water in this fashion: hence their canal system by which the
water is economically distributed where required, and also protected
from undue evaporation. It must not be forgotten that our canals are
also means of communication across the deserts, and without them distant
parts of the planet would