e or two things of special interest amid the multitude of
wonderful observations that we made which I must mention here on account
of their connection with the important events that followed soon after.

Just west of the land of Chryse we saw the smaller land of Ophir, in the
midst of which is a singular spot called the Juventae Fons, and this
Fountain of Youth, as our astronomers, by a sort of prophetic
inspiration, had named it, proved later to be one of the most incredible
marvels on the planet of Mars.

Further to the west, and north from the great continent of Tharsis, we
beheld the immense oval-shaped land of Thaumasia containing in its
center the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water not
less than five hundred miles in diameter, with dozens of great canals
running away from it like the spokes of a wheel in every direction, thus
connecting it with the ocean which surrounds it on the south and east,
and with the still larger canals that encircle it toward the north and
west.

This Lake of the Sun came to play a great part in our subsequent
adventures. It was evident to us from the beginning that it was the
chief center of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees
south and longitude about 90 degrees west.

Having completed the circuit of the Martian globe, we were moved by the
same feeling which every discoverer of new lands experiences, and
immediately returned to our original place above the land of Hellas,
because since that was the first part of Mars which we had seen, we felt
a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any portion of the
planet, and there, in a certain sense, we felt "at home."

But, as it proved, our enemies were on the watch for us there. We had
almost forgotten them, so absorbed were we by the great spectacles that
had been unrolling themselves beneath our feet.

We ought, of course, to have been a little more cautious in approaching
the place where they first caught sight of us, since we might have known
that they would remain on the watch near that spot.

But at any rate they had seen us, and it was now too late to think of
taking them again by surprise.

They on their part had a surprise in store for us, which was greater
than any we had yet experienced.

We saw their ships assembling once more far down in the atmosphere
beneath us, and we thought we could detect evidences of something
unusual going on upon the surface of the planet.

Sud