easy to send a picture
as a message."

I learnt that a post of marvellous perfection had, some thousand years
ago, delivered letters all over Mars, but it was now employed only for
the delivery of parcels. Perhaps half the commerce of Mars, except
that in metals and agricultural produce, depends on this post.
Purchasers of standard articles describe by the telegraph-letter to a
tradesman the exact amount and pattern of the goods required, and
these are despatched at once; a system of banking, very completely
organised, enabling the buyer to pay at once by a telegraphic order.

When Esmo had finished his business, we walked down, at my request, to
the port. Around three sides of the dock formed by walls, said to be
fifty feet in depth and twenty in thickness, ran a road close to the
water's edge, beyond which was again a vast continuous warehouse. The
inner side was reserved for passenger vessels, and everywhere the
largest ships could come up close, landing either passengers or cargo
without even the intervention of a plank. The appearance of the ships
is very unlike that of Terrestrial vessels. They have no masts or
rigging, are constructed of the zorinta, which in Mars serves much
more effectively all the uses of iron, and differ entirely in
construction as they are intended for cargo or for travel. Mercantile
ships are in shape much like the finest American clippers, but with
broad, flat keel and deck, and with a hold from fifteen to twenty feet
in depth. Like Malayan vessels, they have attached by strong bars an
external beam about fifty feet from the side, which renders
overturning almost impossible. Passenger ships more resemble the form
of a fish, but are alike at both ends. Six men working in pairs four
hours at a time compose the entire crew of the largest ship, and half
this number are required for the smallest that undertakes a voyage of
more than twelve hours.

I may here mention that the system of sewage is far superior to any
yet devised on Earth. No particle of waste is allowed to pollute the
waters. The whole is deodorised by an exceedingly simple process, and,
whether in town or country, carried away daily and applied to its
natural use in fertilising the soil. Our practice of throwing away,
where it is an obvious and often dangerous nuisance, material so
valuable in its proper place, seemed to my Martial friends an
inexplicable and almost incredible absurdity.

As we returned, Esmo told me that h