maller 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 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 centre
the celebrated "Lake of the Sun," a circular body of water not less than
500 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 centre of population on the planet. It lies in latitude 25 degrees
South and longitude about 90 degrees west.

Completing the Circuit.

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 that we had seen, we felt
a greater degree of familiarity with it than with any other 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.

Suddenly from the ships, and from various points on the ground beneath,
there rose high in the air, and carried by invisible currents in every
direction, immense volumes of black smoke, or vapor, which blotted out
of sight everythi