rific encounters with the Martians,
and particularly in our first disastrous battle beneath the clouds.

Preparing to Return.

Among the lost were many men whose names were famous upon the earth, and
whose death would be widely deplored when the news of it was received
upon their native planet. Fortunately this number did not include any
of those whom I have had occasion to mention in the course of this
narrative. The venerable Lord Kelvin, who, notwithstanding his age, and
his pacific disposition, proper to a man of science, had behaved with the
courage and coolness of a veteran in every crisis; Monsieur Moissan, the
eminent chemist; Prof. Sylvanus P. Thompson, and the Heidelberg Professor,
to whom we all felt under special obligations because he had opened to
our comprehension the charming lips of Aina--all these had survived,
and were about to return with us to the earth.

It seemed to some of us almost heartless to deprive the Martians who
still remained alive of any of the provisions which they themselves
would require to tide them over the long period which must elapse before
the recession of the flood should enable them to discover the sites of
their ruined homes, and to find the means of sustenance. But necessity
was now our only law. We learned from Aina that there must be stores
of provisions in the neighborhood of the palace, because it was the
custom of the Martians to lay up such stores during the harvest time
in each Martian year in order to provide against the contingency of an
extraordinary drought.

It was not with very good grace that the Martian Emperor acceded to our
demands that one of the storehouses should be opened, but resistance
was useless, and of course we had our way.

The supplies of water which we brought from the earth, owing to a peculiar
process invented by Monsieur Moissan, had been kept in exceedingly good
condition, but they were now running low and it became necessary to
replenish them also. This was easily done from the Southern Ocean, for
on Mars, since the levelling of the continental elevations, brought about
many years ago, there is comparatively little salinity in the sea waters.

While these preparations were going on Lord Kelvin and the other men
of science entered with the utmost eagerness upon those studies, the
prosecution of which had been the principal inducement leading them
to embark on the expedition. But, almost all of the face of the planet
being covered wi