ffect.

In the course of his lecture Professor Lowell gave an account of the
methods of planetary photography initiated and carried on with such
success at the Lowell Observatory; and then proceeded to give some
interesting particulars of his observations of Mars at the opposition of
1909, which resulted in one of the most important discoveries ever
recorded in connection with that planet.

He stated that on the 30th September, 1909, when the region of the
desert to the east of Syrtis Major came into view, after its periodic
six weeks' invisibility due to the unequal length of the days of the
earth and Mars, some long new canals were plainly observed which had not
been visible when the region was previously in view. A long and careful
investigation of fifteen years' records proved absolutely that not only
had these canals never been seen before, but that they could not have
existed. They are on a region which is frequently very favourably
situated for observation, and could not possibly have been overlooked,
for they are now the most conspicuous objects on that part of the
planet. It is beyond question that they are not only new to us but new
to Mars!

The two main canals run in a south-easterly direction from Syrtis Major,
and with them are associated two smaller ones and at least two new
oases; while, from their inter-connection, they are all clearly parts of
one and the same addition to the general canal system; for they now fit
in with the system as though they had always formed part of it. These
new canals were not only seen and drawn, but several photographs were
taken at different times.

Consider what this great discovery really means! In a region which has
never been anything but a desert during the whole period over which our
observational knowledge of Mars has extended, there are now strips of
land many hundreds of miles in length and miles wide that have become
fertile almost under our very eyes; and this result has been brought
about by the passage through them of water which has artificially been
carried there for the purpose of irrigation! We know this is so, for
what we see is the growth of vegetation; and the systematic way in which
the new canals have been fitted into the existing canal scheme proves
the artificiality of the whole system.

Some sensational statements in the Press have fostered in many minds the
idea that all these hundreds of miles of new canals were constructed
within the very s