hort period of six weeks! This is altogether wrong. It
is the _vegetation_ that has _grown_ in six weeks, in consequence of the
turning on of the water to the irrigation works. We have good scientific
reasons for believing that irrigation works on Mars could be
accomplished much quicker than on the earth; but, as the telescope does
not enable us to see the works, we do not know how long they may have
taken to construct. It may have been months, or years. We only see the
_results_ of the works when actually in operation.

When we consider these works and their results, surely it becomes
impossible to resist the evidence of intelligent design which they
furnish; while if we also remember the very recent development of these
canals, the existence of life upon Mars at the present time seems to be
demonstrated beyond the possibility of reasonable doubt! In what
physical form that life is enshrined even our science must fail to
reveal. Professor Lowell, however, pointed out that the inhabitants of
Mars are not necessarily human beings, but their work clearly proves
that they are beings endowed with a very high degree of intelligence. A
study of the canal system reveals a marvellous conception marvellously
carried into effect.

Observers at Flagstaff have, therefore, practically seen the completion
of a work which is the creation of intelligent beings on Mars; and in
the remarkable photographs shown we were, so to speak, able to look upon
the results of that work--fertility in a region which had previously
been an arid desert.

The water, as the lecturer remarked, was probably not in all cases
conveyed by means of canals dug out of the soil, but we know that in
some way--whether by canals, or by trunk lines of pipes and smaller
subsidiary pipes, or otherwise--the land has been artificially irrigated
and fertilised by water, which could not possibly have taken the course
it has without being intelligently directed. Tunnelling would be easy on
Mars.

Professor Lowell spoke of these matters in well-weighed and well-chosen
phrases, which carried conviction of his earnestness and sincerity to
the minds of his hearers; and we observed that the audience was
evidently profoundly impressed by the importance of his statements. This
fact seemed to us very significant, as he was addressing one of the most
brilliant assemblies--representing many branches of science--ever
gathered within the walls of the Royal Institution. The numerous