eet from the
shore line, I was startled to see a large city. The thousands of
closely nestling buildings seemed to be built of white stone. The
writer was lost in admiration, for there in front of him the pure white
of the city, contrasting so vividly with the red soil of this faraway
planet, stood the habitations of an advanced race many millions of
miles removed from my own world.

The writer was impressed with the fact that, with but few exceptions,
the buildings of gleaming white were all one story in height, and it
became instantly evident that crowding is not tolerated by the
inhabitants of this progressive planet. A few structures towered above
the rest. These, as the writer was informed later, were the public
buildings dedicated to the use of the people as lecture halls, centers
for music and art, etc.

On a subsequent occasion the writer was shown a close-up view of Urid.
Flowers, grass and green foliage abounded everywhere. The long streets
were broad and well paved, and flanked on two sides with long rows of
one-storied buildings of white stone, beautiful in their simplicity.
No extreme ornamentation is carried out in the erection of buildings on
Mars. On the contrary, the simple square outlines characteristic of
our own Old Mission architecture seems to prevail on the planet Mars.
The same simple style prevails with the public buildings, except that
massive stone columns marked the portals of same, reminding one of our
own early Grecian architecture.

Many palm-like trees grew all over the city, especially in the
neighborhood of the public buildings.

A week after the occurrence of the above incident the writer was shown,
in the same manner as before, one of the many canals that gridiron the
Martian globe. This particular canal is one of the main waterways on
Mars, and appeared to be about a mile wide at the point of observation.
The water was of a deep blue color, denoting great depth. Along the
banks of this waterway could be seen many houseboats or floating
dwellings. Some of these houseboats were very large and evidently
housed large families. The writer was informed that many Martians who
have charge of the waterways dwell in these habitations.

The banks above the canal were covered with green grass and many
flowers.

On subsequent occasions I was shown other canals and reservoirs, and
the manner in which some of the canals were cut through the mountains.
In some instances the walls of