I think my readers will agree with me that this whole argument is one of the most curious ever put forth seriously by an eminent man of science. Because the polar compression of Mars is about what calculation shows it ought to be in accordance with its rate of rotation, its surface is in a state of 'fluid equilibrium,' and must therefore be absolutely level throughout. But the polar compression of the earth equally agrees with calculation; therefore its surface is also in 'fluid equilibrium'; therefore it also ought to be as perfectly level on land as it is on the ocean surface! But as we know this is very far from being the case, why must it be so in Mars? Are we to suppose Mars to have been formed in some totally different way from other planets, and that there neither is nor ever has been any reaction between its interior and exterior forces? Again, the assumption of perfect flatness is directly opposed to all observation and all analogy with what we see on the earth and moon. It gives no account whatever of the numerous and large dark patches, once termed seas, but now found to be not so, and to be full of detailed markings and varied depths of shadow. To suppose that these are all the same dead-level as the light-coloured portions are assumed to be, implies that the darkness is one of material and colour only, not of diversified contour, which again is contrary to experience, since difference of material with us always leads to differences in rate of degradation, and hence of diversified contour, as these dark spaces actually show themselves under favourable conditions to independent observers. _Lowell on the System of Canals as a whole._ We will now see what Mr. Lowell claims to be the plain teaching of the 'canals' as a whole: "But last and all-embracing in its import is the system which the canals form. Instead of running at hap-hazard, the canals are interconnected in a most remarkable manner. They seek centres instead of avoiding them. The centres are linked thus perfectly one with another, an arrangement which could not result from centres, whether of explosion or otherwise, which were themselves discrete. Furthermore, the system covers the whole surface of the planet, dark areas and light ones alike, a world-wide distribution which exceeds the bounds of natural possibility. Any force which could act longitudinally on such a scale must be limited latitudinally in its action, as witness the belts of Jupiter and the spots upon the sun. Rotational, climatic, or other physical cause could not fail of zonal expression. Yet these lines are grandly indifferent to such competing influences. Finally, the system, after meshing the surface in its entirety, runs straight into the polar caps. "It is, then, a system whose end and aim is the tapping of the snow-cap for the water there semi-annually let loose; then to distribute it over the planet's face" (p. 373).