In this connection it is well to state that Mr. Lowell began the observation of Mars when he was a mere boy. His first telescope, which he still has, was a two and a quarter inch refractor. His observations were made from the roof of his house in Boston, and with this small glass he defined the general shaded regions that Huyghens had detected and drawn in 1659. Since then Mr. Lowell has observed in turn through a six inch, an eighteen inch of Brashear, and, for the last few years, through a twenty-four inch refractor made by Clark especially for this work. To refute the accumulated observations of Mr. Lowell one must have the same acute eye, and a record of the same continuous and devoted study. Nothing short of that experience will avail. The jealous derision that has gone up from some observers endowed with less acuteness of vision is neither dignified nor just. Were these Martian details based upon the observations of Lowell alone, one might be inclined to say that some vagary of the mind had led him to imagine these markings which were first detected by the great Italian astronomer Schiaparelli. Up to the present time--to mention only a few--observations and drawings have been made by Perrotin, Thollon, and Flammarion, of France; Dr. Phil. Fauth, of Germany; Williams, of England; Lowell, W. H. Pickering, Douglass, Lampland, and Schaeberle, of America, while many others have made drawings of the more conspicuous details. With this record it is impossible to deny the existence of these markings essentially as they are drawn. The difficulty of seeing the more delicate markings of the planet is unquestionable, and an examination of astronomical literature, from which we shall make numerous quotations, indicates only too plainly the acuteness of vision, and the time and care necessary to make competent observations. Sir Robert Ball says, in one of his recent works: "The detection of the Martian features indicates one of the utmost refinements of astronomical observations." Macpherson, in his "Astronomers of To-day," thus writes of Schiaparelli, "Professor Schiaparelli's observations have been distinguished by his keen-sightedness and care. He has taken every precaution to avoid all disturbances resulting from personal equation, and has found it well to adopt the rule (which he here quotes) 'to abstain from everything which could affect the nervous system, from narcotics and alcohol, and especially from the abuse of coffee, which I found to be exceedingly prejudicial to the accuracy of observation.'" What I might have accomplished in the way of seeing had I followed the wise example of Schiaparelli I do not know. A not too strict abstemiousness in any of these matters, coupled with long daily walks on the Mesa, with its fascinating flora and fauna, found me in the observer's chair every night, somewhat fatigued mentally and physically.