Dr. Mill, a rainfall expert, on being consulted by a "Daily Mail" correspondent regarding this alarming statement, was of the opinion that the question would require early consideration. We quote his words as follows: "Legislation is needed in the immediate future for the regulation of the rivers. The great question is how to store the water which at present runs to waste on the coasts." "The planting of trees on the high water-sheds is one of the first solutions of the problem. The chief difficulty lies in the scarcity of suitable land available for building large reservoirs, and at some future date the services of engineers will be required to reform the present arrangement of reservoirs." "In Austria the government issues an annual report on the condition of the Danube and detailed statistics of the rainfall, with a view to storing all the available water supplies. The work done by the Austrian government I am doing in regard to the British Isles on my own responsibility, but the rainfall and the river conditions are only a portion of a much larger problem." The above quotations indicate that even now an alarm is felt in countries of fair rainfall regarding the possible failure of the water supply in the near future and is perhaps a premonition as to what may be absorbing our energies in centuries to come. Such possibilities as here suggested may offer an additional clew to an interpretation of the Martian markings. The unnatural straightness of these interlacing lines on Mars, many of them following the arcs of great circles, their uniform width throughout, their always starting from definite areas, their convergence to common centres, and their varying visibility synchronizing with the Martian seasons finds no parallel in natural phenomena. If in the mind's eye we were to survey the Earth from Mars the only feature we should find at all paralleling the lines in Mars would be found in the level regions of the West, where, for thousands of miles, the land extends in vast level stretches. In these regions would be found lines of railroads running in straight courses, starting from definite places, converging to common centres, their sides, in certain seasons, conspicuous with ripening grain fields, or again the work of the United States Reclamation Bureau running its irrigating canals in various directions through that great region. Both these kinds of lines would be artificial and both designed for purposes of conveyance--in the one case, merchandise and passengers, in the other case, water. If the Martian lines are not artificial some other theories must be offered than those thus far advanced to explain their origin and purpose.