The character of this irrelevant and adverse criticism may be appreciated by subjoining a few examples. The most amazing of all these expressions is to be found in the report of the British Astronomical Association, for 1892. It seems that a committee had been appointed by the Association to report on the surface features of Mars. E. Walter Maunder was made Director of the Committee. Twenty-six observers, of whom twenty-one were inhabitants of Great Britain, sent in the result of their work accompanied by drawings. A summary of this work was published in the form of memoranda accompanied by a Mercator projection map of Mars, individual planisphere drawings, as well as colored plates; these together represented twenty-eight single canals, five double canals, nine oases, as well as the dark regions so long familiar to astronomers. This was a somewhat remarkable contribution considering the complaints from the different observers in regard to the weather, and the prejudiced, and negligent part played by the man at the helm. That I am not unjust in these statements may be understood by quoting from the report showing the conditions under which the English observers labored, the delinquent part which Mr. Maunder, the Director, played in the matter, and the conclusions which Mr. Maunder arrived at after this unsatisfactory performance. He says: "The opposition of 1892 proved on the whole a very disappointing one. Although Mars at opposition was almost at its nearest approach to the Earth, it was far from being well placed for observation by European astronomers owing to its great southerly declination, and consequent low altitude.[7] The weather during the autumn of 1892 was for the most part very unfavorable for observation of so difficult an object, and several members who joined the section at the beginning were unable to contribute either drawings or report."