“On the planet Mars there were never any forms of animal superior to the stars so they have received all the development. Their differentiation would have advanced further if the planet itself had not been so backward. It has a great deal more water on it in proportion to its size than the earth. It is destitute of high mountains, and very much of its surface is but little raised above the level of the sea. A great deal of it is marshy. It is only in recent geologic times that it has become well suited to life on land. When it became so, the star fishes crawled out, and by degrees became accustomed to that mode of life as well as their aquatic mode. If there had been any land animals there to attack them when they first ventured to leave the water, of course they would have been prevented from ever rising. But there were no enemies and they gradually developed lungs by which they were enabled to live continuously out of water. At first they crawled about like spiders with all their feet on the ground at once, but after awhile they learned to raise themselves up on edge and finally to roll from one foot to another, and so gradually adopted a new and wonderfully advanced mode of locomotion. “They are still semiaquatic and amphibious, and they have both lungs and gills. They do not bring forth their young alive, but the female lays eggs in the water, the wealthy families having little tanks kept at a proper temperature. The females of the poor and rougher classes simply go to the nearest pond and deposit their eggs and leave them to their fate. Nine times out of ten, however, the warmth of the water is sufficient to hatch out the tiny stars which swim around in the water without any care or bother to their parents. They then use only their gills for breathing, but in a few weeks their lungs are developed enough to permit them to crawl out on land and remain awhile. They do this daily and finally are able to remain out continuously. Some of the lowest classes, the savages as the are called, never lose their gills, but continue to be amphibious all their lives. They spend their days on shore and mingle with the rest, but at night retire to the water in which they sleep and eat, feeding upon a tender and nutritious grass that grows in the water and in marshy places. This grass also constitutes a considerable part of the food of the better classes, but they generally cook it. In winter time these savages burrow in the mud at the bottom of the ponds and marshes and canals and go into a sort of torpid condition and remain there till spring. The more advanced classes cannot do this, they remain out of the water continuously after they are fairly weaned from it, and lose the use of their gills so that they cannot breathe under water at all. So there is almost as much difference between different varieties of these strange people so far as civilization is concerned as between men and some of their domestic animals.”