“It took several years to finish the first line, and as soon as it was done they commenced the work of widening it, adding a strip 200 feet in width, which when completed made the canal 400 feet wide. This process was then repeated and has been going on constantly not only in the first canals but in all subsequent ones of which there is an immense number. As much material was carried to the banks and deposited there in the construction of each strip, a good deal had to be moved more than once. When this accumulation became too great to be profitably moved it was skipped and the next channel constructed parallel with the main canal, but separated from it by the strip of solid land on which this waste earth was piled from a few rods to a quarter of a mile in width. On these strips are located the villages of the working people that cultivate the sea weed, work on the canal and are engaged in navigation etc. “The total width of some of these canals is now as much as sixty miles, but they generally consist in reality of numerous wide channels separated by narrow strips of land. This plan of canal making has been steadily adhered to for several thousand years. Lines parallel to each other and several hundred miles apart have been constructed, and many others connecting with these and intersecting them at various angles. These canals not only constitute the principal fields for the cultivation of their staple food, but also furnish what was for a long time their best and chief mode of transportation. Their chief commercial and manufacturing cities sprung up at the intersections of the canals. “The building of these canals had a wonderfully stimulating effect on the development of the Martian people. The population promptly increased in proportion to the increase of the means for its support as it always does, on all planets. With the increase of population came diversity of employment, new ideas, tastes, and wants, new inventions, more culture and refinement.” “How did the Lunarians come out on their contract?” I asked. “They must have made a lot of money I reckon.”