Naturally, when a person has discovered any new and curious phenomenon in nature he seeks to determine the exact meaning of it. It would have very little interest for him if he did not, and it would be a dry lot of facts that did not arouse a desire to do this. The interpretation put upon what has been seen at the observatory at Flagstaff is, in brief, about as follows: The surface of Mars has no oceans or mountains. The reddish areas, which form the larger part of the surface, are deserts. The blue-green streaks are ribbons of vegetation along each side of artificially constructed waterways, which are of immense length and cross and recross each other until they somewhat resemble a network of lines over the desert surface of the planet, and are used for irrigating this arid region. The points where the canals converge and form the large dark spots are oases made by the water carried by the canals. The water is supplied by the melting of the caps of snow at the poles during the Martian summer, the expanding of the lines of vegetation seeming to occur at periods corresponding to the time required for the water of the melting snow to reach the oases. The presence of this vast system of artificial waterways covering a large part of the surface of Mars makes it seem probable that “Mars is inhabited by beings of some sort or other,” that these beings are not men such as we know anything about, but that “there may be a local intelligence equal to or superior to ours.” These conclusions concerning what is seen on Mars are not held by any one to be completely proved, but are thought by their author to follow reasonably from the phenomena as observed. By persons of a different temperament they are regarded as too complete an explanation, particularly as the data upon which they are founded are not undisputed. Some of the best astronomers have not been able even to see the multitude of fine lines, much less to give any explanation of them. Others do not regard it as certain that they are so geometric in their outlines as to suggest anything more than cracks or clefts in the surface of Mars, such as might be made by nature, and consider that, instead of indicating life, human or other, they may be the marks of age, such as similar lines or cracks which have been observed on Mercury seem to be. Also, it is not at all certain that there is sufficient water vapor in the slight atmosphere of Mars to furnish the snow necessary for this great irrigating system, nor the heat to melt it at the proper season. The natural temperature of Mars would be, as we have seen, very low, and unless it is modified in some way not yet indicated everything points to a frigidity too intense to permit the continuance of life and growth of any sort known to us.