Irrigation, unscientifically conducted, would not give us such truly wonderful mathematical fitness in the several parts to the whole as we there behold....

Quite possibly such Martian folk are possessed of inventions of which we have not dreamed, and with them electrophones and kinetoscopes are things of a bygone past, preserved with veneration in museums as relics of the clumsy contrivances of the simple childhood of the race.

Certainly what we see hints at the existence of beings who are in advance of, not behind us, in the journey of life."[3] [Footnote 3: Mars, by Percival Lowell, p.

207 _et seq._] Granted the existence of such a race as is thus described, and to them it might not seem a too appalling enterprise, when their planet had become decrepit, with its atmosphere thinned out and its supply of water depleted, to grapple with the destroying hand of nature and to prolong the career of their world by feats of chemistry and engineering as yet beyond the compass of human knowledge.
It is confidence, bred from considerations like these, in the superhuman powers of the supposed inhabitants of Mars that has led to the popular idea that they are trying to communicate by signals with the earth.
Certain enigmatical spots of light, seen at the edge of the illuminated disk of Mars, and projecting into the unilluminated part--for Mars, although an outer planet, shows at particular times a gibbous phase resembling that of the moon just before or just after the period of full moon--have been interpreted by some, but without any scientific evidence, as of artificial origin.
Upon the assumption that these bright points, and others occasionally seen elsewhere on the planet's disk, are intended by the Martians for signals to the earth, entertaining calculations have been made as to the quantity of light that would be required in the form of a "flash signal" to be visible across the distance separating the two planets.

The results of the calculations have hardly been encouraging to possible investors in interplanetary telegraphy, since it appears that heliographic mirrors with reflecting surfaces measured by square miles, instead of square inches, would be required to send a visible beam from the earth to Mars or _vice versa_.
The projections of light on Mars can be explained much more simply and reasonably.