"Mars is getting very old, her seas are diminishing, and her
continents are increasing. Those canals are the remains of gulfs and
straits which have been widened and deepened and lengthened by human, or
I should say Martian, labour, partly, I've no doubt, for purposes of
navigation and partly to keep the inhabitants of the interior of the
continents within measurable distance of the sea. There's not the
slightest doubt about that. Then, you see, there are scarcely any
mountains to speak of so far, only ranges of low hills."
"And that means, I suppose," said Zaidie, "that they've all been worn
down as the mountains of the earth are being. I was reading Flammarion's
'End of the World' last night, and he, you know, describes the earth at
the last as just one big plain of land, no hills or mountains, no seas,
and only sluggish rivers draining into marshes.
"I suppose that is what they're coming to down yonder. Now, I wonder
what sort of civilisation we shall find. Perhaps we shan't find any at
all. Suppose all their civilisations have worn out and they are
degenerating into the same struggle for sheer existence those poor
creatures in the moon must have had."
"Or suppose," said Redgrave rather seriously, "we find that they have
passed the zenith of civilisation, and are dropping back into savagery,
but still have the use of weapons and means of destruction which we,
perhaps, have no notion of, and are inclined to use them? We'd better be
careful, dear.
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