Here is one of
the anomalies of this existence in Mars. Electrical science and its
application is understood, great stores of mechanical experience and
wisdom can be drawn on, and yet in most of the mechanical work, hand
work, the toilsome method of the Pharaohs of Egypt prevails. There are
no railroads or trolleys or steam vehicles. The boats are driven by
explosive engines, and there are electric carriages of velocity and
power. But the latter are infrequent. The canals are numerous,
especially about Scandor, and the great trunk canals are broad avenues
of traffic.
"The intense swift motion of the Martians meets their needs in most
cases. Where hard labor on a mammoth scale is necessary, the little race
of _prehistorics_ serves all their purposes. The canals are their great
engineering feats, and the wonderful telescopes, their triumphs in
applied science, their knowledge of the transmutation of the
elements,--their greatest intellectual victory,--and Scandor, the City
of Glass, their architectural gem and miracle.
"We stood in a line gazing upon the receding roof of the great cavern,
the heavy walls left like buttresses to hold up the overlying mountain
ridge, and the tiny figures dimly swarming on the distant floor.
"The quarry extends far in under the ridge. Much barren rock is taken
out, for the Phosphori rock occurs variously in masses, layers,
lenticles, and almond shaped inclusions in the igneous matrix.
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