This page has been validated.
The Ice Island.
105

wards it among the quaint cactus-like plants and trees that made up this wondrous forest. At length we saw something green glittering amidst the red foliage. We came nearer to it. Then we saw the cause of the sound; it was the cascade of green liquid that flowed down with crash and noise from the terrace above. Here, then, were the causes of the Martian tints—i.e., the green waters and the ruddy foliage of that which men once called the war planet; not the mere red rocks (like your Devonian red sand-stone on earth), but that which everywhere results from moisture and sunlight and warmth—vegetation and vegetable life. This ruddy foliage is not unknown to you. The copper-beech is a slight approach to it, the poppy, and the peony, and the red geranium are better examples though on a minute scale. And even green is not unknown in earth seas. I have seen it often when the sun has shone through blue seas on yellow sands—so Mars is not so unearth-like as many planets are.

The Ice Island seemed to be a vast mass of icebergs that had attached themselves to an island covered with vegetation. We resolved at once to leave it for Tycho Island.