Towards evening the stream turned more decidedly to the north, and at this point Esmo brought out an instrument constructed somewhat on the principle of a sextant or quadrant, but without the mirror, by which we were enabled to take reliable measures of the angles.  By a process which at that time I did not accurately follow, and which I had not subsequently the means of verifying, the distance as well as the angle subtended by the height was obtained.  Kevima, after working out his father’s figures, informed me that the highest peak in view—­the highest in Mars—­was not less than 44,000 feet.  No Martial balloonist, much less any Martial mountain-climber, has ever, save once, reached a greater height than 16,000 feet—­the air at the sea-level being scarcely more dense than ours at 10,000 feet.  Kevima indicated one spot in the southern range of remarkable interest, associated with an incident which forms an epoch in the records of Martial geography.  A sloping plateau, some 19,000 feet above the sea-level, is defined with remarkable clearness in the direction from which we viewed it.  The forests appeared to hide, though they do not of course actually approach, its lower edge.  On one side and to the rear it is shut in by precipices so abrupt that the snow fails to cling to them, while on the remaining side it is separated by a deep, wide cleft from the western portion of the range.  Here for centuries were visible the relics of an exploring party, which reached this plateau and never returned.  Attempts have, since the steering of balloons has become an accomplished fact, been made to reach the point, but without success, and those who have approached nearest have failed to find any of the long-visible remains of an expedition which perished four or five thousand years ago.  Kevima thought it probable that the metallic poles even then employed for tents and for climbing purposes might still be intact; but if so, they were certainly buried in the snow, and Esmo believed it more likely that even these had perished.

As the mists of evening fell we retreated to our cabin, which was warmed by a current of heated air from the electric machinery.  Here our evening meal was served, at which Esmo and his son joined us, Eveena resuming, even in their presence, the veil she had worn on deck but had laid aside the moment we were alone.  An hour or two after sunset, the night (an unusual occurrence in Mars) was clear and fine, and I took this opportunity of observing from a new standpoint the familiar constellations.  The scintillation so characteristic of the fixed stars, especially in the temperate climates of the Earth, was scarcely perceptible.  Scattered once more over the surface of a defined sky, it was much easier than in space to recognise the several constellations; but their new and strange situations were not a little surprising at first sight, some of those which, as seen on Earth revolved slowly in the neighbourhood of the poles,