These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary
race, but during the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of
readjustment to new conditions, not only did their advancement and
production cease entirely, but practically all their archives,
records, and literature were lost.
Dejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legends concerning
this lost race of noble and kindly people. She said that the city
in which we were camping was supposed to have been a center of
commerce and culture known as Korad. It had been built upon a
beautiful, natural harbor, landlocked by magnificent hills. The
little valley on the west front of the city, she explained, was all
that remained of the harbor, while the pass through the hills to
the old sea bottom had been the channel through which the shipping
passed up to the city's gates.
The shores of the ancient seas were dotted with just such cities,
and lesser ones, in diminishing numbers, were to be found converging
toward the center of the oceans, as the people had found it
necessary to follow the receding waters until necessity had forced
upon them their ultimate salvation, the so-called Martian canals.
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