Chapter III.
Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplit
road and towards the large building I have described. The road
itself seemed like a great Alpine pass, skirting rocky
mountains of which the one through whose chasm I had descended
formed a link. Deep below to the left lay a vast valley, which
presented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable evidences of
art and culture. There were fields covered with a strange
vegetation, similar to none I have seen above the earth; the
colour of it not green, but rather of a dull and leaden hue or
of a golden red.
There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curved
into artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shone
like pools of naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defiles
opened amidst the rocks, with passes between, evidently
constructed by art, and bordered by trees resembling, for the
11most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties of feathery
foliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others were
more like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of
flowers. Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, with
short thick stems supporting a wide dome-like roof, from which
either rose or drooped long slender branches. The whole scene
behind, before, and beside me far as the eye could reach, was
brilliant with innumerable lamps. The world without a sun was
bright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but the air
less oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before me
void of signs of habitation. I could distinguish at a
distance, whether on the banks of the lake or rivulet, or
half-way upon eminences, embedded amidst the vegetation,
buildings that must surely be the homes of men. I could even
discover, though far off, forms that appeared to me human
moving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to the
right, gliding quickly through the air, what appeared a small
boat, impelled by sails shaped like wings. It soon passed out
of sight, descending amidst the shades of a forest. Right
above me there was no sky, but only a cavernous roof. This
roof grew higher and higher at the distance of the landscapes
beyond, till it became imperceptible, as an atmosphere of haze
formed itself beneath.
Continuing my walk, I started,- from a bush that resembled a
great tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubs
and plants of large leafage shaped like that of the aloe or
prickly-pear,- a curious animal about the size and shape of a
deer. But as, after bounding away a few paces, it turned round
and gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived that it was not like
any species of deer now extant above the earth, but it brought
instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had seen in some
museum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existed
before the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, after
inspecting me a moment or two, began to graze on the singular
herbiage around undismayed and careless.
