---

On the third morning the soil was dry enough to walk upon with ease.

set out for an unknown goal

guided by a faraway hummock

the unbroken monotony of the rolling plain

a source of horror

the summit of the mount

peering over the rim into a fathomless

chaos of eternal night

curious reminiscences of Satan’s hideous climb

through the unfashioned realms of darkness

The moon, now near the zenith, shone weirdly and vividly

above the towering steeps that hemmed in the chasm, and revealed the fact that a farflung body of water

flowed at the bottom, winding out of sight in both directions.

Across the chasm, the wavelets washed the base of a cyclopean monolith

creatures shewn disporting like fishes in the waters of some marine grotto

Grotesque beyond the imagination of a Poe or a Bulwer, they were damnably human

in general outline despite webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall

With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface, the thing slid into view above the dark waters.

Vast, Polyphemuslike, and loathsome,

it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith,

about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms,

the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds.

A frantic ascent of the slope and cliff

A delirious journey back to the stranded

boat

indistinct recollections of a great storm