The remainder of the climb, which was hardly a thousand feet more, was easily accomplished by the three engineers, now rested and reinvigorated by success. And, on reaching the summit, which proved to be a small and nearly level platform of rock, they were rewarded with another spectacle totally different in kind, but fully as astonishing as that which met their eyes when they emerged from the cloud. By this time every trace of the heavenly lights had vanished, and they beheld on all sides of them a perfectly uniform and level plain. At one point, towards the east of this plain, an object was visible which at once absorbed the entire attention of the three. A very small segment of a fiery circle bordered on the horizon, shedding a track of bright light over the cloudy sea, which lay about a thousand feet below them. As they gazed and gazed on the fiery segment, it soon became plain that the segment belonged to a burning circular disk which was rising out of the cloud. The segment quickly grew into a semicircle; a few minutes more, and the whole disk became visible, left the cloud, and mounted slowly in the sky. At the same time the vast plain took a snow-white colour of dazzling radiance, and the heat emitted from the disk became so intense that the three mountaineers retreated quickly into the shadow of the peak by descending a few steps on the western side. One thing had become quite clear to them, namely, the cause of the daily illumination of the cloud-screen. It was evidently the great disk of unknown fire, which was still mounting in the air and travelling towards the west. Obviously no delay was to be made in descending to the camp and communicating to their comrades the tidings of the complete success of the expedition. They were obliged to use great caution on the downward journey. All mountaineers are aware that the descent of a very steep slope, where a single slip would be fatal, is a much more ticklish process than its ascent, insomuch that some have ventured to affirm that few great ascents would be made if the descent came first. By two o’clock in the afternoon they had accomplished the descent of the open part of the mountain; they easily found the string fastened to the projecting rock, and, re-entering the cloud, and guided by the clue, they very slowly, but without accident, found their way back to the camp, which they reached about six o’clock in the evening.