genius playing tricks" "Well it may be so returned O'Donell and they proceeded on their way after traveling for a long time as near as they could reckon about 2 days they perceived a silvery streak of light on the walls of the passage something like the light of the moon in a short time they came to the end of the passage and leaping out of the opening which formed they entred a new world they where at first so much bewildred by the different objects which struck their senses that they almost fainted but at length recovering they had time to see every thing around them they were upon the top of a rock which was more than a thousand fathoms high, all beneath them was liquid Mountains tossed to and fro with horrible confusion roaring and raging with a tremendous noise and crowned with waves of foam all above them was a mighty firmament in one part covere with black clouds from which darted huge and terrible sheets of Lightning in another part an imense globe of Light like silver was hanging in the sky and several smaller globes which spakled exceedingly surounded it. in a short time the tempest which was dreadful beyond description ceased the large black clouds cleared away the silver globes vanished and another globe whose light was of a gold colour appeared it was far larger than the former and in a little time it became so intensely bright that they could no longer gaze on it so after looking around them for some time they rose and pursued their journey. they had travelled a long way when they came an imense forest the trees of which bore a large fruit of a deep purple colour of which they tasted and found that it was fit for food, they journeyed in this forest for three days and on the 3 day they entred a valley or rather a deep glen surounded on each side by tremendous rocks whose tops where lost in the clouds in this glen they continued for some time and at last came in sight of a mountain which rose so high that the could not see the sumit though the sky was quite clear. at the foot of the mountain there flowed a river of pure water border by trees which had flowers of a beautiful rose coulour except these trees nothing was to be seen but black forests and huge rocks rising out of a wilderness which bore the terrible aspect of devastation and which stretched as far as the eye could reach in this desolate land no sound was to be heard, not even cry of the eagle or the scream of the Curlew but a silence like the silence of the grave reigned over all the face of nature unbroken except by the murmur of the river as it slowly wound its course through the desert [5] CHAPTER THE III