As we entered this peculiar jungle-like region, I noted a marked change in the atmosphere. For the first time, I became aware that there could be such a thing as climate in Atlantis: the air was growing dank and overheated, and I had the impression of having entered the tropics. And simultaneously I observed an increase of light that for the moment dazzled me, and I felt as if a torrid sun were burning directly above. Yet the source of the added warmth and illumination was in no way a mystery: brilliant white lamps had been placed at intervals along the great roof-supporting tinted columns, glaring down upon the foliage like miniature suns, and combining with the larger golden orbs to lend the scene a dream-like and unearthly beauty. Before long I noted that the vegetation was interrupted every few hundred yards by a ditch from five to ten feet across and filled to the brim with sluggish brown water. Had not these trenches invariably been of even width and geometrical straightness, I might have mistaken them for rivulets; but their precise outlines would permit but one interpretation, and they brought me remembrances of the irrigation canals I had seen on the semi-arid plains of Arizona and California. It seemed, however, that they served more than a single purpose; for as we crossed a little arching bridge over one of the widest of their waterways, I saw a long, flat boat anchored just beneath my feet; and four or five men, clad in close-fitting gray instead of in the usual long-flowing tinted robes, were busy loading this barge with newly plucked clusters of blue and crimson and orange-colored fruit. Even had there been no one to enlighten me concerning these queer jungles, I would now have understood their general nature. Still they seemed to embody a multitude of mysteries, mysteries to be explained by no known laws of biology; and, accordingly, I listened eagerly when one of the tutors, finding himself besieged by an enthusiastic, questioning coterie, launched forth upon on explanatory discourse.