Though none of us doubted but that the Lord would indeed do as Stranahan suggested, we interpreted his remarks as mere delirious ravings, and continued to stare at him in petrified silence. “You see, there she is!” persisted the seaman, still pointing downward regardless of our disbelief. And, crossing himself piously, he continued, in awed tones, “May the Virgin have pity on us, if that don’t look like a church!” Stranahan’s last words had such a tone of conviction that, though our doubts were still strong, we could not forebear to look. And, after a single glance, our scepticism gave place to dumbfounded amazement. For was this not a city staring up at us from the green-golden depths? Or at least the ruins of what had been a city? In outlines wavy because of the dense, shifting waters, and yet as definite of form as reflections in a still pool, half a dozen great yellow-white temples seemed to glimmer beneath the brilliant lights, with massive columns, wide-reaching porticoes and colonnades, and gracefully curving arches and domes. Was this but a mirage? we asked ourselves. Or were these the remains of some submerged, ancient town? Never had we heard of mirages beneath the sea--but if this were a dead city, then why these vivid lights? And, certainly, no living city could be imagined in these profound watery abysses. Even as we wondered, we seemed to note a gradual change in our movement. We were no longer sinking; we were drifting with slow motion, almost horizontally; and just beneath us appeared to be an impenetrable but transparent dense, greenish wall, a wall that--had the idea not been too preposterous--we might almost have imagined to be of glass. Beneath this wall gleamed no lantern-bearing, fishy eyes, but the dazzling golden orbs and the smaller scattered lights shone steadily with piercing radiance; and beneath us, at a distance that may have been five hundred feet and may have been a thousand, the vaults and domes and columns of innumerable stone edifices shone palely and with sallow luster. Surely, we thought, this was some unheard-of Athens, doomed long ago by tidal wave or volcano.