e, and thus we found it to be of an abominable flatness, desolate
beyond all that I could have imagined. Here and there it appeared to be
covered with clumps of queer vegetation; though whether they were small
trees or great bushes, I had no means of telling; but this I know, that
they were like unto nothing which ever I had set eyes upon before.

So much as this I gathered as we pulled slowly along the coast, seeking
an opening whereby we could pass inward to the land; but a weary time
passed or ere we came upon that which we sought. Yet, in the end, we
found it--a slimy-banked creek, which proved to be the estuary of a great
river, though we spoke of it always as a creek. Into this we entered, and
proceeded at no great pace upwards along its winding course; and as we
made forward, we scanned the low banks upon each side, perchance there
might be some spot where we could make to land; but we found none--the
banks being composed of a vile mud which gave us no encouragement to
venture rashly upon them.

Now, having taken the boat something over a mile up the great creek, we
came upon the first of that vegetation which I had chanced to notice from
the sea, and here, being within some score yards of it, we were the
better able to study it. Thus I found that it was indeed composed largely
of a sort of tree, very low and stunted, and having what might be
described as an unwholesome look about it. The branches of this tree, I
perceived to be the cause of my inability to recognize it from a bush,
until I had come close upon it; for they grew thin and smooth through all
their length, and hung towards the earth; being weighted thereto by a
single, large cabbage-like plant which seemed to sprout from the extreme
tip of each.

Presently, having passed beyond this clump of the vegetation, and the
banks of the river remaining very low, I stood me upon a thwart, by which
means I was enabled to scan the surrounding country. This I discovered,
so far as my sight could penetrate, to be pierced in all directions with
innumerable creeks and pools, some of these latter being very great of
extent; and, as I have before made mention, everywhere the country was
low set--as it might be a great plain of mud; so that it gave me a sense
of dreariness to look out upon it. It may be, all unconsciously, that my
spirit was put in awe by the extreme silence of all the country around;
for in all that waste I could see no living thing, neither bird nor