unto the light--though yet it was not unhid
from behind the great barriers of the uprising rocks, I perceived that I
crouched within the mouth of a mighty gorge; and the left side was a
great way off, and I saw it plain at whiles when the light did rise; but
the light was to the right, and it was so wondrous great that it did
make clear to me that a mountain was to that side of the gorge, and
went upward into the everlasting night, as it did seem for ever.

And afar down the gorge, I did see the shinings of strange fires, faint
and a great way off. And so was I come at last to the bottom of the
Mighty Slope. Yet the gorge also to go downward, but not so great.

And presently I did go forward again; and so did open the point of the
rocks, as the sailors do say. And I saw now that there gushed forth a
great blue flame from the earth; and the mighty rocks stood about it, as
that they were olden giants groupt there to some strange service.

And concerning this flame I was not overmuch astonished in my Reason;
for it had seemed to me as I drew anigh, that the fire and the sound
should be made by the roaring and whistling of a burning gas that did
issue forth among the rocks. Yet, truly, though it did be a natural
matter, it was yet a wondrous sight, and set amazement on my senses; for
the flame did dance, and sway whitherward monstrously, and sometimes did
seem that it dropt so low as an hundred feet, and afterward went upward
with a vast roaring unto the utter height, and did stand mighty and
blazing, maybe a full thousand feet, so that the far side of the gorge
was lit, and surely it was seven great miles off or more; but yet did
show plain and wondrous. And the light did show me the flank of the
mountain, that made the right hand side of the Gorge, to go up
measureless into the night.

And so shall you perceive that I stayed awhile among the rocks that were
in the mouth of the gorge, that I should gaze upon this thing; but
afterward I lookt this way and that way, so that I should have a knowing
of the place where I was come.

And it was a wild and stark and empty place, as you must perceive. And
the far side did be great miles off, as I did say; and everywhere there
was abundance of rock and lonesomeness. And before me there went the
great and dim length of the gorge, and there were lights here and lights
there, in a great distance, and oft--as it did seem--the quiet dancing
of lights in diverse places; but yet were