nded the view in every direction and
limited it to a distance of about half a mile. But when, after
inspanning on the following morning, they crossed the little plateau
upon which they had spent the night, and passed round a bluff at its
farther side, a wonderful prospect at once burst upon their astonished
gaze. For they now found that the chain of hills, up the outer slope of
which they had been laboriously climbing during the whole of the
preceding day, formed an unbroken if somewhat irregular circle of
something like forty miles in diameter, measuring across from ridge to
ridge, the inner slopes of the encircling hills being from three to five
miles wide, with a plain of from five to ten miles in width at their
feet, this plain in turn encircling a lovely lake, measuring about
twenty miles across, the very centre of which was occupied by an island
of perhaps three or four miles in diameter, the whole rugged surface of
which appeared to be covered with buildings embowered in leafy gardens.

Now at last the travellers began to really understand the wealth and
importance of the people into whose country they had entered, uninvited;
for, as far as the eye could reach, even with the aid of their
exceedingly powerful field glasses, the mountain slopes and the plain
that lay circling at their feet consisted of nothing but a practically
unbroken sweep of highly cultivated land, dotted with snug farmhouses,
and bearing ripening crops of various kinds, interspersed here and there
with trim vineyards, or orchards of fruitbearing trees; while, at
distances of from three to eight or ten miles apart, there nestled among
groves of noble shade trees, villages which must have sheltered from a
hundred-and-fifty to, perhaps, four or five hundred inhabitants. And
through all there ran a perfect network of roads, carrying, as could be
seen with the aid of their glasses, a considerable amount of traffic,
among which could be distinguished a number of wheeled vehicles, the
first they had seen since entering the country.

The officer, who was their custodian, was evidently intensely gratified
at the surprise and admiration freely expressed by his two principal
prisoners at the scene that lay spread out at their feet, and even
halted the cortege for a few minutes to enable Dick and Grosvenor to
take in its multudinous details conveniently, and examine them through
their field glasses. It was noticed by the two Englishmen that he
regard