y of them
partially embedded in the ground.

"I cannot express adequately to you, gentlemen, what an evidence of
tremendous superhuman power this scene presented. No storm, no
lightning, nor any attack of the elements could have produced more than
a fraction of the destruction I saw all around me.

"I climbed cautiously upon the fallen tree-trunk, and from this
elevation had a much better view of my surroundings. I appeared to be
near one end of the desolated area, which extended in a path about half
a mile wide and several miles deep. In front, a thousand feet away,
perhaps, lay the unbroken forest.

"Descending from the tree-trunk I walked in this direction, reaching the
edge of the woods after possibly an hour of the most arduous traveling
of my whole journey.

"During this time almost my only thought was the necessity of obtaining
food. I looked about me as I advanced, and on one of the fallen
tree-trunks I found a sort of vine growing. This vine bore a profusion
of small gray berries, much like our huckleberries. They proved similar
in taste, and I sat down and ate a quantity.

"When I reached the edge of the forest I felt somewhat stronger. I had
seen up to this time no sign of animal life whatever. Now, as I stood
silent, I could hear around me all the multitudinous tiny voices of the
woods. Insect life stirred underfoot, and in the trees above an
occasional bird flitted to and fro.

"Perhaps I am giving you a picture of our own world. I do not mean to do
so. You must remember that above me there was no sky, just blackness.
And yet so much light illuminated the scene that I could not believe it
was other than what we would call daytime. Objects in the forest were as
well lighted--better probably than they would be under similar
circumstances in our own world.

"The trees were of huge size compared to my present stature; straight,
upstanding trunks, with no branches until very near the top. They were
bluish-gray in color, and many of them well covered with the berry-vine
I have mentioned. The leaves overhead seemed to be blue--in fact the
predominating color of all the vegetation was blue, just as in our world
it is green. The ground was covered with dead leaves, mould, and a sort
of gray moss. Fungus of a similar color appeared, but of this I did not
eat.

"I had penetrated perhaps two miles into the forest when I came
unexpectedly to the bank of a broad, smooth-flowing river, its silver
surface seemin