or several hundred miles
along the coast, leaving, however, between it and the actual
shore-line an alluvial plain of some twenty to fifty miles across. At
the extremity of this range, and quite detached from it, stood an
isolated mountain of peculiar form, which, as I examined it through
the telescope, appeared to present a surface sufficiently broken and
sloped to permit of descent; while, at the same time, its height and
the character of its summit satisfied me that no one was likely to
inhabit it, and that though I might descend-it in a few hours, to
ascend it on foot from the plain would be a day's journey. Towards
this I directed my course, looking out from time to time carefully for
any symptoms of human habitation or animal life. I made out by degrees
the lines of rivers, mountain slopes covered by great forests,
extensive valleys and plains, seemingly carpeted by a low, dense, rich
vegetation. But my view being essentially of a bird's-eye character,
it was only in those parts that lay upon my horizon that I could
discern clearly the height of any object above the general level; and
as yet, therefore, there might well be houses and buildings,
cultivated fields and divisions, which I could not see.

Before I had satisfied myself whether the planet was or was not
inhabited, I found myself in a position from which its general surface
was veiled by the evening mist, and directly over the mountain in
question, within some twelve miles of its summit. This distance I
descended in the course of a quarter of an hour, and landed without a
shock about half an hour, so far as I could judge, after the Sun had
disappeared below the horizon. The sunset, however, by reason of the
mists, was totally invisible.

CHAPTER IV - A NEW WORLD.

I will not attempt to express the intensity of the mingled emotions
which overcame me as I realised the complete success of the most
stupendous adventure ever proposed or even dreamed by man. I don't
think that any personal vanity, unworthy of the highest lessons I had
received, had much share in my passionate exultation. The conception
was not original; the means were furnished by others; the execution
depended less on a daring and skill, in which any courageous traveller
or man of science knowing what I knew might well have excelled me,
than on the direct and manifest favour of Providence. But this
enterprise, the greatest that man had ever attempted, had in itself a
charm, a sanctity