Below them lay a verdant valley stretching on and on as far as the eye could reach. Onrai looked on in wonderment at this unexpected sight. He had, and so had his people, been led to believe that the world ended at the cliffs, that beyond these was naught but space. He could not have told, had he been asked, how this land ended or how it must look to see no land or water beyond, nothing but that infinite space. It had never occurred to him to think of this himself, but if it had, he would have immediately banished the thought as being perfectly absurd. He had been told that the end was there, and that was enough; it couldn’t be different, and as to how the end might look, that didn’t matter at all. So this was a wonderful sight to him, all this land as far as he could see, covered with verdure and with occasional streams of water running through it. So much like his own fertile country, that he might have supposed that he had turned in some magical way on his tramp through the mountains, and was now looking upon that Land of On. If this picture, which stretched out before him, was real and not a dream, as he was almost led to believe, then what of those teachings which declared that their land was the only land, and that their people were the only people. The very foundation of this teaching was shaken when this idea was exploded. He turned and looked at his companions, and then at the great landscape which opened out before him. The attendants were no less surprised at the strange scene, but none of them made any comments.
Turning and looking far up the mountain or volcano, they could now see a round cap at the summit, and out of this poured the fearful smoke. The wind was favorable for the ascent, for it was blowing the smoke over the Land of On, and they could climb without being hampered by the falling ashes.
“We are extremely lucky so far,” said Mr. Graham.
“Yes, and the ascent looks easy enough,” rejoined Mr. Bruce.
“It may prove otherwise before we reach the summit, though,” said Mr. Graham.
“Well,” said Mr. Bruce, “we must get at it, for we should get back to On to-day, if possible.”
“How different are the mountains on this side,” said Mr. Graham.
“They are different, yes,” said Mr. Bruce. “One would hardly suppose that beyond they are so precipitous. The whole Land of On must have been the immense crater of some mighty volcano, at some prehistoric period.”
“It is hard to tell,” said Mr. Graham. “In my estimation it has been at some remote age a vast inland sea.”
“Either explanation might fit,” said Mr. Bruce. “But let us start. We are losing valuable time.”