'"*
* In the year 1790, in the Caraccas during an earthquake a portion
of the granite soil sank and left a lake eight hundred yards in
diameter, and from eighty to a hundred feet deep. It was a part of the
forest of Aripao which sank, and the trees remained green for
several months under the water."- Murray, p. 221
"Hoo!" said the king.
"Some hundred miles farther on brought us to a climate where the
atmosphere was so dense as to sustain iron or steel, just as our own
does feather.'"*
* The hardest steel ever manufactured may, under the action of a
blowpipe, be reduced to an impalpable powder, which will float readily
in the atmospheric air.
"Fiddle de dee," said the king.
"Proceeding still in the same direction, we presently arrived at the
most magnificent region in the whole world. Through it there meandered
a glorious river for several thousands of miles. This river was of
unspeakable depth, and of a transparency richer than that of amber. It
was from three to six miles in width; and its banks which arose on
either side to twelve hundred feet in perpendicular height, were
crowned with ever-blossoming trees and perpetual sweet-scented
flowers, that made the whole territory one gorgeous garden; but the
name of this luxuriant land was the Kingdom of Horror, and to enter it
was inevitable death'"*
* The region of the Niger.
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