The most wonderful things have happened and are continuallyhappening to us. All the paper that I possess consists of fiveold note-books and a lot of scraps, and I have only the onestylographic pencil; but so long as I can move my hand I willcontinue to set down our experiences and impressions, for, sincewe are the only men of the whole human race to see such things,it is of enormous importance that I should record them whilstthey are fresh in my memory and before that fate which seems tobe constantly impending does actually overtake us. Whether Zambocan at last take these letters to the river, or whether I shallmyself in some miraculous way carry them back with me, or,finally, whether some daring explorer, coming upon our trackswith the advantage, perhaps, of a perfected monoplane, shouldfind this bundle of manuscript, in any case I can see that what Iam writing is destined to immortality as a classic of true adventure.

On the morning after our being trapped upon the plateau bythe villainous Gomez we began a new stage in our experiences. The first incident in it was not such as to give me a veryfavorable opinion of the place to which we had wandered. As Iroused myself from a short nap after day had dawned, my eyes fellupon a most singular appearance upon my own leg. My trouser hadslipped up, exposing a few inches of my skin above my sock. On this there rested a large, purplish grape. Astonished at thesight, I leaned forward to pick it off, when, to my horror, it burstbetween my finger and thumb, squirting blood in every direction. My cry of disgust had brought the two professors to my side.

"Most interesting," said Summerlee, bending over my shin. "An enormous blood-tick, as yet, I believe, unclassified."

"The first-fruits of our labors," said Challenger in his booming,pedantic fashion. "We cannot do less than call it Ixodes Maloni. The very small inconvenience of being bitten, my young friend,cannot, I am sure, weigh with you as against the gloriousprivilege of having your name inscribed in the deathless rollof zoology. Unhappily you have crushed this fine specimen atthe moment of satiation."

"Filthy vermin!" I cried.

Professor Challenger raised his great eyebrows in protest, andplaced a soothing paw upon my shoulder.

"You should cultivate the scientific eye and the detachedscientific mind," said he. "To a man of philosophic temperamentlike myself the blood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis andits distending stomach, is as beautiful a work of Nature as thepeacock or, for that matter, the aurora borealis. It pains me tohear you speak of it in so unappreciative a fashion. No doubt,with due diligence, we can secure some other specimen."

"There can be no doubt of that," said Summerlee, grimly, "for onehas just disappeared behind your shirt-collar."

Challenger sprang into the air bellowing like a bull, and torefrantically at his coat and shirt to get them off. Summerlee andI laughed so that we could hardly help him. At last we exposedthat monstrous torso (fifty-four inches, by the tailor's tape). His body was all matted with black hair, out of which jungle wepicked the wandering tick before it had bitten him. But thebushes round were full of the horrible pests, and it was clearthat we must shift our camp.

But first of all it was necessary to make our arrangements withthe faithful negro, who appeared presently on the pinnacle with anumber of tins of cocoa and biscuits, which he tossed over to us. Of the stores which remained below he was ordered to retain asmuch as would keep him for two months. The Indians were to havethe remainder as a reward for their services and as payment fortaking our letters back to the Amazon. Some hours later we sawthem in single file far out upon the plain, each with a bundle onhis head, making their way back along the path we had come. Zambo occupied our little tent at the base of the pinnacle, andthere he remained, our one link with the world below.

And now we had to decide upon our immediate movements. We shiftedour position from among the tick-laden bushes until we came to asmall clearing thickly surrounded by trees upon all sides. There were some flat slabs of rock in the center, with anexcellent well close by, and there we sat in cleanly comfortwhile we made our first plans for the invasion of this new country. Birds were calling among the foliage--especially one with apeculiar whooping cry which was new to us--but beyond thesesounds there were no signs of life.

Our first care was to make some sort of list of our own stores,so that we might know what we had to rely upon. What with thethings we had ourselves brought up and those which Zambo had sentacross on the rope, we were fairly well supplied. Most importantof all, in view of the dangers which might surround us, we had ourfour rifles and one thousand three hundred rounds, also a shot-gun,but not more than a hundred and fifty medium pellet cartridges. In the matter of provisions we had enough to last for severalweeks, with a sufficiency of tobacco and a few scientificimplements, including a large telescope and a good field-glass. All these things we collected together in the clearing, and asa first precaution, we cut down with our hatchet and knives anumber of thorny bushes, which we piled round in a circle somefifteen yards in diameter. This was to be our headquarters forthe time--our place of refuge against sudden danger and theguard-house for our stores. Fort Challenger, we called it.

IT was midday before we had made ourselves secure, but the heatwas not oppressive, and the general character of the plateau, bothin its temperature and in its vegetation, was almost temperate. The beech, the oak, and even the birch were to be found amongthe tangle of trees which girt us in. One huge gingko tree,topping all the others, shot its great limbs and maidenhairfoliage over the fort which we had constructed. In its shadewe continued our discussion, while Lord John, who had quicklytaken command in the hour of action, gave us his views.

"So long as neither man nor beast has seen or heard us, we aresafe," said he. "From the time they know we are here ourtroubles begin. There are no signs that they have found us outas yet. So our game surely is to lie low for a time and spy outthe land. We want to have a good look at our neighbors before weget on visitin' terms."

"But we must advance," I ventured to remark.

"By all means, sonny my boy! We will advance. But withcommon sense. We must never go so far that we can't get backto our base. Above all, we must never, unless it is life ordeath, fire off our guns."

"But YOU fired yesterday," said Summerlee.

"Well, it couldn't be helped. However, the wind was strong andblew outwards. It is not likely that the sound could havetraveled far into the plateau. By the way, what shall we callthis place? I suppose it is up to us to give it a name?"

There were several suggestions, more or less happy, butChallenger's was final.

"It can only have one name," said he. "It is called after thepioneer who discovered it. It is Maple White Land."

Maple White Land it became, and so it is named in that chartwhich has become my special task. So it will, I trust, appearin the atlas of the future.

The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressingsubject before us. We had the evidence of our own eyes that theplace was inhabited by some unknown creatures, and there was thatof Maple White's sketch-book to show that more dreadful and moredangerous monsters might still appear. That there might alsoprove to be human occupants and that they were of a malevolentcharacter was suggested by the skeleton impaled upon the bamboos,which could not have got there had it not been dropped from above. Our situation, stranded without possibility of escape in such aland, was clearly full of danger, and our reasons endorsed everymeasure of caution which Lord John's experience could suggest. Yet it was surely impossible that we should halt on the edge ofthis world of mystery when our very souls were tingling withimpatience to push forward and to pluck the heart from it.

We therefore blocked the entrance to our zareba by filling it upwith several thorny bushes, and left our camp with the storesentirely surrounded by this protecting hedge. We then slowly andcautiously set forth into the unknown, following the course ofthe little stream which flowed from our spring, as it shouldalways serve us as a guide on our return.

Hardly had we started when we came across signs that there wereindeed wonders awaiting us. After a few hundred yards of thickforest, containing many trees which were quite unknown to me, butwhich Summerlee, who was the botanist of the party, recognized asforms of conifera and of cycadaceous plants which have longpassed away in the world below, we entered a region where thestream widened out and formed a considerable bog. High reeds ofa peculiar type grew thickly before us, which were pronounced tobe equisetacea, or mare's-tails, with tree-ferns scatteredamongst them, all of them swaying in a brisk wind. Suddenly LordJohn, who was walking first, halted with uplifted hand.

"Look at this!" said he. "By George, this must be the trail ofthe father of all birds!"

An enormous three-toed track was imprinted in the soft mud before us. The creature, whatever it was, had crossed the swamp and had passedon into the forest. We all stopped to examine that monstrous spoor. If it were indeed a bird--and what animal could leave such a mark?--its foot was so much larger than an ostrich's that its height uponthe same scale must be enormous. Lord John looked eagerly round himand slipped two cartridges into his elephant-gun.

"I'll stake my good name as a shikarree," said he, "that thetrack is a fresh one. The creature has not passed ten minutes. Look how the water is still oozing into that deeper print! By Jove! See, here is the mark of a little one!"

Sure enough, smaller tracks of the same general form were runningparallel to the large ones.

"But what do you make of this?" cried Professor Summerlee,triumphantly, pointing to what looked like the huge print of afive-fingered human hand appearing among the three-toed marks.

"Wealden!" cried Challenger, in an ecstasy. "I've seen them inthe Wealden clay. It is a creature walking erect upon three-toedfeet, and occasionally putting one of its five-fingered forepawsupon the ground. Not a bird, my dear Roxton--not a bird."

"A beast?"

"No; a reptile--a dinosaur. Nothing else could have left sucha track. They puzzled a worthy Sussex doctor some ninety yearsago; but who in the world could have hoped--hoped--to have seen asight like that?"

His words died away into a whisper, and we all stood inmotionless amazement. Following the tracks, we had left themorass and passed through a screen of brushwood and trees. Beyond was an open glade, and in this were five of the mostextraordinary creatures that I have ever seen. Crouching downamong the bushes, we observed them at our leisure.

There were, as I say, five of them, two being adults and threeyoung ones. In size they were enormous. Even the babies were asbig as elephants, while the two large ones were far beyond allcreatures I have ever seen. They had slate-colored skin, whichwas scaled like a lizard's and shimmered where the sun shoneupon it. All five were sitting up, balancing themselves upon theirbroad, powerful tails and their huge three-toed hind-feet, whilewith their small five-fingered front-feet they pulled down thebranches upon which they browsed. I do not know that I can bringtheir appearance home to you better than by saying that theylooked like monstrous kangaroos, twenty feet in length, and withskins like black crocodiles.

I do not know how long we stayed motionless gazing at thismarvelous spectacle. A strong wind blew towards us and we werewell concealed, so there was no chance of discovery. From timeto time the little ones played round their parents in unwieldygambols, the great beasts bounding into the air and falling withdull thuds upon the earth. The strength of the parents seemed tobe limitless, for one of them, having some difficulty in reachinga bunch of foliage which grew upon a considerable-sized tree, puthis fore-legs round the trunk and tore it down as if it had beena sapling. The action seemed, as I thought, to show not only thegreat development of its muscles, but also the small one of itsbrain, for the whole weight came crashing down upon the top ofit, and it uttered a series of shrill yelps to show that, big asit was, there was a limit to what it could endure. The incidentmade it think, apparently, that the neighborhood was dangerous,for it slowly lurched off through the wood, followed by its mateand its three enormous infants. We saw the shimmering slatygleam of their skins between the tree-trunks, and their headsundulating high above the brush-wood. Then they vanished fromour sight.

I looked at my comrades. Lord John was standing at gaze with hisfinger on the trigger of his elephant-gun, his eager hunter'ssoul shining from his fierce eyes. What would he not give forone such head to place between the two crossed oars above themantelpiece in his snuggery at the Albany! And yet his reasonheld him in, for all our exploration of the wonders of thisunknown land depended upon our presence being concealed fromits inhabitants. The two professors were in silent ecstasy. In their excitement they had unconsciously seized each other bythe hand, and stood like two little children in the presence of amarvel, Challenger's cheeks bunched up into a seraphic smile, andSummerlee's sardonic face softening for the moment into wonderand reverence.

"Nunc dimittis!" he cried at last. "What will they say inEngland of this?"

"My dear Summerlee, I will tell you with great confidence exactlywhat they will say in England," said Challenger. "They will saythat you are an infernal liar and a scientific charlatan, exactlyas you and others said of me."

"In the face of photographs?"

"Faked, Summerlee! Clumsily faked!"

"In the face of specimens?"

"Ah, there we may have them! Malone and his filthy Fleet Streetcrew may be all yelping our praises yet. August the twenty-eighth--the day we saw five live iguanodons in a glade of Maple White Land. Put it down in your diary, my young friend, and send it to your rag."

"And be ready to get the toe-end of the editorial boot inreturn," said Lord John. "Things look a bit different from thelatitude of London, young fellah my lad. There's many a man whonever tells his adventures, for he can't hope to be believed. Who's to blame them? For this will seem a bit of a dream toourselves in a month or two. WHAT did you say they were?"

"Iguanodons," said Summerlee. "You'll find their footmarks allover the Hastings sands, in Kent, and in Sussex. The South ofEngland was alive with them when there was plenty of good lushgreen-stuff to keep them going. Conditions have changed, and thebeasts died. Here it seems that the conditions have not changed,and the beasts have lived."

"If ever we get out of this alive, I must have a head with me,"said Lord John. "Lord, how some of that Somaliland-Uganda crowdwould turn a beautiful pea-green if they saw it! I don't knowwhat you chaps think, but it strikes me that we are on mightythin ice all this time."

I had the same feeling of mystery and danger around us. In thegloom of the trees there seemed a constant menace and as welooked up into their shadowy foliage vague terrors crept intoone's heart. It is true that these monstrous creatures which wehad seen were lumbering, inoffensive brutes which were unlikelyto hurt anyone, but in this world of wonders what other survivalsmight there not be--what fierce, active horrors ready to pounceupon us from their lair among the rocks or brushwood? I knewlittle of prehistoric life, but I had a clear remembrance of onebook which I had read in which it spoke of creatures who wouldlive upon our lions and tigers as a cat lives upon mice. What ifthese also were to be found in the woods of Maple White Land!

It was destined that on this very morning--our first in the newcountry--we were to find out what strange hazards lay around us. It was a loathsome adventure, and one of which I hate to think. If, as Lord John said, the glade of the iguanodons will remainwith us as a dream, then surely the swamp of the pterodactyls willforever be our nightmare. Let me set down exactly what occurred.

We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because LordRoxton acted as scout before he would let us advance, and partlybecause at every second step one or other of our professors wouldfall, with a cry of wonder, before some flower or insect whichpresented him with a new type. We may have traveled two or threemiles in all, keeping to the right of the line of the stream,when we came upon a considerable opening in the trees. A beltof brushwood led up to a tangle of rocks--the whole plateau wasstrewn with boulders. We were walking slowly towards theserocks, among bushes which reached over our waists, when we becameaware of a strange low gabbling and whistling sound, which filledthe air with a constant clamor and appeared to come from somespot immediately before us. Lord John held up his hand as asignal for us to stop, and he made his way swiftly, stooping andrunning, to the line of rocks. We saw him peep over them andgive a gesture of amazement. Then he stood staring as ifforgetting us, so utterly entranced was he by what he saw. Finally he waved us to come on, holding up his hand as a signalfor caution. His whole bearing made me feel that somethingwonderful but dangerous lay before us.

Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks. The place intowhich we gazed was a pit, and may, in the early days, have beenone of the smaller volcanic blow-holes of the plateau. It wasbowl-shaped and at the bottom, some hundreds of yards from wherewe lay, were pools of green-scummed, stagnant water, fringedwith bullrushes. It was a weird place in itself, but itsoccupants made it seem like a scene from the Seven Circles of Dante. The place was a rookery of pterodactyls. There were hundreds ofthem congregated within view. All the bottom area round thewater-edge was alive with their young ones, and with hideousmothers brooding upon their leathery, yellowish eggs. From thiscrawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came theshocking clamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible,musty odor which turned us sick. But above, perched each uponits own stone, tall, gray, and withered, more like dead and driedspecimens than actual living creatures, sat the horrible males,absolutely motionless save for the rolling of their red eyes oran occasional snap of their rat-trap beaks as a dragon-fly wentpast them. Their huge, membranous wings were closed by foldingtheir fore-arms, so that they sat like gigantic old women,wrapped in hideous web-colored shawls, and with their ferociousheads protruding above them. Large and small, not less than athousand of these filthy creatures lay in the hollow before us.

Our professors would gladly have stayed there all day, soentranced were they by this opportunity of studying the life of aprehistoric age. They pointed out the fish and dead birds lyingabout among the rocks as proving the nature of the food of thesecreatures, and I heard them congratulating each other on havingcleared up the point why the bones of this flying dragon arefound in such great numbers in certain well-defined areas, as inthe Cambridge Green-sand, since it was now seen that, like penguins,they lived in gregarious fashion.

Finally, however, Challenger, bent upon proving some point whichSummerlee had contested, thrust his head over the rock and nearlybrought destruction upon us all. In an instant the nearest malegave a shrill, whistling cry, and flapped its twenty-foot span ofleathery wings as it soared up into the air. The females andyoung ones huddled together beside the water, while the wholecircle of sentinels rose one after the other and sailed off intothe sky. It was a wonderful sight to see at least a hundredcreatures of such enormous size and hideous appearance allswooping like swallows with swift, shearing wing-strokes aboveus; but soon we realized that it was not one on which we couldafford to linger. At first the great brutes flew round in a hugering, as if to make sure what the exact extent of the dangermight be. Then, the flight grew lower and the circle narrower,until they were whizzing round and round us, the dry, rustlingflap of their huge slate-colored wings filling the air with avolume of sound that made me think of Hendon aerodrome upon arace day.

"Make for the wood and keep together," cried Lord John, clubbinghis rifle. "The brutes mean mischief."

The moment we attempted to retreat the circle closed in upon us,until the tips of the wings of those nearest to us nearly touchedour faces. We beat at them with the stocks of our guns, butthere was nothing solid or vulnerable to strike. Then suddenlyout of the whizzing, slate-colored circle a long neck shot out, anda fierce beak made a thrust at us. Another and another followed. Summerlee gave a cry and put his hand to his face, from which theblood was streaming. I felt a prod at the back of my neck, andturned dizzy with the shock. Challenger fell, and as I stoopedto pick him up I was again struck from behind and dropped on thetop of him. At the same instant I heard the crash of Lord John'selephant-gun, and, looking up, saw one of the creatures with abroken wing struggling upon the ground, spitting and gurgling atus with a wide-opened beak and blood-shot, goggled eyes, like somedevil in a medieval picture. Its comrades had flown higher at thesudden sound, and were circling above our heads.

"Now," cried Lord John, "now for our lives!"

We staggered through the brushwood, and even as we reached thetrees the harpies were on us again. Summerlee was knocked down,but we tore him up and rushed among the trunks. Once there wewere safe, for those huge wings had no space for their sweepbeneath the branches. As we limped homewards, sadly mauled anddiscomfited, we saw them for a long time flying at a great heightagainst the deep blue sky above our heads, soaring round andround, no bigger than wood-pigeons, with their eyes no doubtstill following our progress. At last, however, as we reachedthe thicker woods they gave up the chase, and we saw them no more.

A most interesting and convincing experience," said Challenger,as we halted beside the brook and he bathed a swollen knee. "We are exceptionally well informed, Summerlee, as to the habitsof the enraged pterodactyl."

Summerlee was wiping the blood from a cut in his forehead, whileI was tying up a nasty stab in the muscle of the neck. Lord Johnhad the shoulder of his coat torn away, but the creature's teethhad only grazed the flesh.

"It is worth noting," Challenger continued, "that our youngfriend has received an undoubted stab, while Lord John's coatcould only have been torn by a bite. In my own case, I wasbeaten about the head by their wings, so we have had a remarkableexhibition of their various methods of offence."

"It has been touch and go for our lives," said Lord John,gravely, "and I could not think of a more rotten sort of deaththan to be outed by such filthy vermin. I was sorry to fire myrifle, but, by Jove! there was no great choice."

"We should not be here if you hadn't," said I, with conviction.

"It may do no harm," said he. "Among these woods there must bemany loud cracks from splitting or falling trees which would bejust like the sound of a gun. But now, if you are of my opinion,we have had thrills enough for one day, and had best get back tothe surgical box at the camp for some carbolic. Who knows whatvenom these beasts may have in their hideous jaws?"

But surely no men ever had just such a day since the world began. Some fresh surprise was ever in store for us. When, followingthe course of our brook, we at last reached our glade and sawthe thorny barricade of our camp, we thought that our adventureswere at an end. But we had something more to think of before wecould rest. The gate of Fort Challenger had been untouched, thewalls were unbroken, and yet it had been visited by some strangeand powerful creature in our absence. No foot-mark showed a traceof its nature, and only the overhanging branch of the enormousginko tree suggested how it might have come and gone; but of itsmalevolent strength there was ample evidence in the condition ofour stores. They were strewn at random all over the ground, andone tin of meat had been crushed into pieces so as to extractthe contents. A case of cartridges had been shattered intomatchwood, and one of the brass shells lay shredded into piecesbeside it. Again the feeling of vague horror came upon oursouls, and we gazed round with frightened eyes at the darkshadows which lay around us, in all of which some fearsome shapemight be lurking. How good it was when we were hailed by thevoice of Zambo, and, going to the edge of the plateau, saw himsitting grinning at us upon the top of the opposite pinnacle.

"All well, Massa Challenger, all well!" he cried. "Me stay here. No fear. You always find me when you want."

His honest black face, and the immense view before us, whichcarried us half-way back to the affluent of the Amazon, helped usto remember that we really were upon this earth in the twentiethcentury, and had not by some magic been conveyed to some rawplanet in its earliest and wildest state. How difficult it wasto realize that the violet line upon the far horizon was welladvanced to that great river upon which huge steamers ran, andfolk talked of the small affairs of life, while we, maroonedamong the creatures of a bygone age, could but gaze towards itand yearn for all that it meant!

One other memory remains with me of this wonderful day, and withit I will close this letter. The two professors, their tempersaggravated no doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as towhether our assailants were of the genus pterodactylus ordimorphodon, and high words had ensued. To avoid their wranglingI moved some little way apart, and was seated smoking upon thetrunk of a fallen tree, when Lord John strolled over in my direction.

"I say, Malone," said he, "do you remember that place where thosebeasts were?"

"Very clearly."

"A sort of volcanic pit, was it not?"

"Exactly," said I.

"Did you notice the soil?"

"Rocks."

"But round the water--where the reeds were?"

"It was a bluish soil. It looked like clay."

"Exactly. A volcanic tube full of blue clay."

"What of that?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," said he, and strolled back to where thevoices of the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet,the high, strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to thesonorous bass of Challenger. I should have thought no more ofLord John's remark were it not that once again that night Iheard him mutter to himself: "Blue clay--clay in a volcanic tube!" They were the last words I heard before I dropped into anexhausted sleep.