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Our
field
glasses
showed
the
external
,
horizontal
bands
of
nearly
effaced
sculptures
and
dot
groups
to
be
very
prevalent
,
and
we
could
half
imagine
what
the
city
must
once
have
looked
like
--
even
though
most
of
the
roofs
and
tower
tops
had
necessarily
perished
.
As
a
whole
,
it
had
been
a
complex
tangle
of
twisted
lanes
and
alleys
,
all
of
them
deep
canyons
,
and
some
little
better
than
tunnels
because
of
the
overhanging
masonry
or
overarching
bridges
.
Now
,
outspread
below
us
,
it
loomed
like
a
dream
fantasy
against
a
westward
mist
through
whose
northern
end
the
low
,
reddish
antarctic
sun
of
early
afternoon
was
struggling
to
shine
;
and
when
,
for
a
moment
,
that
sun
encountered
a
denser
obstruction
and
plunged
the
scene
into
temporary
shadow
,
the
effect
was
subtly
menacing
in
a
way
I
can
never
hope
to
depict
.
Even
the
faint
howling
and
piping
of
the
unfelt
wind
in
the
great
mountain
passes
behind
us
took
on
a
wilder
note
of
purposeful
malignity
.
The
last
stage
of
our
descent
to
the
town
was
unusually
steep
and
abrupt
,
and
a
rock
outcropping
at
the
edge
where
the
grade
changed
led
us
to
think
that
an
artificial
terrace
had
once
existed
there
.
Under
the
glaciation
,
we
believed
,
there
must
be
a
flight
of
steps
or
its
equivalent
.
When
at
last
we
plunged
into
the
town
itself
,
clambering
over
fallen
masonry
and
shrinking
from
the
oppressive
nearness
and
dwarfing
height
of
omnipresent
crumbling
and
pitted
walls
,
our
sensations
again
became
such
that
I
marvel
at
the
amount
of
self-control
we
retained
.
Danforth
was
frankly
jumpy
,
and
began
making
some
offensively
irrelevant
speculations
about
the
horror
at
the
camp
--
which
I
resented
all
the
more
because
I
could
not
help
sharing
certain
conclusions
forced
upon
us
by
many
features
of
this
morbid
survival
from
nightmare
antiquity
.
The
speculations
worked
on
his
imagination
,
too
;
for
in
one
place
--
where
a
debris-littered
alley
turned
a
sharp
corner
--
he
insisted
that
he
saw
faint
traces
of
ground
markings
which
he
did
not
like
;
whilst
elsewhere
he
stopped
to
listen
to
a
subtle
,
imaginary
sound
from
some
undefined
point
--
a
muffled
musical
piping
,
he
said
,
not
unlike
that
of
the
wind
in
the
mountain
caves
,
yet
somehow
disturbingly
different
.
The
ceaseless
five-pointedness
of
the
surrounding
architecture
and
of
the
few
distinguishable
mural
arabesques
had
a
dimly
sinister
suggestiveness
we
could
not
escape
,
and
gave
us
a
touch
of
terrible
subconscious
certainty
concerning
the
primal
entities
which
had
reared
and
dwelt
in
this
unhallowed
place
.
Nevertheless
,
our
scientific
and
adventurous
souls
were
not
wholly
dead
,
and
we
mechanically
carried
out
our
program
of
chipping
specimens
from
all
the
different
rock
types
represented
in
the
masonry
.
We
wished
a
rather
full
set
in
order
to
draw
better
conclusions
regarding
the
age
of
the
place
.
Nothing
in
the
great
outer
walls
seemed
to
date
from
later
than
the
Jurassic
and
Comanchian
periods
,
nor
was
any
piece
of
stone
in
the
entire
place
of
a
greater
recency
than
the
Pliocene
Age
.
In
stark
certainty
,
we
were
wandering
amidst
a
death
which
had
reigned
at
least
five
hundred
thousand
years
,
and
in
all
probability
even
longer
.
As
we
proceeded
through
this
maze
of
stone-shadowed
twilight
we
stopped
at
all
available
apertures
to
study
interiors
and
investigate
entrance
possibilities
.
Some
were
above
our
reach
,
whilst
others
led
only
into
ice-choked
ruins
as
unroofed
and
barren
as
the
rampart
on
the
hill
.
One
,
though
spacious
and
inviting
,
opened
on
a
seemingly
bottomless
abyss
without
visible
means
of
descent
.
Now
and
then
we
had
a
chance
to
study
the
petrified
wood
of
a
surviving
shutter
,
and
were
impressed
by
the
fabulous
antiquity
implied
in
the
still
discernible
grain
.
These
things
had
come
from
Mesozoic
gymnosperms
and
conifers
--
especially
Cretaceous
cycads
--
and
from
fan
palms
and
early
angiosperms
of
plainly
Tertiary
date
.
Nothing
definitely
later
than
the
Pliocene
could
be
discovered
.
In
the
placing
of
these
shutters
--
whose
edges
showed
the
former
presence
of
queer
and
long-vanished
hinges
--
usage
seemed
to
be
varied
--
some
being
on
the
outer
and
some
on
the
inner
side
of
the
deep
embrasures
.
They
seemed
to
have
become
wedged
in
place
,
thus
surviving
the
rusting
of
their
former
and
probably
metallic
fixtures
and
fastenings
.
After
a
time
we
came
across
a
row
of
windows
--
in
the
bulges
of
a
colossal
five-edged
cone
of
undamaged
apex
--
which
led
into
a
vast
,
well-preserved
room
with
stone
flooring
;
but
these
were
too
high
in
the
room
to
permit
descent
without
a
rope
.
We
had
a
rope
with
us
,
but
did
not
wish
to
bother
with
this
twenty-foot
drop
unless
obliged
to
--
especially
in
this
thin
plateau
air
where
great
demands
were
made
upon
the
heart
action
.
This
enormous
room
was
probably
a
hall
or
concourse
of
some
sort
,
and
our
electric
torches
showed
bold
,
distinct
,
and
potentially
startling
sculptures
arranged
round
the
walls
in
broad
,
horizontal
bands
separated
by
equally
broad
strips
of
conventional
arabesques
.
We
took
careful
note
of
this
spot
,
planning
to
enter
here
unless
a
more
easily
gained
interior
were
encountered
.
Finally
,
though
,
we
did
encounter
exactly
the
opening
we
wished
;
an
archway
about
six
feet
wide
and
ten
feet
high
,
marking
the
former
end
of
an
aerial
bridge
which
had
spanned
an
alley
about
five
feet
above
the
present
level
of
glaciation
.
These
archways
,
of
course
,
were
flush
with
upper-story
floors
,
and
in
this
case
one
of
the
floors
still
existed
.
The
building
thus
accessible
was
a
series
of
rectangular
terraces
on
our
left
facing
westward
.
That
across
the
alley
,
where
the
other
archway
yawned
,
was
a
decrepit
cylinder
with
no
windows
and
with
a
curious
bulge
about
ten
feet
above
the
aperture
.
It
was
totally
dark
inside
,
and
the
archway
seemed
to
open
on
a
well
of
illimitable
emptiness
.
