"On still another island, about a hundred miles from Hili-li, but on
about the same meridian--that is to say, in the same warm air-current,
though the heat of the current was there much diminished by
dilution--the party visited certain ruins which had always greatly
puzzled the Hili-lites. The island was quite large, and was covered with
agricultural farms, from which a single crop was taken each year. The
ruins were quite uninjured by time; and one small stone structure was so
complete as to be scarcely more dilapidated in appearance than would be
any other old and neglected stone building in Hili-li. The stone of
which the various structures were composed had never in all the
centuries of their residence there been found by the Hili-lites
elsewhere than in these buildings; the supposition being that it came
from the great surrounding continent. But, after all, the real
peculiarity of these buildings was in their architecture. The difficulty
of obtaining from Peters any architectural facts, you will never
appreciate unless you attempt, as I have done, to procure such
information. He declares that in these buildings were neither columns
nor arches; and he also declares that the absence of arches and columns
he knows, not only from his own observation, but because that fact was
alluded to in his presence by the Hili-lite members of the party; yet he
is equally certain that in one of the larger of the ruins the roof was
intact.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243