Lives of Alcyone

although once or twice in that confined and heated atmosphere they
suffered considerably from the want of it.
After a long time spent in this slow progress they became
conscious of a faint and inexplicable luminosity in the heavy
atmosphere which surrounded them, and presently they came out
onto a cavity so vast that they were unable to see its limits. It
seemed to be full of this curious pale radiance, by means of which,
however, they were able to see distinctly enough to dispense
altogether with the torches. Their eyes required great deal of
adjustment to this extraordinary light, so that for some time they
could not at all calculate the distance of objects, and met with some
awkward falls in consequence. Everything felt abnormally heavy to
them, and every motion seemed somehow a violent effort. They
soon discovered that this enormous cavity was inhabited not only by
animals but also by human beings, though these last were in various
ways unlike any others that they had ever seen. The impression
conveyed to them was that the inhabitants of this strange inner
world had at some time or other in the far past belonged to the
outer, though it would appear that the people themselves held rather
the opposite idea, and thought of themselves as original, and of
those who had escaped into the – outer world as men upon whom
some dismal fate had fallen.
The men whom they saw were wild-looking, and somehow
indescribably strange and inhuman. They seemed to constitute a
numerous community, and there were many things about them
which were inexplicable to our explorers. They had no means of
communicating with them, except by gestures, but it was evident
that their arrival excited great wonder. If these primitive cave-men