A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

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wide space where four cross-roads met. Here there were three birds of
gigantic stature. They had vast bodies, short legs, short necks, and
seemed as large as an ordinary-sized ox. Their wings were short, and
evidently could not be used for flight; their beaks were like that of
a sea-gull; each one had a man on his back, and was harnessed to a
car. The chief motioned to me to enter one of these cars. I did so. He
followed, and thereupon the driver started the bird, which set forth
with long, rapid strides, at a pace fast as that of a trotting horse.
So astonished was I that for some time I did not notice anything else;
but at length, when my first feeling had subsided, I began to regard
other objects. All the way the dense fern foliage arched overhead,
throwing down deep shadows. They grew on either side in dense rows,
but between their stalks I could see the country beyond, which lay
all bright in the sunlight.
Here were broad fields, all green with verdure; farther away arose
clumps of tree-ferns; at every step of the way new vistas opened; amid
the verdure and the foliage were the roofs of structures that looked
like pavilions, and more massive edifices with pyramidal roofs. Our
road constantly ascended, and at length we came to a crossing. This
was a wide terrace at the slope of the mountain; on the lower side was
a row of massive stone edifices with pyramidal roofs, while on the
upper there were portals which seemed to open into excavated caverns.
Here, too, on either side arose the giant ferns, overarching and
darkening the terrace with their deep shadow. From this point I looked
back, and through the trunks of the tree-ferns I could see fields
and pavilions and the pyramidal roofs of massive edifices, and
broad, verdant slopes, while in the distance there were peeps of the
boundless sea. We continued on our way without stopping, and passed
several successive terraces like the first, with the same caverns on
the upper side and massive edifices on the lower, until at last the
ascent ended at the fifth terrace, and here we turned to the left.
Now the view became more varied. The tree-ferns arose on either side,
arching overhead; on my right were the portals that opened into
caverns, on my left solid and massive houses, built of great blocks of
stone, with pyramidal roofs. As far as I could judge, I was in a city
built on the slope of a mountain, with its streets formed thus of
successive terraces and their connecting cross-ways, one half its
habitations consisting of caverns, while the other half were pavilions
and massive stone structures. Few people, however, were to be seen.
Occasionally I saw one or two groping along with their eyes half