After London; Or, Wild England

by Richard Jefferies

  CHAPTER XXIII

  STRANGE THINGS

  The thought struck Felix that perhaps he might find a spring somewherein the island, and he started at once up over the hill. At the top hepaused. The sun had not sunk, but had disappeared as a disk. In itsplace was a billow of blood, for so it looked, a vast up-heaved billowof glowing blood surging on the horizon. Over it flickered a tint ofpalest blue, like that seen in fire. The black waters reflected theglow, and the yellow vapour around was suffused with it. Thoughmomentarily startled, Felix did not much heed these appearances; he wasstill dazed and heavy from his sleep.

  He went on, looking for a spring, sometimes walking on firm ground,sometimes sinking to the ankle in a friable soil like black sand. Theground looked, indeed, as if it had been burnt, but there were nocharred stumps of timber such as he had seen on the sites of forestfires. The extreme dreariness seemed to oppress his spirits, and he wenton and on in a heavy waking dream. Descending into a plain, he lostsight of the flaming sunset and the black waters. In the level plain thedesolation was yet more marked; there was not a grass-blade or plant;the surface was hard, black, and burned, resembling iron, and indeed inplaces it resounded to his feet, though he supposed that was the echofrom hollow passages beneath.

  Several times he shook himself, straightened himself up, and endeavouredto throw off the sense of drowsy weight which increased upon him. Hecould not do so; he walked with bent back, and crept, as it were, overthe iron land which radiated heat. A shimmer like that of water appearedin front; he quickened his pace, but could not get to it, and realizedpresently that it was a mirage which receded as he advanced. There wasno pleasant summer twilight; the sunset was succeeded by an indefinitegloom, and while this shadow hung overhead the yellow vapour around wasfaintly radiant. Felix suddenly stopped, having stepped, as he thought,on a skeleton.

  Another glance, however, showed that it was merely the impression ofone, the actual bones had long since disappeared. The ribs, the skull,and limbs were drawn on the black ground in white lines as if it hadbeen done with a broad piece of chalk. Close by he found three or fourmore, intertangled and superimposed as if the unhappy beings had fallenpartly across each other, and in that position had mouldered awayleaving nothing but their outline. From among a variety of objects thatwere scattered about Felix picked up something that shone; it was adiamond bracelet of one large stone, and a small square of blue chinatile with a curious heraldic animal drawn on it. Evidently these hadbelonged to one or other of the party who had perished.

  Though startled at the first sight, it was curious that Felix felt solittle horror; the idea did not occur to him that he was in danger asthese had been. Inhaling the gaseous emanations from the soil andcontained in the yellow vapour, he had become narcotized, and moved asif under the influence of opium, while wide awake, and capable ofrational conduct. His senses were deadened, and did not carry the usualvivid impression to the mind; he saw things as if they were afar off.Accidentally looking back, he found that his footmarks, as far as hecould see, shone with a phosphoric light like that of "touchwood" in thedark. Near at hand they did not shine; the appearance did not come tillsome few minutes had elapsed. His track was visible behind till thevapour hid it. As the evening drew on the vapour became more luminous,and somewhat resembled an aurora.

  Still anxious for water, he proceeded as straight ahead as he could, andshortly became conscious of an indefinite cloud which kept pace with himon either side. When he turned to look at either of the clouds, the onelooked at disappeared. It was not condensed enough to be visible todirect vision, yet he was aware of it from the corner of his eye.Shapeless and threatening, the gloomy thickness of the air floatedbeside him like the vague monster of a dream. Sometimes he fancied thathe saw an arm or a limb among the folds of the cloud, or an approach toa face; the instant he looked it vanished. Marching at each hand thesevapours bore him horrible company.

  His brain became unsteady, and flickering things moved about him; yet,though alarmed, he was not afraid; his senses were not acute enough forfear. The heat increased; his hands were intolerably hot as if he hadbeen in a fever, he panted; but did not perspire. A dry heat like anoven burned his blood in his veins. His head felt enlarged, and his eyesseemed alight; he could see these two globes of phosphoric light underhis brows. They seemed to stand out so that he could see them. Hethought his path straight, it was really curved; nor did he know that hestaggered as he walked.

  Presently a white object appeared ahead; and on coming to it, he foundit was a wall, white as snow, with some kind of crystal. He touched it,when the wall fell immediately, with a crushing sound as if pulverised,and disappeared in a vast cavern at his feet. Beyond this chasm he cameto more walls like those of houses, such as would be left if the roofsfell in. He carefully avoided touching them, for they seemed as brittleas glass, and merely a white powder having no consistency at all. As headvanced these remnants of buildings increased in number, so that he hadto wind in and out round them. In some places the crystallized wall hadfallen of itself, and he could see down into the cavern; for the househad either been built partly underground, or, which was more probable,the ground had risen. Whether the walls had been of bricks or stone orother material he could not tell; they were now like salt.

  Soon wearying of winding round these walls, Felix returned and retracedhis steps till he was outside the place, and then went on towards theleft. Not long after, as he still walked in a dream and without feelinghis feet, he descended a slight slope and found the ground change incolour from black to a dull red. In his dazed state he had taken severalsteps into this red before he noticed that it was liquid, unctuous andslimy, like a thick oil. It deepened rapidly and was already over hisshoes; he returned to the black shore and stood looking out over thewater, if such it could be called.

  The luminous yellow vapour had now risen a height of ten or fifteenfeet, and formed a roof both over the land and over the red water, underwhich it was possible to see for a great distance. The surface of thered oil or viscid liquid was perfectly smooth, and, indeed, it did notseem as if any wind could rouse a wave on it, much less that a swellshould be left after the gale had gone down. Disappointed in his searchfor water to drink, Felix mechanically turned to go back.

  He followed his luminous footmarks, which he could see a long way beforehim. His trail curved so much that he made many short cuts across thewinding line he had left. His weariness was now so intense that allfeeling had departed. His feet, his limbs, his arms, and hands werenumbed. The subtle poison of the emanations from the earth had begun todeaden his nerves. It seemed a full hour or more to him till he reachedthe spot where the skeletons were drawn in white upon the ground.

  He passed a few yards to one side of them, and stumbled over a heap ofsomething which he did not observe, as it was black like the levelground. It emitted a metallic sound, and looking he saw that he hadkicked his foot against a great heap of money. The coins were black asink; he picked up a handful and went on. Hitherto Felix had accepted allthat he saw as something so strange as to be unaccountable. During hisadvance into this region in the canoe he had in fact become slowlystupefied by the poisonous vapour he had inhaled. His mind was partly inabeyance; it acted, but only after some time had elapsed. He now at lastbegan to realize his position; the finding of the heap of blackenedmoney touched a chord of memory. These skeletons were the miserablerelics of men who had ventured, in search of ancient treasures, into thedeadly marshes over the site of the mightiest city of former days. Thedeserted and utterly extinct city of London was under his feet.

  He had penetrated into the midst of that dreadful place, of which he hadheard many a tradition: how the earth was poison, the water poison, theair poison, the very light of heaven, falling through such anatmosphere, poison. There were said to be places where the earth was onfire and belched forth sulphurous fumes, supposed to be from thecombustion of the enormous stores of strange and unknown chemicalscollected by the wonderful people of those times. Upon the surf
ace ofthe water there was a greenish-yellow oil, to touch which was death toany creature; it was the very essence of corruption. Sometimes itfloated before the wind, and fragments became attached to reeds or flagsfar from the place itself. If a moorhen or duck chanced to rub the reed,and but one drop stuck to its feathers, it forthwith died. Of the redwater he had not heard, nor of the black, into which he had unwittinglysailed.

  Ghastly beings haunted the site of so many crimes, shapeless monsters,hovering by night, and weaving a fearful dance. Frequently they caughtfire, as it seemed, and burned as they flew or floated in the air.Remembering these stories, which in part, at least, now seemed to betrue, Felix glanced aside, where the cloud still kept pace with him, andinvoluntarily put his hands to his ears lest the darkness of the airshould whisper some horror of old times. The earth on which he walked,the black earth, leaving phosphoric footmarks behind him, was composedof the mouldered bodies of millions of men who had passed away in thecenturies during which the city existed. He shuddered as he moved; hehastened, yet could not go fast, his numbed limbs would not permit him.

  He dreaded lest he should fall and sleep, and wake no more, like thesearchers after treasure; treasure which they had found only to lose forever. He looked around, supposing that he might see the gleaming headand shoulders of the half-buried giant, of which he recollected he hadbeen told. The giant was punished for some crime by being buried to thechest in the earth; fire incessantly consumed his head and played aboutit, yet it was not destroyed. The learned thought, if such a thingreally existed, that it must be the upper part of an ancient brazenstatue, kept bright by the action of acid in the atmosphere, and shiningwith reflected light. Felix did not see it, and shortly afterwardssurmounted the hill, and looked down upon his canoe. It was on fire!