Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/136

 long strips of verdure, limited in width to about thirty yards, but extending in length for miles. Parallel with these, and connected with them by shorter strips, were similar long stretches of garden, extending to where, in the horizon, they narrowed to converging lines. The verdure-clad atolls of the Pacific would afford, perhaps, the nearest approach to their appearance, if we could picture to ourselves those atolls as fenced in by balustrades of stone having on the farther side, not the glassy ocean, but a precipitous chasm. At the point where we had emerged into this aerial garden we might be about two miles from its southern extremity.

"I have some professional business to attend to," said Utis, after indicating to me the points of interest in the landscape. Meanwhile you may proceed leisurely toward the tower you see at the seaward extremity of this garden. As there is a fine view from the top, and other matters of interest, I shall probably find you there when I return."