92 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



ago, he had shone unfalteringly down the little 

 stone tube that led his rays into the Queen's 

 Chamber, in the very heart of great Cheops. 

 Just clearing a low palm was the present North 

 Star, while, high above, Vega shone, patiently 

 waiting to take her place half a milhon years 

 hence. When beginning her nightly climb, Vega 

 drew a thin, trembling thread of argent over the 

 still water, just as in other years she had laid 

 for me a slender silver strand of wire across 

 frozen snow, and on one memorable night traced 

 the ghost of a reflection over damp sand near 

 the Nile — pale as the wraiths of the early Pha- 

 raohs. 



Low on the eastern horizon, straight outward 

 from my beach, was the beginning and -snd of 

 the great zodiac band — the golden Hamal of 

 Aries and the paired stars of Pisces ; and behind, 

 over the black j.ungle, glowed the Southern 

 Cross. But night after night, as I watched on 

 the beach, the sight which moved me most was 

 the dull speck of emerald mist, a merest smudge 

 on the slate of the heavens, — the spiral nebula in 

 Andromeda, — a universe in the making, of a size 

 unthinkable to human minds. 



The power of my jungle beach to attract and 



