narrowly averting serious consequences. As 

 a result of his investigations, three varieties 

 were finally selected as good for human sus^ 

 tenance. One of these was a mushroom^type 

 of fungus, the others sweet^tasting algae. 

 Some of the algae contained abundance of 

 oil and made perfect kindling. With this 

 material spluttering torches could be made 

 on a moment's notice. We now had abundance 

 of carbohydrate food, but did not feel disposed 

 to try the culinary qualities of the monster ticks. 

 C[ That day an unusual disturbance took 

 place in the atmospheric conditions, so that, 

 instead of the general calmness which usually 

 existed in this region, we experienced a success 

 sion of cold blasts descending the valley walls. 

 This change reminded us again of the condi^ 

 tions under which we existed here in Bathybia : 

 a land where the sun shone red in the morning, 

 pink at noon, and red in the evening. Our 

 eyes accommodated themselves surprisingly 

 rapidly to these new circumstances; possibly 

 owing to previous exercise in the dull pink 

 illumination of modern drawing-rooms. In the 

 jungle the light was exceedingly dim and 

 our exploits had to be conducted with great 

 caution. Although, since the recent disco^ 

 veries, the food^supply presented no immediate 

 40 



