Opposite to him and facing west a
great tongue of land ran up to a wall of mountains with stark precipices
of black rock that seemed to be hundreds, or even thousands, of feet
high, and at the tip of this tongue a mighty waterfall rushed over
the precipice, looking at that distance like a cascade of smoke. This
torrent, which he remembered was called Raaba, fell into a great pool
and there divided itself into two rushing branches that enclosed
an ellipse of ground, surrounded on all sides by water, for on its
westernmost extremity the branches met again and after flowing a while
as one river, divided once more and wound away quietly to north and
south further than the eye could reach. On the island thus formed, which
may have been three miles long by two in breadth, stood thousands of
straw-roofed, square-built huts with verandas, neatly arranged in blocks
and lines and having between them streets that were edged with palms.
On the hither side of the pool was what looked like a park, for here
grew great, black trees, which from their flat shape Alan took to be
some variety of cedar, and standing alone in the midst of this park
where no other habitations could be discovered, was a large, low
building with dark-coloured walls and gabled roofs that flashed like
fire.
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