A moment later it was gone, and I could see again.
Above the trees there soared into my vision a huge thing on batlike
wings--a creature large as a large whale, but fashioned more after the
order of a lizard. Then again something charged the periscope and
blotted out the mirror. I will confess that I was almost gasping for
breath as I gave the commands to emerge. Into what sort of strange
land had fate guided us?

The instant the deck was awash, I opened the conning-tower hatch and
stepped out. In another minute the deck-hatch lifted, and those who
were not on duty below streamed up the ladder, Olson bringing Nobs
under one arm. For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must
each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora
and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon
a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through
ether to an unknown world. Even the grass upon the nearer bank was
unearthly--lush and high it grew, and each blade bore upon its tip a
brilliant flower--violet or yellow or carmine or blue--making as
gorgeous a sward as human imagination might conceive. But the life!
It teemed. The tall, fernlike trees were alive with monkeys, snakes,
and lizards. Huge insects hummed and buzzed hither and thither. Mighty
forms could be seen moving upon the ground in the thick forest, while
the bosom of the river wriggled with living things, and above flapped
the wings of gigantic creatures such as we are taught have been extinct
throughout countless ages.

"Look!" cried Olson. "Would you look at the giraffe comin' up out o'
the bottom of the say?" We looked in the direction he pointed and saw
a long, glossy neck surmounted by a small head rising above the surface
of the river. Presently the back of the creature was exposed, brown
and glossy as the water dripped from it. It turned its eyes upon us,
opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted a shrill hiss and came for us.
The thing must have been sixteen or eighteen feet in length and closely
resembled pictures I had seen of restored plesiosaurs of the lower
Jurassic. It charged us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have
thought it intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I
verily believe it did intend.

We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us
with distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four
flippers with which it swam were wo