's
was final.

"It can only have one name," said he. "It is called after the pioneer
who discovered it. It is Maple White Land."

Maple White Land it became, and so it is named in that chart which has
become my special task. So it will, I trust, appear in the atlas of
the future.

The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressing subject
before us. We had the evidence of our own eyes that the place was
inhabited by some unknown creatures, and there was that of Maple
White's sketch-book to show that more dreadful and more dangerous
monsters might still appear. That there might also prove to be human
occupants and that they were of a malevolent character was suggested by
the skeleton impaled upon the bamboos, which could not have got there
had it not been dropped from above. Our situation, stranded without
possibility of escape in such a land, was clearly full of danger, and
our reasons endorsed every measure of caution which Lord John's
experience could suggest. Yet it was surely impossible that we should
halt on the edge of this world of mystery when our very souls were
tingling with impatience to push forward and to pluck the heart from it.

We therefore blocked the entrance to our zareba by filling it up with
several thorny bushes, and left our camp with the stores entirely
surrounded by this protecting hedge. We then slowly and cautiously set
forth into the unknown, following the course of the little stream which
flowed from our spring, as it should always serve us as a guide on our
return.

Hardly had we started when we came across signs that there were indeed
wonders awaiting us. After a few hundred yards of thick forest,
containing many trees which were quite unknown to me, but which
Summerlee, who was the botanist of the party, recognized as forms of
conifera and of cycadaceous plants which have long passed away in the
world below, we entered a region where the stream widened out and
formed a considerable bog. High reeds of a peculiar type grew thickly
before us, which were pronounced to be equisetacea, or mare's-tails,
with tree-ferns scattered amongst them, all of them swaying in a brisk
wind. Suddenly Lord John, who was walking first, halted with uplifted
hand.

"Look at this!" said he. "By George, this must be the trail of the
father of all birds!"

An enormous three-toed track was imprinted in the soft mud before us.
The creature, whatever it was, had crossed the swamp and h