h Plutonic forces, I
cannot doubt that it exists in the free liquid state, and that the
creatures may have come in contact with it. A much more important
problem is the question as to the existence of the carnivorous monster
which has left its traces in this glade. We know roughly that this
plateau is not larger than an average English county. Within this
confined space a certain number of creatures, mostly types which have
passed away in the world below, have lived together for innumerable
years. Now, it is very clear to me that in so long a period one would
have expected that the carnivorous creatures, multiplying unchecked,
would have exhausted their food supply and have been compelled to
either modify their flesh-eating habits or die of hunger. This we see
has not been so. We can only imagine, therefore, that the balance of
Nature is preserved by some check which limits the numbers of these
ferocious creatures. One of the many interesting problems, therefore,
which await our solution is to discover what that check may be and how
it operates. I venture to trust that we may have some future
opportunity for the closer study of the carnivorous dinosaurs."

"And I venture to trust we may not," I observed.

The Professor only raised his great eyebrows, as the schoolmaster meets
the irrelevant observation of the naughty boy.

"Perhaps Professor Summerlee may have an observation to make," he said,
and the two savants ascended together into some rarefied scientific
atmosphere, where the possibilities of a modification of the birth-rate
were weighed against the decline of the food supply as a check in the
struggle for existence.

That morning we mapped out a small portion of the plateau, avoiding the
swamp of the pterodactyls, and keeping to the east of our brook instead
of to the west. In that direction the country was still thickly
wooded, with so much undergrowth that our progress was very slow.

I have dwelt up to now upon the terrors of Maple White Land; but there
was another side to the subject, for all that morning we wandered among
lovely flowers--mostly, as I observed, white or yellow in color, these
being, as our professors explained, the primitive flower-shades. In
many places the ground was absolutely covered with them, and as we
walked ankle-deep on that wonderful yielding carpet, the scent was
almost intoxicating in its sweetness and intensity. The homely English
bee buzzed everywhere around us.