into the air.

"An inflammable gas, and one markedly lighter than the atmosphere. I
should say beyond doubt that it contained a considerable proportion of
free hydrogen. The resources of G. E. C. are not yet exhausted, my
young friend. I may yet show you how a great mind molds all Nature to
its use." He swelled with some secret purpose, but would say no more.

There was nothing which we could see upon the shore which seemed to me
so wonderful as the great sheet of water before us. Our numbers and
our noise had frightened all living creatures away, and save for a few
pterodactyls, which soared round high above our heads while they waited
for the carrion, all was still around the camp. But it was different
out upon the rose-tinted waters of the central lake. It boiled and
heaved with strange life. Great slate-colored backs and high serrated
dorsal fins shot up with a fringe of silver, and then rolled down into
the depths again. The sand-banks far out were spotted with uncouth
crawling forms, huge turtles, strange saurians, and one great flat
creature like a writhing, palpitating mat of black greasy leather,
which flopped its way slowly to the lake. Here and there high serpent
heads projected out of the water, cutting swiftly through it with a
little collar of foam in front, and a long swirling wake behind, rising
and falling in graceful, swan-like undulations as they went. It was
not until one of these creatures wriggled on to a sand-bank within a
few hundred yards of us, and exposed a barrel-shaped body and huge
flippers behind the long serpent neck, that Challenger, and Summerlee,
who had joined us, broke out into their duet of wonder and admiration.

"Plesiosaurus! A fresh-water plesiosaurus!" cried Summerlee. "That I
should have lived to see such a sight! We are blessed, my dear
Challenger, above all zoologists since the world began!"

It was not until the night had fallen, and the fires of our savage
allies glowed red in the shadows, that our two men of science could be
dragged away from the fascinations of that primeval lake. Even in the
darkness as we lay upon the strand, we heard from time to time the
snort and plunge of the huge creatures who lived therein.

At earliest dawn our camp was astir and an hour later we had started
upon our memorable expedition. Often in my dreams have I thought that
I might live to be a war correspondent. In what wildest one could I
have conceived the nature of th