The ground was rolling and tree-dotted and covered with grazing
animals, alone, in pairs and in herds--a motley aggregation of the
modern and extinct herbivore of the world. A huge woolly mastodon
stood swaying to and fro in the shade of a giant fern--a mighty
bull with enormous upcurving tusks. Near him grazed an aurochs
bull with a cow and a calf, close beside a lone rhinoceros asleep
in a dust-hole. Deer, antelope, bison, horses, sheep, and goats
were all in sight at the same time, and at a little distance a
great megatherium reared up on its huge tail and massive hind feet
to tear the leaves from a tall tree. The forgotten past rubbed
flanks with the present--while Tom Billings, modern of the moderns,
passed in the garb of pre-Glacial man, and before him trotted a
creature of a breed scarce sixty years old. Nobs was a parvenu;
but it failed to worry him.
As we neared the inland sea we saw more flying reptiles and several
great amphibians, but none of them attacked us. As we were topping
a rise in the middle of the afternoon, I saw something that brought
me to a sudden stop. Calling Nobs in a whisper, I cautioned him to
silence and kept him at heel while I threw myself flat and watched,
from behind a sheltering shrub, a body of warriors approaching
the cliff from the south. I could see that they were Galus, and I
guessed that Du-seen led them.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146