"It was a whole lot like going down into a placer mine," the
geologist afterward said; and in view of what next met his eyes, he
was justified in his guess.
Down crept the machine until it was "standing on its nose." The sun
was shining almost straight down into the slope, and Van Emmon
forgot his uneasiness about the craft in his interest in what he
saw.
The bottom of the pit was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, and
roughly hemispherical. Standing up from its bottom were half a dozen
slim formations, like idealized stalagmites; they were made of some
semitransparent rock, apparently, the tint being a reddish yellow.
Finally, perched on the top of each of these was a stone; and
surrounding these six "landmarks," 'as Van Emmon called them, was
the most prodigious display of wealth imaginable. For the whole
queer place was simply sprinkled with gold. Gold--gold everywhere;
large nuggets of it, as big as one's fist! Not embedded in rock, not
scattered through sand, but lying loose upon the surface of that
unbelievable orange snow! It was overwhelming.
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