Reaching the burnt recess, a few moments sufficed to restore my
self-confidence; and without further hesitation I dived under the inner
little fan-shaped fall--which was there, indeed, as Camille had described
it--and recovered my balance with pulses drumming thicker than I could
have desired.

In a moment I became conscious that some great power was before me.
Across a vast, irregular disc filled with the ashy whiteness of the outer
twilight, strange, unaccountable forms, misty and undefined, passed, and
repassed, and vanished. Cirrus they might have been, or the shadows flung
by homing flights of birds; but of this I could not be certain. As the
dusk deepened they showed no more, and presently I gazed only into a
violet fathomless darkness.

My own excitement now was great; and I found some difficulty in keeping
it under control. But for the moment, it seemed to me, I pined greatly
for free commune with the liberal atmosphere of earth. Therefore, I
dipped under the little fall and made my cautious way to the margin of
the cataract.

I was surprised to find for how long a time the phenomenon had absorbed
me. The moon was already high in the heavens, and making towards
the ravine with rapid steps. Far below, the tumbling waters flashed in
her rays, and on all sides great tiers of solemn, trees stood up at
attention to salute her.

When her disc silvered the inner rim of the slope I had descended, I
returned to my post of observation with tingling nerves. The field of
the great object lens was already suffused with the radiance of her
approach.