It was a colorless light, but it seemed to give a more vivid hue to everything it shone upon--such as the little stones, a piece of wood half embedded in the earth, grains of sand, and pieces of mortar.

In a few seconds, however, these things all disappeared, and there revealed itself to the eyes of Clewe a perfectly smooth surface of brown earth.

This continued for some little time, now and then a rounded or a flattened stone appearing in it, and then gradually fading away.
As Clewe stared intently down upon the illuminated space, the brown earth seemed to melt and disappear, and he gazed upon a surface of fine sand, dark or yellowish, thickly interspersed with gravel-stones.

This appearance changed, and a large rounded stone was seen almost in the centre of the glowing disk.

The worn and smooth surface of the stone faded away, and he beheld what looked like a split section of a cobble-stone.