They could not see it, indeed, for its face was hid by a dense cloak of soft white mist that covered it like a cloud.

But there it was, won at last, and there away to the eastward shone the wide glitter of the sea, flecked with faint lines of broken billows whence the sun rose in glory.
"See, Baas," said Otter, when they had satisfied themselves with the beautiful sight, "yonder, some five hours' march from here, the mountains curve down to the edge of the river.

Thither we must go, for it is on the further side of those hills that the great swamp lies where the Yellow Devil has his place.

I know the spot well; I have passed it twice." They rested till noonday; but that night, before the moon rose, they stood on the curve of the mountain, close down to the water's edge.

At length she came up, and showed them a wonderful scene of desolation.
Beyond the curve of hills the mountains trended out again to the south, gradually growing lower till at last they melted into the skyline.
In the vast semicircle thus formed ran the river, spotted with green islands, while between it and the high ground, over a space which varied from one mile at the narrowest to twenty miles in width at the broadest of the curve, was spread a huge and dismal swamp, marked by patches of stagnant water, clothed with reeds which grew to the height of small trees, and exhaling a stench as of the rottenness of ages.
The loneliness of the place was dreadful, its waste and desolation were appalling.