several miles through sunlight and shadow. The path became
increasingly difficult. The cliffs closed in on either side until
they were less than a hundred yards apart, while the bed of the
ravine was blocked by boulders, great and small, so that the little
stream, which was now diminished to the proportions of a brook, had
to come down where and how it could. The forms of life grew
stranger. Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by degrees, and
their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to partake
of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the
ground by preference, and they fed only on soil and air. Maskull saw
no sexual organs and failed to understand how the young came into
existence.

Then he witnessed an astonishing sight. A large and fully developed
plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space.
He could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long
time in amazement. It went on calmly moving and burrowing before
him, as thought it had been there all its life. Giving up the
puzzle, Maskull resumed his striding from rock to rock up the gorge,
and then, quietly and without warning, the same phenomenon occurred
again. No longer could he doubt than he was seeing miracles--that
Nature was precipitating its shapes into the world without making use
of the medium of parentage.... No solution of the problem presented
itself.

The brook too had altered in character. A trembling radiance came up
from its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the
air. He had not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test
its quality. He felt new life entering his body, from his feet