At length the rise ended in a bare, broad donga, quite destitute of vegetation, of which the bottom was buried in lava and a debris of rocks washed down by the rain or melting snows from slopes above.

This donga was bordered on the farther side by a cliff, perhaps fifty feet in height, in which we could see no opening.
Still we descended the place, that was dark and rugged; pervaded, moreover, by an extraordinary gloom, and as we went perceived that its lava floor was sprinkled over with a multitude of white objects.

Soon we came to the first of these and found that it was the skeleton of a human being.

Here was a veritable Valley of Dead Bones, thousands upon thousands of them; a gigantic graveyard.

It seemed as though some great army had perished here.
Indeed, we found afterwards that this was the case, for on one of those occasions in the far past when the people of Kaloon had attacked the Mountain tribes, they were trapped and slaughtered in this gully, leaving their bones as a warning and a token.