These skeletons were the miserable relics of men who had ventured, in search of ancient treasures, into the deadly marshes over the site of the mightiest city of former days.

The deserted and utterly extinct city of London was under his feet.
He had penetrated into the midst of that dreadful place, of which he had heard many a tradition: how the earth was poison, the water poison, the air poison, the very light of heaven, falling through such an atmosphere, poison.

There were said to be places where the earth was on fire and belched forth sulphurous fumes, supposed to be from the combustion of the enormous stores of strange and unknown chemicals collected by the wonderful people of those times.

Upon the surface of the water there was a greenish-yellow oil, to touch which was death to any creature; it was the very essence of corruption.

Sometimes it floated before the wind, and fragments became attached to reeds or flags far from the place itself.