The ribs, the skull, and limbs were drawn on the black ground in white lines as if it had been done with a broad piece of chalk.

Close by he found three or four more, intertangled and superimposed as if the unhappy beings had fallen partly across each other, and in that position had mouldered away leaving nothing but their outline.

From among a variety of objects that were scattered about Felix picked up something that shone; it was a diamond bracelet of one large stone, and a small square of blue china tile with a curious heraldic animal drawn on it.

Evidently these had belonged to one or other of the party who had perished.
Though startled at the first sight, it was curious that Felix felt so little horror; the idea did not occur to him that he was in danger as these had been.

Inhaling the gaseous emanations from the soil and contained in the yellow vapour, he had become narcotized, and moved as if under the influence of opium, while wide awake, and capable of rational conduct.