"The canal passed along for miles in the depression between two folds of
the surface. Finally, gazing ahead, there slowly came into view a huge
_rictus_, a gaping rent in the side of the black and gray and red walls
to our right, and a minute movement of living forms, scarcely
discernible, revealed the first quarry near the little town of Sinsi.
"As we drew nearer I descried a slant incline from the open excavation
down which the blocks of stone were slid. They were brought to the
surface by hoisting cranes, and just as our little porcelain
cockle-shell glided to the dock, an enormous fragment rudely shaped into
a cubical form, was moving down the metal road bed to the edge of the
canal.
"Here we landed, and a crowd of people hailed us, and amongst them were
many of the prehistoric people, the short, sturdy brown or copper
colored northerners who work in the quarries and mines. It was
nightfall. Their day's work was over, and they crowded around us with
interest. They were good-natured, but quiet, and dressed in a kind of
overalls that was made in one garment from head to feet.
"Chapman pushed amongst them, followed by me. We made our way to a
pleasant house, built of the quarried volcanic rock, alternating with
the white stone of the quarry, and covered with an almost flat roof of
the blue metal. In this house we were received by the Superintendent of
Quarries, a supernatural, who still retained a mechanical aptitude,
brought with him from the earth.
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