1 I hesitated, and then, as I looked round me, I saw that the dust was less abundant and its surface less even.
2 As the darkness thickened, the eddying flakes grew more abundant, dancing before my eyes; and the cold of the air more intense.
3 Humanity had been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived.
4 I judged, then, that the children of that time were extremely precocious, physically at least, and I found afterwards abundant verification of my opinion.
5 Here was the same beautiful scene, the same abundant foliage, the same splendid palaces and magnificent ruins, the same silver river running between its fertile banks.
6 I thought of the physical slightness of the people, their lack of intelligence, and those big abundant ruins, and it strengthened my belief in a perfect conquest of Nature.
7 From every hill I climbed I saw the same abundance of splendid buildings, endlessly varied in material and style, the same clustering thickets of evergreens, the same blossom-laden trees and tree-ferns.
8 It occurred to me even then, that in the course of a few days the moon must pass through its last quarter, and the nights grow dark, when the appearances of these unpleasant creatures from below, these whitened Lemurs, this new vermin that had replaced the old, might be more abundant.