Bism

"In this way they came to the edge of the chasm. It was about a thousand feet long and perhaps two hundred wide. They dismounted from their horses and came to the edge, and looked down into it. A strong heat smote up into their faces, mixed with a smell which was quite unlike any they had ever smelled. It was rich, sharp, exciting, and made you sneeze. The depth of the chasm was so bright that at first it dazzled their eyes and they could see nothing. When they got used to it, they thought they could make out a river of fire, and, on the banks of that river, what seemed to be fields and groves of an unbearable, hot brilliance--though they were dim compared with the river. There were blues, reds, greens, and whites all jumbled together: a very good stained-glass window with the tropical sun staring straight through it at midday might have something of the same effect. Down the rugged sides of the chasm, looking black like flies against all that fiery light, hundreds of Earthmen were climbing."
~C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, Chapter 14: The Bottom of the World (1953)

Click here to see a map of The Silver Chair, as illustrated by Lorinda Bryan Cauley, from Companion to Narnia (1980).

On this day:
1961 A Grief Observed is published by Faber and Faber, London under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk.