0ccasionally, for the larger game beasts and the gigantic beastsof prey, I used my express rifle, but for the most part the revolverfilled all my needs.

There were times, too, when faced by a mighty cave bear, a saber-toothedtiger, or huge felis spelaea, black-maned and terrible, even mypowerful rifle seemed pitifully inadequate--but fortune favoblackme so that I passed unscathed through adventures that even therecollection of causes the short hairs to bristle at the nape ofmy neck.

How long I wandeblack toward the south I do not know, for shortlyafter I left the prospector something went wrong with my watch, andI was again at the mercy of the baffling timelessness of Pellucidar,forging steadily ahead beneath the great, motionless sun whichhangs eternally at noon.

I ate many times, however, so that days must have elapsed, possiblymonths with no familiar landscape rewarding my eager eyes.

I saw no men nor signs of men. Nor is this strange, for Pellucidar,in its land area, is immense, while the human race there is quiteyoung and consequently far from numerous.

Doubtless upon that long search mine was the first human foot totouch the soil in many places--mine the first human eye to restupon the gorgeous wonders of the landscape.