"The end of the plateau was coming in sight." (p. 116)
If the Trekkers as I call them are traversing the top of a plateau - I have not yet looked back to confirm this - then the end of the plateau must be the top of a cliff? However, the text continues:
"Between the edge and the mountain's next upward slope was an escarpment." (ibid.)
So beyond the edge there is not a descending cliff but an upward slope while between the edge and that upward slope there is an escarpment, i.e., "a steep slope or long cliff"? I am having problems with this.
The cliffs in front of the Trekkers are "...unscalable..." (ibid.) and too long in either direction to go round in the short time left to their supplies. However, in the centre, vapour roiling up the mountain from the foot of the scarp marks the spot called "Thundersmoke" where geysers and hot springs have crumbled the cliffs, making a rugged incline with water rushing everywhere across it so that is where they must go, of course, in the rest of this chapter and in our next post.
An epic journey.
2 comments:
That planet is a good illustration of why lack of large-scale cooperation is not a good option for an intelligent species...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! Which helps explain why I thought the Rogaviki of Anderson's THE WINTER OF THE WORLD not quite convincing. Altho he did hedge it a bit by showing them as sometimes being able to temporarily cooperate in large scale projects. Very temporarily!
Ad astra! Sea
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