Imaginary Places

"Professor Summerlee gave a snort of impatience. 'We have spent two long days in exploration,' said he, 'and we are no wiser as to the actual geography of the place than when we started. It is clear that it is all thickly wooded, and it would take months to penetrate it and to learn the relations of one part to another. If there were some central peak it would be different, but it all slopes downwards, so far as we can see. The farther we go the less likely it is that we will get any general view ... You are all turning your brains towards getting into this country. I say that we should be scheming how to get out of it.' 'I am surprised, sir,' boomed Challenger, stroking his majestic beard, 'that any man of science should commit himself to so ignoble a sentiment ... I absolutely refuse to leave, however, until we have made at least a superficial examination of this country, and are able to take back with us something in the nature of a chart.'"

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), The Lost World
As quoted by Alberto Manguel (1948 - )
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places