Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Exploration, Travel, Botany, Geology, Physical Geography, Aeronautics, Domestic Economy

    The fictional narrator describes his experiences of 'scaling the top-most height of one of the summits of the mountain chain of houses in the newly-discovered portion of the Rue de Rivoli'—a description which emphasises the inappropriateness of describing an exploration of Parisian landscape in the style of travel-writing. For example, it notes that this region contains 'the luxuriant flora of the demi-monde, recently discovered by the 'eminent naturalist, M. Dumas, fils'. During the ascent, the narrator and his companions looked 'down through a gap' and discovered, 'at the back of a mountain, an abyss, of a quadrangular form, at the bottom of which [they] could see a faint glimmer of light, and curious sounds ascended', which the narrator and his companion regarded as 'Neptunian rather than volcanic' in origin, and were like 'water escaping from the waste-pipe of a cistern'. Later the narrator and his companions met with an 'avalanche' of crinoline (presumably from a washing line), 'vegetation' consisting of 'gerania and fuschia', and the smell of boiled greens.