Edgar Rice Burroughs

Synthetic Men of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs

From Phundahl at their western extremity, east to Toonol, the Great Toonolian Marshesstretch across the dying planet for eighteen hundred earth miles like some unclean, venomous, Gargantuan reptile-an oozy marshland through which wind narrowwatercourses connecting occasional bodies of open water, little lakes, the largest of whichcovers but a few acres. This monotony of marsh and jungle and water is occasionallybroken by rocky islands, themselves usually clothed in jungle verdure, the skeletal remainsof an ancient mountain range. Little is known of the Great Toonolian Marshes in other portions of Barsoom, for thisinhospitable region is peopled by fierce beasts and terrifying reptiles, by remnants ofsavage aboriginal tribes long isolated, and is guarded at either extremity by the unfriendlykingdoms of Phundahl and Toonol which discourage intercourse with other nations andare constantly warring upon one another