Literature
The Coming of The Martians: chapter 2
By the Time the Gems returned to the pit, a crowd of perhaps 50 or more people surrounded the huge hole in which the cylinder lay. Most of them were staring quietly at the big tablelike end of the cylinder, which was still slowly rotating clockwise. The turf and gravel about it seemed charred as if by a sudden explosion. No doubt its impact had caused a flash of fire.
It was glaringly hot, not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind, and the only shadow was that of the few scattered pine trees. The fire had been extinguished, but the level ground was blackened as far as one could see, and still giving off vertical streamers of smoke.
Pearl
