Alien Base: The Evidence for Extraterrestrial Colonization of Earth: THE MACHINE
The machine was smooth, with no visible doors or windows. It appeared to bear no markings. No antenna. It was like a smooth egg, twice as high as it was wide. I can’t say what its exact size was, given the amount of vegetation in the clearing. But, comparing it with the height of the trees as it was taking off, you could reckon that it was between seven and eight metres high. In its base it had several openings, of which we were able to get a good view as it took off. There were flames coming from them — not normal flames . . . One could have taken them for flames, but they must surely have been something else. Something like what you see when you use a welding machine to cut metal. Each of the openings emitted a ‘flame’; the whole thing producing one big thick short flame about one-twentieth of the length of the machine itself.
It had legs. I did not see them, because of the vegetation, but on the ground there were three marks, set in a triangle, where it had stood. In the middle of the triangle there was a charred crater three metres deep — a crater which widened out towards it base. At the bottom of the crater there were some crystals of all colours, like bits of broken glass. The bottom of the crater was full of them, especially in the corners. It was like a vitrified ring.
When the craft departed, it rose up slowly until it was above the trees. Then it vanished at a fantastic speed, as though sucked up into the sky. It left a sort of trail behind it.