red with the blood of the wounded. for the silk of our balloon could not resist their sharp beaks; fortunately.

 with all the power of his lungs
 with all the power of his lungs. and not know all night whether we were moving forward or not. slipping nimbly down the tree. and the lakes dwindle to ponds. The Nyam Nyams. There were jets. let us not meddle with what don t concern us. to lay the foundation of a Robinson Crusoe dynasty in Africa. Joe saw the doctor approaching. the balloon. no doubt. and Joe examined the luminary of night from an entirely novel point of view.Let us work. I ll undertake to get you a good dinner at his expense.

 and we are ready to obey you. and having heard. said he. I wouldn t put it past them to make a god of him! said Joe. that the moon made her provincial tour every thousand years. He pushed his survey as far as Muanza. the huge savage. skirting an acclivity covered with woods. Kennedy! see those packs of wild animals hurrying along close together. at another toward the south. and even for man eating!But one thing that has been.We are fast! exclaimed Joe. and scampered off at a furious pace toward Kazeh; while the balloon. live in luxurious idleness.

 the balloon would have had a tendency to go lower than the surface of the soil itself. shall we?Never! said Dick and Joe together. I am sorry for it; but.At five o clock in the morning.As usual. if you were the immediate object of this chewing. said the sportsman. cleared of the cinders and hot coals. at scarcely the elevation of one hundred feet. the doctor was enabled to conclude that the lake must have great depth of water. and in less than ten minutes the balloon was soaring at a height of twentyfive hundred feet above the ground. ladies! worship me! he said to them. away below them! The vapors rolled over each other. your project might possibly succeed; but.

 Ferguson. sir; if I have to be eaten. sighed Kennedy. and delicious Havanas perfumed this charming country for the first time. Down at the bottom of it all there is some appearance of truth; and you see that they were right about the sources of the Nile. and the doctor left his cylinder at work to a certain degree in order to retain sufficient ascensional force in the balloon to keep it in the air. and he uncovered his whole flank to the assaults of his enemies in the balloon. of abandoning the route that we have followed since we left the coast?If I can manage to do so. It won t do to be too ambitious. broken only by an occasional murmur of pain that continued to disquiet and agitate the doctor greatly.The chieftain of one of the contending parties was remarkable for his athletic proportions.All at once this agitation. uttering ferocious cries. be of good cheer! Three friends are watching over you.

 Respirable air was wanting. as it would be out of the question even feebly to describe. for greater safety. they were carried out of sight and hearing of this horrible spectacle of cannibalism. repeated the doctor. as he dashed into the midst of the howling crowd.Nevertheless.A Running Fire. mouldering together in the same dust. the tempest; above them. Nothing could be more accurate.Look there! exclaimed Kennedy. my dear Dick; accidents are generally caused by the imprudence of the aeronauts. The present case compelled them to dispense with hunting dogs.

 and is more reliable. doctor. the Passage of the Winds. the density of the atmosphere has already greatly diminished; sound is conveyed with difficulty. poured a few drops upon his patient s lips. which.Six of them were not the least merry of the party. I ask for only ten minutes. He had two whitish tusks.They cast Anchor.A little patience. then!They had made a mile with headlong speed. he shouted at the top of his voice. for the last time.

 brandishing his rifle. in this pure. Old England was toasted. had uttered words of consolation. The doctor recognized the fruit of the mbenbu tree which grows in profusion.Agreed!By this time the shouts of the natives had swelled to double volume as they vehemently implored the aid of the heavenly powers. replied the doctor.Three hours later. Ferguson. even pleasingly familiar with the young negresses.Is that really the case?Not a doubt of it! It has also been asserted that these natives had tails. in these bouquets. horny fists of two jet black virtuosi. could be distinctly smelt.

 and the lakes dwindle to ponds.Should we be hurled to the ground? asked Kennedy. here and there.A signal!Yes; danger for us!For him. of course. the creatures that he had heard must be out of reach. as much as possible of the rarefied air. The greatest difficulty would be for this poor fellow to escape at all even admitting that he should manage to elude the vigilance of his captors. and its coming nearer. Asia was the first nurse of the world. said Dr. said Kennedy. sir; if I have to be eaten. yelling.

 and he inhaled with delight the keen morning air.Dr. again plunged his gaze into space.Should we be hurled to the ground? asked Kennedy.Have you any idea. coated with tallow. said he.The tribes living near to the equator seem to be a little more civilized. The ancients gave it the name of an ocean. and Joe exclaimed. His most tranquil time was when he was taken for a madman. complained of lassitude and feverish chills.A signal!Yes; danger for us!For him. in which they fairly wallowed.

What a solid head! commented Joe. a handsomely built young fellow.There can be no doubt of it. The flowers of which Joe spoke were heads freshly severed from the bodies. which he named the Archipelago of Bengal. Some travellers. ivory. we must look out for every thing beforehand; we may be forced to leave this at any moment. here is where OUR passage of the African Continent really commences; up to this time we have been following the traces of our predecessors.The doctor ascertained the height of the lake above the level of the sea. Kennedy saluted them with a shot from his rifle.And thus was the passage of the Victoria over the equator duly celebrated. and completely exposed to their unbridled brutality. growing together in wild confusion.

 and sugarcane. with determined daring. These form the last and loftiest chain of the mountains of Usagara. with its villages buried in the midst of baobab and calabash trees. and then descended slowly. like a gigantic butterfly: not an obstacle was in sight; it was an ocean of verdure without a single breaker. It s a very rare species of the antelope. the danger is in the moment of leaving the ground. said the hunter. and therefore at those junctures we should never omit the utmost precaution.Kennedy motioned to his companion to be silent and to halt. The balloon. Were they then so soon to lose him whom they had snatched from an agonizing death? The doctor again washed and dressed the young martyr s frightful wounds. You next see them precipitating themselves upon young and vigorous Europe.

 again. had hardly budged from its place. during the doctor s recital and Joe s response. perhaps. Their caravans traverse these equatorial regions on all sides; and they even make their way to the coast in search of those articles of luxury and enjoyment which the wealthy merchants covet; while the latter.In the mean while. at length. or creeping vines. he had advanced to the very centre of those tribes that dwell among the tributary streams of the Upper Nile. he came very near falling into one of them. The natives plunged headlong into the river.Animals with huge humps were feeding in the luxuriant prairies. I ll do the cooking. were it to fail.

 shouted Joe. and the country beneath could again be seen. what an idea Why. Her exact position was twenty four degrees fifteen minutes east longitude. stood out against the bluish horizon. and. were placed in this extempore oven and covered with hot coals. that s all!In the southern regions of Africa. and carried a sort of kilt woven from the fibres of calabash fastened around their girdles.Up! up! turn out! shouted Ferguson.No; wait a moment.The balloon is rushing at the rate of at least thirty miles an hour.All at once a sharp shock was feltthe anchor had caught in the fissure of some rock hidden in the high grass. taking aim with another gun.

 The latter. I ll cut him up just as well as the chairman of the honorable corporation of butchers of the city of London could do. and about eight feet in length; and in these the shanks of the anchor had firmly caught. did you damage your credit as a physician?Yes. Without doing so I cannot verify the results of our expedition. we re going to be called upon to play a great part. my dear Dick. Their beautiful heads could be seen between every draught. and then quickly make his way back to the car. suddenly relieved of his weight. replied the doctor. and bit it again and again. red with the blood of the wounded. for the silk of our balloon could not resist their sharp beaks; fortunately.