Five Weeks in a Balloon
continued to ascend, while the lightning described tangents to the
convexity of her circumference; but she bore on, right through the
midst of the fire.
“God protect us!” said Dr. Ferguson, solemnly, “we are in His hands; He
alone can save us—but let us be ready for every event, even for
fire—our fall could not be very rapid.”
The doctor’s voice could scarcely be heard by his companions; but they
could see his countenance calm as ever even amid the flashing of the
lightnings; he was watching the phenomena of phosphorescence produced
by the fires of St. Elmo, that were now skipping to and fro along the
network of the balloon.
The latter whirled and swung, but steadily ascended, and, ere the hour
was over, it had passed the stormy belt. The electric display was going
on below it like a vast crown of artificial fireworks suspended from
the car.
Then they enjoyed one of the grandest spectacles that Nature can offer
to the gaze of man. Below them, the tempest; above them, the starry
firmament, tranquil, mute, impassible, with the moon projecting her
peaceful rays over these angry clouds.
Dr. Ferguson consulted the barometer; it announced twelve thousand feet
of elevation. It was then eleven o’clock at night.
“Thank Heaven, all danger is past; all we have to do now, is, to keep
ourselves at this height,” said the doctor.
“It was frightful!” remarked Kennedy.
“Oh!” said Joe, “it gives a little variety to the trip, and I’m not
sorry to have seen a storm from a trifling distance up in the air. It’s
a fine sight!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.
The Mountains of the Moon.—An Ocean of Verdure.—They cast Anchor.—The
Towing Elephant.—A Running Fire.—Death of the Monster.—The
Field-Oven.—A Meal on the Grass.—A Night on the Ground.
About four in the morning, Monday, the sun reappeared in the horizon;
the clouds had dispersed, and a cheery breeze refreshed the morning
dawn.
The earth, all redolent with fragrant exhalations, reappeared to the
gaze of our travellers. The balloon, whirled about by opposing
currents, had hardly budged from its place, and the doctor, letting the
gas contract, descended so as to get a more northerly direction. For a
long while his quest was fruitless; the wind carried him toward the
west until he came in sight of the famous Mountains of the Moon, which
grouped themselves in a semicircle around the extremity of Lake
Tanganayika; their ridges, but slightly indented, stood out against the
bluish horizon, so that they might have been mistaken for a natural
fortification, not to be passed by the explorers of the centre of
Africa. Among them were a few isolated cones, revealing the mark of the
eternal snows.
“Here we are at last,” said the doctor, “in an unexplored country!
Captain Burton pushed very far to the westward, but he could not reach
those celebrated mountains; he even denied their existence, strongly as
it was affirmed by Speke, his companion. He pretended that they were
born in the latter’s fancy; but for us, my friends, there is no further
doubt possible.”
“Shall we cross them?” asked Kennedy.
“Not, if it please God. I am looking for a wind that will take me back
toward the equator. I will even wait for one, if necessary, and will
make the balloon like a ship that casts anchor, until favorable breezes
come up.”
But the foresight of the doctor was not long in bringing its reward;
for, after having tried different heights, the _Victoria_ at length
began to sail off to the northeastward with medium speed.
“We are in the right track,” said the doctor, consulting his compass,
“and scarcely two hundred feet from the surface; lucky circumstances
for us, enabling us, as they do, to reconnoitre these new regions. When
Captain Speke set out to discover Lake Ukéréoué, he ascended more to
the eastward in a straight line above Kazeh.”
“Shall we keep on long in this way?” inquired the Scot.
“Perhaps. Our object is to push a point in the direction of the sources
of the Nile; and we have more than six hundred miles to make before we
get to the extreme limit reached by the explorers who came from the
north.”
“And we shan’t set foot on the solid ground?” murmured Joe; “it’s
enough to cramp a fellow’s legs!”
“Oh, yes, indeed, my good Joe,” said the doctor, reassuring him; “we
have to economize our provisions, you know; and on the way, Dick, you
must get us some fresh meat.”
“Whenever you like, doctor.”
“We shall also have to replenish our stock of water. Who knows but we
may be carried to some of the dried-up regions? So we cannot take too
many precautions.”
At noon the _Victoria_ was at twenty-nine degrees fifteen minutes east
longitude, and three degrees fifteen minutes south latitude. She passed
the village of Uyofu, the last northern limit of the Unyamwezi,
opposite to the Lake Ukéréoué, which could still be seen.
The tribes living near to the equator seem to be a little more
civilized, and are governed by absolute monarchs, whose control is an
unlimited despotism. Their most compact union of power constitutes the
province of Karagwah.
It was decided by the aëronauts that they would alight at the first
favorable place. They found that they should have to make a prolonged
halt, and take a careful inspection of the balloon: so the flame of the
cylinder was moderated, and the anchors, flung out from the car, ere
long began to sweep the grass of an immense prairie, that, from a
certain height, looked like a shaven lawn, but the growth of which, in
reality, was from seven to eight feet in height.
The balloon skimmed this tall grass without bending it, like a gigantic
butterfly: not an obstacle was in sight; it was an ocean of verdure
without a single breaker.
“We might proceed a long time in this style,” remarked Kennedy; “I
don’t see one tree that we could approach, and I’m afraid that our
hunt’s over.”
“Wait, Dick; you could not hunt anyhow in this grass, that grows higher
than your head. We’ll find a favorable place presently.”
In truth, it was a charming excursion that they were making now—a
veritable navigation on this green, almost transparent sea, gently
undulating in the breath of the wind. The little car seemed to cleave
the waves of verdure, and, from time to time, coveys of birds of
magnificent plumage would rise fluttering from the tall herbage, and
speed away with joyous cries. The anchors plunged into this lake of
flowers, and traced a furrow that closed behind them, like the wake of
a ship.
All at once a sharp shock was felt—the anchor had caught in the fissure
of some rock hidden in the high grass.
“We are fast!” exclaimed Joe.
These words had scarcely been uttered when a shrill cry rang through
the air, and the following phrases, mingled with exclamations, escaped
from the lips of our travellers:
“What’s that?”
“A strange cry!”
“Look! Why, we’re moving!”
“The anchor has slipped!”
“No; it holds, and holds fast too!” said Joe, who was tugging at the
rope.
“It’s the rock, then, that’s moving!”
An immense rustling was noticed in the grass, and soon an elongated,
winding shape was seen rising above it.
“A serpent!” shouted Joe.
“A serpent!” repeated Kennedy, handling his rifle.
“No,” said the doctor, “it’s an elephant’s trunk!”
“An elephant, Samuel?”
And, as Kennedy said this, he drew his rifle to his shoulder.
“Wait, Dick; wait!”
“That’s a fact! The animal’s towing us!”
“And in the right direction, Joe—in the right direction.”
The elephant was now making some headway, and soon reached a clearing
where his whole body could be seen. By his gigantic size, the doctor
recognized a male of a superb species. He had two whitish tusks,
beautifully curved, and about eight feet in length; and in these the
shanks of the anchor had firmly caught. The animal was vainly trying
with his trunk to disengage himself from the rope that attached him to
the car.
“Get up—go ahead, old fellow!” shouted Joe, with delight, doing his
best to urge this rather novel team. “Here is a new style of
travelling!—no more horses for me. An elephant, if you please!”
“But where is he taking us to?” said Kennedy, whose rifle itched in his
grasp.
“He’s taking us exactly to where we want to go, my dear Dick. A little
patience!”
“‘Wig-a-more! wig-a-more!’ as the Scotch country folks say,” shouted
Joe, in high glee. “Gee-up! gee-up there!”
The huge animal now broke into a very rapid gallop. He flung his trunk
from side to side, and his monstrous bounds gave the car several rather
heavy thumps. Meanwhile the doctor stood ready, hatchet in hand, to cut
the rope, should need arise.
“But,” said he, “we shall not give up our anchor until the last
moment.”
This drive, with an elephant for the team, lasted about an hour and a
half; yet the animal did not seem in the least fatigued. These immense
creatures can go over a great deal of ground, and, from one day to
another, are found at enormous distances from where they were last
seen, like the whales, whose mass and speed they rival.
“In fact,” said Joe, “it’s a whale that we have harpooned; and we’re
only doing just what whalemen do when out fishing.”
But a change in the nature of the ground compelled the doctor to vary
his style of locomotion. A dense grove of _calmadores_ was descried on
the horizon, about three miles away, on the north of the prairie. So it
became necessary to detach the balloon from its draught-animal at last.
Kennedy was intrusted with the job of bringing the elephant to a halt.
He drew his rifle to his shoulder, but his position was not favorable
to a successful shot; so that the first ball fired flattened itself on
the animal’s skull, as it would have done against an iron plate. The
creature did not seem in the least troubled by it; but, at the sound of
the discharge, he had increased his speed, and now was going as fast as
a horse at full gallop.
“The deuce!” ejaculated Kennedy.
“What a solid head!” commented Joe.
“We’ll try some conical balls behind the shoulder-joint,” said Kennedy,
reloading his rifle with care. In another moment he fired.
The animal gave a terrible cry, but went on faster than ever.
“Come!” said Joe, taking aim with another gun, “I must help you, or
we’ll never end it.” And now two balls penetrated the creature’s side.
The elephant halted, lifted his trunk, and resumed his run toward the
wood with all his speed; he shook his huge head, and the blood began to
gush from his wounds.
“Let us keep up our fire, Mr. Kennedy.”
“And a continuous fire, too,” urged the doctor, “for we are close on
the woods.”
Ten shots more were discharged. The elephant made a fearful bound; the
car and balloon cracked as though every thing were going to pieces, and
the shock made the doctor drop his hatchet on the ground.
The situation was thus rendered really very alarming; the anchor-rope,
which had securely caught, could not be disengaged, nor could it yet be
cut by the knives of our aëronauts, and the balloon was rushing
headlong toward the wood, when the animal received a ball in the eye
just as he lifted his head. On this he halted, faltered, his knees bent
under him, and he uncovered his whole flank to the assaults of his
enemies in the balloon.
“A bullet in his heart!” said Kennedy, discharging one last rifle-shot.
The elephant uttered a long bellow of terror and agony, then raised
himself up for a moment, twirling his trunk in the air, and finally
fell with all his weight upon one of his tusks, which he broke off
short. He was dead.
“His tusk’s broken!” exclaimed Kennedy—“ivory too that in England would
bring thirty-five guineas per hundred pounds.”
“As much as that?” said Joe, scrambling down to the ground by the
anchor-rope.