Cinq semaines en ballon. English
CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH.
The Mountains of the Moon.--An Ocean of Verdure.--They cast Anchor.--TheTowing Elephant.--A Running Fire.--Death of the Monster.--TheField-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 morningdawn.
The earth, all redolent with fragrant exhalations, reappeared to thegaze of our travellers. The balloon, whirled about by opposing currents,had hardly budged from its place, and the doctor, letting the gascontract, descended so as to get a more northerly direction. For a longwhile his quest was fruitless; the wind carried him toward the westuntil he came in sight of the famous Mountains of the Moon, whichgrouped themselves in a semicircle around the extremity of LakeTanganayika; their ridges, but slightly indented, stood out againstthe bluish horizon, so that they might have been mistaken for a naturalfortification, not to be passed by the explorers of the centre ofAfrica. Among them were a few isolated cones, revealing the mark of theeternal 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 reachthose celebrated mountains; he even denied their existence, stronglyas it was affirmed by Speke, his companion. He pretended that they wereborn in the latter's fancy; but for us, my friends, there is no furtherdoubt possible."
"Shall we cross them?" asked Kennedy.
"Not, if it please God. I am looking for a wind that will take me backtoward the equator. I will even wait for one, if necessary, and willmake the balloon like a ship that casts anchor, until favorable breezescome up."
But the foresight of the doctor was not long in bringing its reward;for, after having tried different heights, the Victoria at length beganto 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 circumstancesfor us, enabling us, as they do, to reconnoitre these new regions. WhenCaptain Speke set out to discover Lake Ukereoue, he ascended more to theeastward 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 sourcesof the Nile; and we have more than six hundred miles to make beforewe get to the extreme limit reached by the explorers who came from thenorth."
"And we shan't set foot on the solid ground?" murmured Joe; "it's enoughto cramp a fellow's legs!"
"Oh, yes, indeed, my good Joe," said the doctor, reassuring him; "wehave to economize our provisions, you know; and on the way, Dick, youmust get us some fresh meat."
"Whenever you like, doctor."
"We shall also have to replenish our stock of water. Who knows but wemay be carried to some of the dried-up regions? So we cannot take toomany precautions."
At noon the Victoria was at twenty-nine degrees fifteen minutes eastlongitude, and three degrees fifteen minutes south latitude. She passedthe village of Uyofu, the last northern limit of the Unyamwezi, oppositeto the Lake Ukereoue, which could still be seen.
The tribes living near to the equator seem to be a little morecivilized, and are governed by absolute monarchs, whose control is anunlimited despotism. Their most compact union of power constitutes theprovince of Karagwah.
It was decided by the aeronauts that they would alight at the firstfavorable place. They found that they should have to make a prolongedhalt, and take a careful inspection of the balloon: so the flame of thecylinder was moderated, and the anchors, flung out from the car, erelong began to sweep the grass of an immense prairie, that, from acertain height, looked like a shaven lawn, but the growth of which, inreality, was from seven to eight feet in height.
The balloon skimmed this tall grass without bending it, like a giganticbutterfly: not an obstacle was in sight; it was an ocean of verdurewithout a single breaker.
"We might proceed a long time in this style," remarked Kennedy; "I don'tsee one tree that we could approach, and I'm afraid that our hunt'sover."
"Wait, Dick; you could not hunt anyhow in this grass, that grows higherthan your head. We'll find a favorable place presently."
In truth, it was a charming excursion that they were making now--averitable navigation on this green, almost transparent sea, gentlyundulating in the breath of the wind. The little car seemed to cleavethe waves of verdure, and, from time to time, coveys of birds ofmagnificent plumage would rise fluttering from the tall herbage, andspeed away with joyous cries. The anchors plunged into this lake offlowers, and traced a furrow that closed behind them, like the wake of aship.
All at once a sharp shock was felt--the anchor had caught in the fissureof some rock hidden in the high grass.
"We are fast!" exclaimed Joe.
These words had scarcely been uttered when a shrill cry rang through theair, and the following phrases, mingled with exclamations, escaped fromthe 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 therope.
"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 clearingwhere his whole body could be seen. By his gigantic size, the doctorrecognized a male of a superb species. He had two whitish tusks,beautifully curved, and about eight feet in length; and in these theshanks of the anchor had firmly caught. The animal was vainly tryingwith his trunk to disengage himself from the rope that attached him tothe car.
"Get up--go ahead, old fellow!" shouted Joe, with delight, doinghis best to urge this rather novel team. "Here is a new style oftravelling!--no more horses for me. An elephant, if you please!"
"But where is he taking us to?" said Kennedy, whose rifle itched in hisgrasp.
"He's taking us exactly to where we want to go, my dear Dick. A littlepatience!"
"'Wig-a-more! wig-a-more!' as the Scotch country folks say," shoutedJoe, in high glee. "Gee-up! gee-up there!"
The huge animal now broke into a very rapid gallop. He flung his trunkfrom side to side, and his monstrous bounds gave the car several ratherheavy thumps. Meanwhile the doctor stood ready, hatchet in hand, to cutthe 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 ahalf; yet the animal did not seem in the least fatigued. These immensecreatures can go over a great deal of ground, and, from one day toanother, are found at enormous distances from there 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'reonly doing just what whalemen do when out fishing."
But a change in the nature of the ground compelled the doctor to varyhis style of locomotion. A dense grove of calmadores was descried onthe horizon, about three miles away, on the north of the prairie. So itbecame 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 toa successful shot; so that the first ball fired flattened itself onthe animal's skull, as it would have done against an iron plate. Thecreature did not seem in the least troubled by it; but
, at the sound ofthe discharge, he had increased his speed, and now was going as fast asa 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, orwe'll never end it." And now two balls penetrated the creature's side.
The elephant halted, lifted his trunk, and resumed his run toward thewood with all his speed; he shook his huge head, and the blood began togush from his wounds.
"Let us keep up our fire, Mr. Kennedy."
"And a continuous fire, too," urged the doctor, "for we are close on thewoods."
Ten shots more were discharged. The elephant made a fearful bound; thecar and balloon cracked as though every thing were going to pieces, andthe 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 becut by the knives of our aeronauts, and the balloon was rushing headlongtoward the wood, when the animal received a ball in the eye just as helifted 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 theballoon.
"A bullet in his heart!" said Kennedy, discharging one last rifle-shot.
The elephant uttered a long bellow of terror and agony, then raisedhimself up for a moment, twirling his trunk in the air, and finally fellwith all his weight upon one of his tusks, which he broke off short. Hewas dead.
"His tusk's broken!" exclaimed Kennedy--"ivory too that in England wouldbring thirty-five guineas per hundred pounds."
"As much as that?" said Joe, scrambling down to the ground by theanchor-rope.
"What's the use of sighing over it, Dick?" said the doctor. "Are weivory merchants? Did we come hither to make money?"
Joe examined the anchor and found it solidly attached to the unbrokentusk. The doctor and Dick leaped out on the ground, while the balloon,now half emptied, hovered over the body of the huge animal.
"What a splendid beast!" said Kennedy, "what a mass of flesh! I neversaw an elephant of that size in India!"
"There's nothing surprising about that, my dear Dick; the elephantsof Central Africa are the finest in the world. The Andersons and theCummings have hunted so incessantly in the neighborhood of the Cape,that these animals have migrated to the equator, where they are oftenmet with in large herds."
"In the mean while, I hope," added Joe, "that we'll taste a morsel ofthis fellow. I'll undertake to get you a good dinner at his expense. Mr.Kennedy will go off and hunt for an hour or two; the doctor will make aninspection of the balloon, and, while they're busy in that way, I'll dothe cooking."
"A good arrangement!" said the doctor; "so do as you like, Joe."
"As for me," said the hunter, "I shall avail myself of the two hours'recess that Joe has condescended to let me have."
"Go, my friend, but no imprudence! Don't wander too far away."
"Never fear, doctor!" and, so saying, Dick, shouldering his gun, plungedinto the woods.
Forthwith Joe went to work at his vocation. At first he made a hole inthe ground two feet deep; this he filled with the dry wood that was soabundantly scattered about, where it had been strewn by the elephants,whose tracks could be seen where they had made their way through theforest. This hole filled, he heaped a pile of fagots on it a foot inheight, and set fire to it.
Then he went back to the carcass of the elephant, which had fallen onlyabout a hundred feet from the edge of the forest; he next proceededadroitly to cut off the trunk, which might have been two feet indiameter at the base; of this he selected the most delicate portion, andthen took with it one of the animal's spongy feet. In fact, these arethe finest morsels, like the hump of the bison, the paws of the bear,and the head of the wild boar.
When the pile of fagots had been thoroughly consumed, inside andoutside, the hole, cleared of the cinders and hot coals, retained a veryhigh temperature. The pieces of elephant-meat, surrounded with aromaticleaves, were placed in this extempore oven and covered with hot coals.Then Joe piled up a second heap of sticks over all, and when it hadburned out the meat was cooked to a turn.
Then Joe took the viands from the oven, spread the savory mess upongreen leaves, and arranged his dinner upon a magnificent patch ofgreensward. He finally brought out some biscuit, some coffee, and somecognac, and got a can of pure, fresh water from a neighboring streamlet.
The repast thus prepared was a pleasant sight to behold, and Joe,without being too proud, thought that it would also be pleasant to eat.
"A journey without danger or fatigue," he soliloquized; "your meals whenyou please; a swinging hammock all the time! What more could a man ask?And there was Kennedy, who didn't want to come!"
On his part, Dr. Ferguson was engrossed in a serious and thoroughexamination of the balloon. The latter did not appear to have sufferedfrom the storm; the silk and the gutta percha had resisted wonderfully,and, upon estimating the exact height of the ground and the ascensionalforce of the balloon, our aeronaut saw, with satisfaction, that thehydrogen was in exactly the same quantity as before. The covering hadremained completely waterproof.
It was now only five days since our travellers had quitted Zanzibar;their pemmican had not yet been touched; their stock of biscuit andpotted meat was enough for a long trip, and there was nothing to bereplenished but the water.
The pipes and spiral seemed to be in perfect condition, since, thanks totheir india-rubber jointings, they had yielded to all the oscillationsof the balloon. His examination ended, the doctor betook himself tosetting his notes in order. He made a very accurate sketch of thesurrounding landscape, with its long prairie stretching away out ofsight, the forest of calmadores, and the balloon resting motionless overthe body of the dead elephant.
At the end of his two hours, Kennedy returned with a string of fatpartridges and the haunch of an oryx, a sort of gemsbok belonging to themost agile species of antelopes. Joe took upon himself to prepare thissurplus stock of provisions for a later repast.
"But, dinner's ready!" he shouted in his most musical voice.
And the three travellers had only to sit down on the green turf. Thetrunk and feet of the elephant were declared to be exquisite. OldEngland was toasted, as usual, and delicious Havanas perfumed thischarming country for the first time.
Kennedy ate, drank, and chatted, like four; he was perfectly delightedwith his new life, and seriously proposed to the doctor to settle inthis forest, to construct a cabin of boughs and foliage, and, there andthen, to lay the foundation of a Robinson Crusoe dynasty in Africa.
The proposition went no further, although Joe had, at once, selected thepart of Man Friday for himself.
The country seemed so quiet, so deserted, that the doctor resolved topass the night on the ground, and Joe arranged a circle of watch-firesas an indispensable barrier against wild animals, for the hyenas,cougars, and jackals, attracted by the smell of the dead elephant,were prowling about in the neighborhood. Kennedy had to fire his rifleseveral times at these unceremonious visitors, but the night passedwithout any untoward occurrence.