Works of Jules Verne/Five Weeks in a Balloon/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI
A LOST BULLET
About three o'clock in the morning, during Joe's watch, the town appeared to move beneath them, and the "Victoria" sailed away. Kennedy and the doctor awoke.
The latter consulted the compass, and perceived with satisfaction that the wind was bearing them to the nor-nor-east.
"We are getting on capitally," said he. "All goes well, and we shall come in sight of Lake Tchad this very day."
"Is it a large expanse of water?" asked Kennedy.
"A very considerable size, my dear Dick; at its greatest length and breadth it measures 120 miles."
"It will be a little change for us to sail over such a sheet of water."
"Well, it seems to me that we have nothing to grumble at; the country is very varied, and we are enjoying it under the most pleasant conditions."
"No doubt, Samuel. Except the privations of the desert we have not encountered any serious danger."
"Certainly, our tight little 'Victoria' has behaved wonderfully. To-day is the 12th of May; we started on the 18th of April, so we have been traveling twenty-five days. Ten days more and we shall reach the end of our journey."
"Where?"
"I do not know; but what does that matter?"
"You are right, Samuel; let us trust in Providence to take care of us and keep us in good health, as we are. We do not look much like people who have been traversing the most pestilential country in the world."
"We have been able to keep up so high, that is the reason we have been so well."
"Hurrah for aërial traveling!" cried Joe. "Here we are after twenty-five days, in good health, well fed, well rested; indeed, rather too well rested, for my limbs are getting stiff, and I should not be sorry to take the stiffness off with a thirty mile walk."
"You shall indulge yourself in that way in the streets of London, Joe. But to wind up, we are a party of three like Denham, Clapperton, and Overweg—like Barth, Richardson, and Vogel, and happier than our predecessors. All three of us are together still. But it is very important not to separate. If, during the absence of one of us on the ground, the 'Victoria' were obliged to ascend in order to avoid some sudden and unforseen danger, who knows whether we might come together again. So I tell you frankly, Kennedy, I do not wish you to go far away under the pretext of hunting."
"You must, nevertheless, allow me, my dear Samuel, to overcome this fancy; there is no great harm in renewing our stock of provisions. Besides, before our departure from home, you put before me a series of wonderful hunting exploits, and, up to this time, I have done very little in the way of Anderson or Cumming."
"Surely, my dear Dick, your memory fails you; or your modesty stands in the way of your prowess. It appears to me that, without reckoning smaller game, you have already an antelope, an elephant, and two lions on your conscience."
"Well, what is that for an African sportsman, who can have a shot at every created animal? Look here! look at this drove of giraffes!"
"Those giraffes!" cried Joe. "Why, they are only as big as my fist!"
"Because we are 1,000 feet above them," replied Kennedy; "but if you were nearer, you would see they were three times as high as you; and there are some ostriches going like the wind!"
"Ostriches!" said Joe; "they are fowls, and nothing more!"
"Cannot we get nearer to them, Samuel?"
"Yes, we can approach them, but cannot land. And what good, after all, is there in shooting animals which are of no use to us? If the question were the destruction of a lion, a tiger-cat, or a hyena, I could understand it, there would be always a dangerous beast the less; but to destroy an antelope, or a gazelle, without any profit but to satisfy the vanity of the sportsman, is not worth the trouble. However, my friend, we will keep at about 100 feet above the ground, and if you can perceive any wild animal you can send a bullet to his heart."
The "Victoria" descended by degrees, but still kept up at a safe distance. In this savage and thickly-populated country it was necessary to be on one's guard against unexpected danger.
The travelers followed the course of the Shari. The pleasant banks of this river were hidden beneath the shade of the variously tinted trees; the bind-weed and creeping plants wound in all directions, and produced curious combinations of colors. The crocodiles sported in the sun and plunged into the water with the activity of the lizard, and in their play they crossed numerous green islets, which rose amid the stream.
Thus, in the enjoyment of a luxurious and verdant natural scenery, the district of Maffatay was passed. Towards nine in the morning Ferguson and his companions at length reached the southern coast of Lake Tchad. There was the Caspian of Africa, whose existence was for a long time regarded as fabulous. This inland sea, to which only the expeditions of Denham and Barth had hitherto penetrated, lay before them.
The doctor attempted to decide its actual form, already very different from its shape in 1847; in fact, the map of this lake it is impossible to reconcile with the lake itself. It is surrounded by miry marshes which are almost impassable, and in which Barth nearly perished. From year to year these marshes, covered to a height of fifteen feet with reeds and papyrus, become absorbed into the lake, and often the towns established upon its banks are half submerged, as happened at Ngornou, in 1856, and now alligators and hippopotami swim about in the very spots where the habitations of the natives once stood.
The sun poured down his rays upon this calm sheet of water, and in the north, sky and water seemed to unite upon the horizon.
The doctor was desirous to ascertain the nature of the water, which was for a long time believed to be saline; there was no danger in approaching the surface of the lake, and the car skimmed over it like a bird, at five feet distance.
Joe plunged a bottle into it and raised it half filled; the water was not very drinkable, and possessed a flavor of natron.
While the doctor was noting down the result of his experience, the report of a gun resounded beside him. Kennedy had not been able to resist sending a bullet at a monstrous hippopotamus, which quietly disappeared at the sound of the discharge, and the conical bullet did not appear to have caused him the least inconvenience.
"You had better have harpooned him," said Joe.
"How?"
"With one of our grapnels. That would have been a good hook for such an animal."
"By Jove!" cried Kennedy, "Joe has really got an idea."
"Which I trust you will not put into execution," replied the doctor. "The animal would quickly hurry us where we should be helpless."
"Particularly now that you have decided upon the quality of the water of Lake Tchad."
"Is that fish good to eat, Mr. Ferguson?"
"Your fish, Joe, is a mammiferous animal of the pachyderm species; his flesh is excellent, they say, and is an article of commerce amongst the lake tribes."
"Then I regret that Mr. Dick's bullet was not more effectual."
"This animal is only vulnerable in the belly and between the thighs; the bullet did not even break the skin. But, if the ground be suitable, we shall halt, and at the southern end of the lake there Kennedy will find a full menagerie, and he can indemnify himself at his ease."
"Well, I hope that Mr. Dick will do a little hippopotamus hunting. I want to taste this amphibious animal. It is no use coming into the center of Africa if we are to live upon snipe and partridges just as if we were in England!"