Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/304

 note the lower bends. The banks bristled with thorny thickets and tangled brushwood, and were entirely hidden under a cloud of millions of mosquitoes of a clear brown color; the country then appeared to be uninhabitable and uninhabited. They could see troops of hippopotami wallowing amidst the reeds, whence they plunged beneath the pellucid water of the lake.

The lake, seen from above, extended to such a distance towards the west as almost to appear a sea. The distance between the opposite sides of the lake is too great for the establishment of communications; besides, the storms are frequent and fierce, for the winds rage terribly in that elevated and open basin.

The doctor had some difficulty to manage the balloon—he was afraid of being carried away towards the sea; but fortunately a current bore him directly to the north, and at 6 the "Victoria" pulled up at a small desolate island in 0° 30′ lat. and 32° 52' long., about twenty miles from the border of the lake.

The travelers were enabled to make the balloon fast to a tree, and the wind having dropped as evening came on, they remained quietly at anchor. They did not venture to get down on the ground, for here, as upon the banks of the Nyanza, legions of mosquitoes covered the earth in a thick cloud. Joe returned from the tree even covered with bites, but he did not trouble himself about them, as he fancied that such conduct was only "the nature of the animal."

Nevertheless, the doctor, somewhat less of an optimist, let out the rope to its furthest extent with the view to escape these pestilent insects, which were hovering about with a never-resting "trumpeting."

The doctor reckoned that the height of the lake above the level of the sea was as determined by Captain Speke; that is to say, 3,750 feet.

"So we are on an island!" cried Joe, scratching himself as if he would dislocate his wrists.

"We shall have quickly made the tour of it," replied the Scot, "and, except these blessed insects, I don't think there is a living thing on it."

"The islands, with which the lake is studded," replied Doctor Ferguson, "are only, in fact, the summits of sub-