Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/310

 will only hold to us a few hours we shall reach Gondokoro and shake hands with our own countrymen."

Ten minutes afterwards the "Victoria" rose majestically, and Dr. Ferguson, as a signal of success, unfurled the Royal Standard of England as they sailed along.

what direction are we going?" asked Kennedy, seeing his companion looking at the compass.

"Nor-nor-west," was the reply.

"The devil! That is not north, is it?"

"No, Dick. And I think we shall have some difficulty to reach Gondokoro. I am sorry for it, but, at any rate, we have united the exploration of the east to those of the north, so we must not complain."

The "Victoria" now edged away from the Nile.

"A last look," said the doctor, "at this insurmountable latitude, which the most intrepid travelers have never been able to pass. There are surely those intractable tribes mentioned by Pethwick, Arnaud, Miani, and the young explorer Lejean, to whom we are indebted for the best works upon the Upper Nile."

"So," said Kennedy, our discoveries are in accord with the forecastings of science."

"Entirely. The sources of the White River of the Bahr-el-Abiad are immersed in a great lake like a sea. It takes its rise there. There poetry lost it. They loved to fancy that this king of rivers had a heavenly origin; the ancients called it 'ocean' and it was not a difficult thing to believe that it descended directly from the sun. But it is necessary to refute or to accept, from time to time, that which science has laid down. There will not be learned men for ever, perhaps; but there will always be poets!"

"There are more cataracts," said Joe.

"Those are the cataracts of Makedo in the 3rd degree of latitude. Nothing is more certain. Fancy our being able thus to follow the course of the Nile for hours!"

"And farther down," said the Scot, "I can perceive the summit of a mountain."