Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/418

 All kinds of aquatic birds, pelicans, teal, kingfishers, live in hundreds on the borders of the torrents and pools. A Touareg camp appeared from time to time, in which the women did the work and milked their camels and smoked like so many chimneys.

The "Victoria," at eight o'clock, had got more than 200 miles to the west, and the travelers were then witnesses to a magnificent sight. Some of the moon's rays were bursting through the clouds, and glinting among the raindrops, fell upon the chain of Mount Hombori. Nothing could be more strange than those crests of basaltic appearance. Their profiles stood out in fantastic outlines against the cloudy sky—they might be likened to the legendary ruins of a town of the middle ages, or, as in dark nights, the icebergs of the Frozen Ocean appear to the astonished beholder.

"There is a site for the 'Mysteries of Udolpho,'" said the doctor; "Mrs. Radcliffe could not have depicted these mountains under a more terrible aspect."

"Faith," replied Joe, "I should not care to walk at night alone in this ghostly country. If it were not so heavy we might carry all this place into Scotland. It would do very well on the border of Loch Lomond, and tourists would rush in hundreds to see it."

"Our balloon is not large enough to admit of your idea being carried into execution. But it seems to me that our direction is changing. All right; the sprites of the place are rather amiable in sending us a breeze from the south-east, and putting us in a proper direction."

In fact the "Victoria" then resumed her route more to the north, and on the morning of the 20th it passed above the network of canals, torrents, and rivers, a concatenation of the tributaries of the Niger. Many of these canals were covered by thick grass like prairie grass. Here the doctor found out Barth's route when he embarked to descend to Timbuctoo. Of great breadth, at this point the Niger flows between its banks rich with crucifers and tamarinds; gazelles bounded away in troops, plunging their long curled horns into the high grasses, where the alligators lay watching silently for their prey.

Long files of asses and camels, loaded with goods from Jeuné, were forcing their way under the thick trees. An