There will not always be scientific
men, perhaps; but there always will be poets."
"We can still see cataracts," said Joe.
"Those are the cataracts of Makedo, in the third degree
of latitude. Nothing could be more accurate. Oh, if we could
only have followed the course of the Nile for a few hours!"
"And down yonder, below us, I see the top of a mountain,"
said the hunter.
"That is Mount Longwek, the Trembling Mountain of
the Arabs. This whole country was visited by Debono,
who went through it under the name of Latif-Effendi.
The tribes living near the Nile are hostile to each other,
and are continually waging a war of extermination. You
may form some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to
encounter."
The wind was carrying the balloon toward the northwest,
and, in order to avoid Mount Longwek, it was necessary
to seek a more slanting current.
"My friends," said the doctor, "here is where OUR passage
of the African Continent really commences; up to this time
we have been following the traces of our predecessors.
Henceforth we are to launch ourselves upon the unknown.
We shall not lack the courage, shall we?"
"Never!" said Dick and Joe together, almost in a shout.
"Onward, then, and may we have the help of Heaven!"
At ten o'clock at night, after passing over ravines,
forests, and scattered villages, the aeronauts reached the
side of the Trembling Mountain, along whose gentle slopes
they went quietly gliding.
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