You may judge from that how long it takes them
to cross Sahara, a desert more than nine hundred miles in
breadth."
But the Victoria had already disappeared from the
astonished gaze of the Arabs, who must have envied her
rapidity. That evening she passed two degrees twenty
minutes east longitude, and during the night left another
degree behind her.
On Monday the weather changed completely. Rain
began to fall with extreme violence, and not only had the
balloon to resist the power of this deluge, but also the
increase of weight which it caused by wetting the whole
machine, car and all. This continuous shower accounted
for the swamps and marshes that formed the sole surface
of the country. Vegetation reappeared, however, along
with the mimosas, the baobabs, and the tamarind-trees.
Such was the Sonray country, with its villages topped
with roofs turned over like Armenian caps. There were
few mountains, and only such hills as were enough to form
the ravines and pools where the pintadoes and snipes went
sailing and diving through. Here and there, an impetuous
torrent cut the roads, and had to be crossed by the
natives on long vines stretched from tree to tree. The
forests gave place to jungles, which alligators, hippopotami,
and the rhinoceros, made their haunts.
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