rkable combinations of colour, far surpassing in
brilliancy and in variety of pattern the tail of the peacock, and
often rivalling in length and delicacy, while exceeding in beauty of
colouring, the splendid feathers which must have embarrassed the Bird
of Paradise, even before they rendered him an object of pursuit by
those who have learnt the vices and are eager to purchase the wares of
civilised man. Immediately across our course, at a distance of some
thirty miles, stretched a range of mountains. I inquired of Esmo how
the river turned in order to avoid them, since no opening was visible
even through my glass.

"The proper course of the river," he said, "lies at the foot of those
hills. But this would take us out of our road, and, moreover, the
stream is not navigable for many stoloi above the turning-point. We
shall hold on nearly in the same direction as the present till we land
at their foot."

"And how," I said, "are we to cross them?"

"At your choice, either by carriage or by balloon," he said. "There is
at our landing-place a town in which we shall easily procure either."

"But," said I, "though our luggage is far less heavy than would be
that of a bride on Earth, and Eveena's forms the smallest portion of
it, I should fancy that it must be inconveniently heavy for a
balloon."

"Certainly," he replied; "but we could send it by carriage even over
the mountain roads. The boat, however, will go on, and will meet us
some thirty miles beyond the point where we leave it."

"And how is the boat to pass over the hills?"

"Not over, but under," he said, smiling. "There is no natural passage
entirely through the range, but there is within it a valley the bottom
of which is not much higher than this plain. Of the thirty miles to be
traversed, about one-half lies in the course of this valley, along
which an artificial canal has been made. Through the hills at either
end a tunnel has been cut, the one of six, the other of about nine
miles in length, affording a perfectly safe and easy course for the
boat; and it is through these that nearly all the heavy traffic
passing in this direction is conveyed."

"I should like," I said, "if it be possible, to pass through one at
least of these tunnels, unless there be on the mountains themselves
something especially worth seeing."

"Nothing," he replied. "They are low, none much exceeding the height
of that from which you descended."

Eveena now joined us on deck, and