n a trip over Africa, South
America, Australasia, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Pacific,
to convince them against their will, and then dismiss them with, "And
now gentlemen, I hope you will believe a little more in heavier than
air?"

To these questions, it is now impossible to reply. They are the
secrets of the future. Perhaps the answers will be revealed. Anyhow
the bird-like Robur was not seeking his nest on the northern frontier
of Africa. By the end of the day he had traversed Tunis from Cape Bon
to Cape Carthage, sometimes hovering, and sometimes darting along at
top speed. Soon he reached the interior, and flew down the beautiful
valley of Medjeida above its yellow stream hidden under its luxuriant
bushes of cactus and oleander; and scared away the hundreds of
parrots that perch on the telegraph wires and seem to wait for the
messages to pass to bear them away beneath their wings.

Two hours after sunset the helm was put up and the "Albatross" bore
off to the southeast; and on the morrow, after clearing the Tell
Mountains, she saw the rising of the morning star over the sands of
the Sahara.

On the 30th of July there was seen from the aeronef the little
village of Geryville, founded like Laghouat on the frontier of the
desert to facilitate the future conquest of Kabylia. Next, not
without difficulty, the peaks of Stillero were passed against a
somewhat boisterous wind. Then the desert was crossed, sometimes
leisurely over the Ksars or green oases, sometimes at terrific speed
that far outstripped the flight of the vultures. Often the crew had
to fire into the flocks of these birds which, a dozen or so at a
time, fearlessly hurled them selves on to the aeronef to the extreme
terror of Frycollin.

But if the vultures could only reply with cries and blows of beaks
and talons, the natives, in no way less savage, were not sparing of
their musket-shots, particularly when crossing the Mountain of Sel,
whose green and violet slope bore its cape of white. Then the
"Albatross" was at last over the grand Sahara; and at once she rose
into the higher zones so as to escape from a simoom which was
sweeping a wave of ruddy sand along the surface of the ground like a
bore on the surface of the sea.

Then the desolate tablelands of Chetka scattered their ballast in
blackish waves up to the fresh and verdant valley of Ain-Massin. It
is difficult to conceive the variety of the territories which could
be seen at one v