The doctor, who was somewhat vexed at first at this turn of his course, no longer thought of complaining when he caught sight of the city of Kouka, the capital of Bornou. He saw it for a moment, encircled by its walls of white clay, and a few rudely-constructed mosques rising clumsily above that conglomeration of houses that look like playing-dice, which form most Arab towns. In the court-yards of the private dwellings, and on the public squares, grew palms and caoutchouc-trees topped with a dome of foliage more than one hundred feet in breadth. Joe called attention to the fact that these immense parasols were in proper accordance with the intense heat of the sun, and made thereon some pious reflections which it were needless to repeat. Kouka really consists of two distinct towns, separated by the “Dendal,” a large boulevard three hundred yards wide, at that hour crowded with horsemen and foot passengers. On one side, the rich quarter stands squarely with its airy and lofty houses, laid out in regular order; on the other, is huddled together the poor quarter, a miserable collection of low hovels of a conical shape, in which a poverty-stricken multitude vegetate rather than live, since Kouka is neither a trading nor a commercial city. Kennedy thought it looked something like Edinburgh, were that city extended on a plain, with its two distinct boroughs. But our travellers had scarcely the time to catch even this glimpse of it, for, with the fickleness that characterizes the air-currents of this region, a contrary wind suddenly swept them some forty miles over the surface of Lake Tchad. Then then were regaled with a new spectacle. They could count the numerous islets of the lake, inhabited by the Biddiomahs, a race of bloodthirsty and formidable pirates, who are as greatly feared when neighbors as are the Touaregs of Sahara. These estimable people were in readiness to receive the _Victoria_ bravely with stones and arrows, but the balloon quickly passed their islands, fluttering over them, from one to the other with butterfly motion, like a gigantic beetle. At this moment, Joe, who was scanning the horizon, said to Kennedy: “There, sir, as you are always thinking of good sport, yonder is just the thing for you!” “What is it, Joe?” “This time, the doctor will not disapprove of your shooting.” “But what is it?” “Don’t you see that flock of big birds making for us?” “Birds?” exclaimed the doctor, snatching his spy-glass. “I see them,” replied Kennedy; “there are at least a dozen of them.” “Fourteen, exactly!” said Joe. “Heaven grant that they may be of a kind sufficiently noxious for the doctor to let me peg away at them!” “I should not object, but I would much rather see those birds at a distance from us!” “Why, are you afraid of those fowls?” “They are condors, and of the largest size. Should they attack us—”