In Wildest Africa -* 



unfamiliar forms reveal themselves to the astonished 

 spectator. 



The mystery of a deep harmonious influence belongs 

 to the mighty wilderness. It reveals itself in its full 

 beauty to him who has strenuously acquired a love for 

 it by making a long sojourn in it and paying to it the 

 tribute it demands. 



A stony wilderness extends endlessly on all sides, and 

 the sight ranges without limit over the expanse that loses 

 itself in mist and cloud. A barren stony sea, as far as 

 the eye can reach ! 



But it is not the velt or the African desert that lies 

 below us as we rise one moment a hundred yards above 

 the surface of the earth and the next three hundred 

 yards and more. It is the sea of houses that form the 

 capital ot the German Empire. ... In a few seconds 

 the view takes in all the full extent of the mighty city, 

 and then, as if in a dream, what we have just seen 

 disappears from our sight. Borne by a breeze, of which 

 we are hardly aware, our balloon sweeps towards the 

 Baltic Sea. ... It is a strange feeling thus to enjoy, 

 thanks to our lofty point ot outlook, an extended view 

 far over the level March of Brandenburg with its teeming 

 population all below us, a view which, old as the world 

 is, has been vouchsafed to lew mortal men. The city, 

 with all its human lite and activity, lies far below us. Its 

 roar and tumult, that strange voice of the stony sea, has 

 died away. \Ye begin to make a long journey only a 

 few hundred feet above the surface of the earth. Later 



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