In Wildest Africa ^ 



unfamiliar forms reveal themselves to the astonished 

 spectator. 



The niystery 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 clouel. A barren stony sea. as f^u" 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 ot houses that torm the 

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

 the \iew takes in all the lull extent of the mighty city, 

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

 disappears from our sight. I:)orne by a breeze, of which 

 we are hanllv aware, our Ijalloon sweeps towards the 

 Baltic Sea. ... It is a strano;e feeling thus to enjov, 

 thanks to our lofty joint of outlook, an extended view 

 far over the level March of Ih'cUidenlHU-g with its teeming 

 popul.ition all below us, a \\v.\\ which, oU! as the world 

 is, has been vouchsafed to tew mori.il men. I he cit\'. 

 with all its human lite .md acti\ity, lies tar bt'low us. Its 

 roar and tumult, ih-it strange xoice ot the stony sea. has 

 died away. W'e beL^in to make a long journey only a 

 few linndred feet above the surface of the earth. Later 



206 



