about one o’clock
-- Sublime Self-Sacrifice . -- The Northern Coast of the Lake . Since its arrival at Lake Tchad , the balloon had struck a current that edged it farther to the westward . A few clouds tempered the heat of the day , and , besides , a little air could be felt over this vast expanse of water ; but about one o'clock , the Victoria , having slanted across this part of the lake , again advanced over the land for a space of seven or eight miles . 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 .