seven in the morning
The doctor hereupon took the exact bearings of the patch of solid land they were about to leave , and arrived at the conclusion that it lay on the north shore of Lake Tchad , between the village of Lari and the village of Ingemini , both visited by Major Denham . During this time Kennedy was completing his stock of fresh meat . Although the neighboring marshes showed traces of the rhinoceros , the lamantine -LRB- or manatee -RRB- , and the hippopotamus , he had no opportunity to see a single specimen of those animals . At seven in the morning , but not without great difficulty -- which to Joe would have been nothing -- the balloon 's anchor was detached from its hold , the gas dilated , and the new Victoria rose two hundred feet into the air . It seemed to hesitate at first , and went spinning around , like a top ; but at last a brisk current caught it , and it advanced over the lake , and was soon borne away at a speed of twenty miles per hour . The doctor continued to keep at a height of from two hundred to five hundred feet . Kennedy frequently discharged his rifle ; and , when passing over islands , the aeronauts approached them even imprudently , scrutinizing the thickets , the bushes , the underbrush -- in fine , every spot where a mass of shade or jutting rock could have afforded a retreat to their companion .