noon
Luxuriant vegetation spread in wild profuseness over this prodigal soil . Village after village rang with yells of terror and astonishment at the sight of the Victoria , and Dr. Ferguson prudently kept her above the reach of the barbarian arrows . The savages below , thus baffled , ran together from their huddle of huts and followed the travellers with their vain imprecations while they remained in sight . At noon , the doctor , upon consulting his map , calculated that they were passing over the Uzaramo * country . The soil was thickly studded with cocoa-nut , papaw , and cotton-wood trees , above which the balloon seemed to disport itself like a bird . Joe found this splendid vegetation a matter of course , seeing that they were in Africa . Kennedy descried some hares and quails that asked nothing better than to get a good shot from his fowling-piece , but it would have been powder wasted , since there was no time to pick up the game .