arelessly as follows: "Gentlemen, a sailing-ship or a steamship
caught in a fog from which it cannot escape is always much delayed.
It must not move unless it keeps its whistle or its horn going. It
must reduce its speed, and any instant a collision may be expected.
The "Albatross" has none of these things to fear. What does fog
matter to her? She can leave it when she chooses. The whole of space
is hers." And Robur continued his stroll without waiting for an
answer, and the puffs of his pipe were lost in the sky.

"Uncle Prudent," said Phil Evans, "it seems that this astonishing
"Albatross" never has anything to fear."

"That we shall see!" answered the president of the Weldon Institute.

The fog lasted three days, the 19th, 20th, and 21st of June, with
regrettable persistence. An ascent had to be made to clear the
Japanese mountain of Fujiyama. When the curtain of mist was drawn
aside there lay below them an immense city, with palaces, villas,
gardens, and parks. Even without seeing it Robur had recognized it by
the barking of the innumerable dogs, the cries of the birds of prey,
and above all, by the cadaverous odor which the bodies of its
executed criminals gave off into space.

The two colleagues were out on the deck while the engineer was taking
his observations in case he thought it best to continue his course
through the fog.

"Gentlemen," said he, "I have no reason for concealing from you that
this town is Tokyo, the capital of Japan."

Uncle Prudent did not reply. In the presence of the engineer he was
almost choked, as if his lungs were short of air.

"This view of Tokyo," continued Robur, "is very curious."

"Curious as it may be--" replied Phil Evans.

"It is not as good as Peking?" interrupted the engineer.

"That is what I think, and very shortly you shall have an opportunity
of judging."

Impossible to be more agreeable!

The "Albatross" then gliding southeast, had her course changed four
points, so as to head to the eastward.

Chapter XII

THROUGH THE HIMALAYAS

During the night the fog cleared off. There were symptoms of an
approaching typhoon--a rapid fall of the barometer, a disappearance
of vapor, large clouds of ellipsoid form clinging to a copper sky,
and, on the opposite horizon, long streaks of carmine on a
slate-colored field, with a large sector quite clear in the north.
Then the sea was smooth and calm and at sunset assumed a deep scarlet
hue.

Fortunately the ty