dered them to shut up Frycollin in his cabin. But the
Negro never ceased his jumping about, and began to kick at the wall
and yell with redoubled power.

It was noon. The "Albatross" was only about fifteen or twenty feet
above the water. A few ships, terrified at the apparition, sought
safety in flight.

As may be guessed, a sharp look-out was kept on the prisoners, whose
temptation to escape could not but be intensified. Even supposing
they jumped overboard they would have been picked up by the
india-rubber boat. As there was nothing to do during the fishing, in
which Phil Evans intended to take part, Uncle Prudent, raging
furiously as usual, retired to his cabin.

The Caspian Sea is a volcanic depression. Into it flow the waters of
the Volga, the Ural, the Kour, the Kouma, the Jemba, and others.
Without the evaporation which relieves it of its overflow, this
basin, with an area of 17,000 square miles, and a depth of from sixty
to four hundred feet, would flood the low marshy ground to its north
and east. Although it is not in communication with the Black Sea or
the Sea of Aral, being at a much lower level than they are, it
contains an immense number of fish--such fish, be it understood, as
can live in its bitter waters, the bitterness being due to the naphtha
which pours in from the springs on the south.

The crew of the "Albatross" made no secret of their delight at the
change in their food the fishing would bring them.

"Look out!" shouted Turner, as he harpooned a good-size fish, not
unlike a shark.

It was a splendid sturgeon seven feet long, called by the Russians
beluga, the eggs of which mixed up with salt, vinegar, and white wine
form caviar. Sturgeons from the river are, it may be, rather better
than those from the sea; but these were welcomed warmly enough on
board the "Albatross."

But the best catches were made with the drag-nets, which brought up
at each haul carp, bream, salmon, saltwater pike, and a number of
medium-sized sterlets, which wealthy gourmets have sent alive to
Astrakhan, Moscow, and Petersburg, and which now passed direct from
their natural element into the cook's kettle without any charge for
transport.

An hour's work sufficed to fill up the larders of the aeronef, and
she resumed her course to the north.

During the fishing Frycollin had continued shouting and kicking at
his cabin wall, and making a tremendous noise.

"That wretched nigger will not be quiet, then?" said Rob