On either bank lay a country cultivated indeed, but chiefly pastoral, producing a rich herbage, grazed by innumerable herds, among which I observed with interest several flocks of large birds, kept, as Esmo informed me, partly for their plumage.
This presented remarkable combinations of colour, far surpassing in brilliancy and in variety of pattern the tail of the peacock, and often rivalling in length and delicacy, while exceeding in beauty of colouring, the splendid feathers which must have embarrassed the Bird of Paradise, even before they rendered him an object of pursuit by those who have learnt the vices and are eager to purchase the wares of civilised man.

Immediately across our course, at a distance of some thirty miles, stretched a range of mountains.

I inquired of Esmo how the river turned in order to avoid them, since no opening was visible even through my glass.
"The proper course of the river," he said, "lies at the foot of those hills.

But this would take us out of our road, and, moreover, the stream is not navigable for many stoloi above the turning-point.

We shall hold on nearly in the same direction as the present till we land at their foot." "And how," I said, "are we to cross them ?" "At your choice, either by carriage or by balloon," he said.