Ossaroo took leave of the inflated monster in a different fashion.

Drawing near to it, he stood for some seconds contemplating it in silence--as if reflecting on the vast amount of seam he had stitched to no purpose.

Then uttering a native ejaculation, coupled with a phrase that meant to say, "No good either for the earth, the water, or the air," he raised his foot, kicked the balloon in the side--with such violence that the toe of his sandals burst a hole in the distended eel-skins; and, turning scornfully away, left the worthless machine to take care of itself.
This task, however, it proved ill adapted to accomplish: for the disappointed aeronauts had not been gone many minutes from the ground, when the heated air inside, which had for some time been gradually growing cooler, reached at length so low a temperature, that the great sphere began to collapse and settle down upon the embers of the pine faggots still glowing red underneath.

The consequence was that the inflammable skins, cords, and woodwork coming in contact with the fire, began to burn like so much tinder.

The flames ran upward, licking the oily eel-skins like the tongues of fiery serpents; and when the _ci-devant_ aeronauts looked back from the door of their hut, they perceived that the balloon was ablaze! Had the accident occurred two hours before, they would have looked upon it as the saddest of calamities.