Five-Weeks-In-A-Balloon

Five Weeks in a Balloon" is, in a measure, a satire on modern books of

African travel. So far as the geography, the inhabitants, the animals,

and the features of the countries the travellers pass over are

described, it is entirely accurate. It gives, in some particulars, a survey

of nearly the whole field of African discovery, and in this way will

often serve to refresh the memory of the reader. The mode of

locomotion is, of course, purely imaginary, and the incidents and

adventures fictitious. The latter are abundantly amusing, and, in view

of the wonderful "travellers' tales" with which we have been

entertained by African explorers, they can scarcely be considered

extravagant; while the ingenuity and invention of the author will be

sure to excite the surprise and the admiration of the reader, who will

find M. VERNE as much at home in voyaging through the air as in

journeying "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas