The light of the returning sun soon extinguished the glory of the stars,
and rendered it necessary for the captain to postpone his observations.
He had sought in vain for further trace of the huge disc that had
so excited his wonder on the 1st, and it seemed most probable that,
in its irregular orbit, it had been carried beyond the range of vision.

The weather was still superb. The wind, after veering to the west,
had sunk to a perfect calm. Pursuing its inverted course, the sun
rose and set with undeviating regularity; and the days and nights
were still divided into periods of precisely six hours each--
a sure proof that the sun remained close to the new equator
which manifestly passed through Gourbi Island.

Meanwhile the temperature was steadily increasing. The captain kept
his thermometer close at hand where he could repeatedly consult it,
and on the 15th he found that it registered 50 degrees centigrade
in the shade.

No attempt had been made to rebuild the gourbi, but the captain
and Ben Zoof managed to make up quarters sufficiently comfortable
in the principal apartment of the adjoining structure,
where the stone walls, that at first afforded a refuge from
the torrents of rain, now formed an equally acceptable shelter
from the burning sun. The heat was becoming insufferable,
surpassing the heat of Senegal and other equatorial regions;
not a cloud ever tempered the intensity of the solar rays;
and unless some modification ensued, it seemed inevitable
that all vegetation should become scorched and burnt off from
the face of the island.