For days the airship kept steadily on this course.
Baffin’s Land and many of the small islands in the Gulf of Bothnia were passed over in the flight.
Then the waters of Hudson’s Bay burst upon the view of the voyagers.
It was truly a wonderful sight.
The course was along the east shore of Hudson’s Bay. When near James Bay and at the mouth of the Great Whale River an astounding thing happened.
Suddenly and without warning the airship began to fall.
“Great heavens!” cried Professor Gaston. “What has happened?”
“Something is wrong!” cried Frank Reade, Jr., “the machinery has failed us!”
However this was it was certain that the airship was bound to reach the earth. The rotascope and wings seemed to have lost their power.
Barney, who was in the pilot-house, steered the Dart to a good landing place just in the verge of a forest of firs.