The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-16 00:00:00

iPPLARABCL OP THE EARTH ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

On leaving, the earth was doll and the air very misty.
When afterwards viewed, its appearance wee very diflereot
from that in summer; all looked barren, bleak, and ice
bound. Every sheet of water was covered w ith ice, and
Mr. Colwell, notwithstanding his 502 awes* said, " be
never before had seen sheets of water in their frosem
aspect with those peculiar white fringed edges whit* at-
tracted our special attention."
At 2.45, at the height of 7,000 feet, we heard a railway
train; then the "tick, tick," of a threshing machine ; and
afterwards, at the height of 7,200 feet, we heard people's
voices, and these were the only sounds we heard.
At 3h. 29ni., ou looking down, we saw snow below es.
falling upon a fine cloud, whose surface was unbroken, and
even being free from irregularities, and whose boundary
lines were very sharply defined. At this time dense clouds
were far above us, and the air seemed to be full of snow.
M 3h. 31m. we were about 13,0C3 feet high, and es
we are quite ignorant of all meteorological conditions in
the higher atmosphere at this time of the year, it was
with the deepest regret that I heard Mr. Colwell's
decision to descend—we were in fine but thick snow—we
had kat sight of the earth, with, we believed, no great
length of land before us, and even that being towards the
sea. Had we ascended another mile oar deacon most
have been very near the °oast, and considering that the
sea was about setting, with large sheets of vapour ob-
scuring the view, I felt that Mr. Cox well's judgment was
again wisely exercised, and I abstained front influencing
him in any way whatever.
From 3h. 32m. fine granular snow covered my note-book,
and continued till 3h. 47m., when we were about enter*
cloud, in deeosoding, whose thickness was about 600 feet,
through whieb space we panned in two minutes. The balloon
must have been laden with mow. The cloud was maturated
with moisture, as was the air below the cloud till within
1,000 feet of the earth.
At 4h. 9m. it became so dark that it was with difficulty
I could read the instruments ; the son had met, a donee mkt
was everywhere, and we could not see far ahead. Mr.
Colwell then began the descent ; the place was quite barren
and seemed uninhabited ; the grapnel gonad through light
sand for some little time, but the descent was managed so
admirably that we came down without causing injury to a
single instrument.

Ozone papers were somewhat coloured. but those exposed
at the Royal Observatory. Greenwich, remained oolotuises.
The dog occasiocally whined, but was mach attracted by
the rabbits, and we cannot determine whether their pm-
esoce caused the whining or no. The rabbits became very
doll and heavy, and seemed to be oppressed with sleep.
The anemometer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
registered six miles as the borisoutal movenisot of the air
during the time the balloon pared mare than 100 miles.
The sun wu never even, and than was so opportunity of
win the actinometer, the spectroscope, or the polariscope.
Oar exact place of descent was Lakenbeath Warren, our
Blandon, an open spans of 2,500 acres of loose sand belong-
ing to Mr. Phipp, who gave al vary attention, aed to
whom oar bad thanks are des tor tiad hospitality.
Our thanks are also dos to the brads at the departments
at Woolwich, but partioalarly to Mr. Andersen, the maw-
intends.% of the Gas Wain, and to Mr. Wallace, the pa
appoorr, tor the peeper quality of the gas, and who grave as
every aesietieee la their power. The gas was admirably
adapted for our purpose, foe when we came down we bad
so lass than 34 bags of pad, or is weight 1.100 Th..
Blackheath, Jan. 16. JAMES GLAISHER.