Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-11-20
Scientific Daring.

One dull day in August, just afternoon,
q balloon arose in the air at the foot of
Cloet Hills, on the western edge of the
central plain of England. 1t was inflated
with the lightest of gases which scientific
skill could produce, and it arose with
amazing velocity. A mile up, and it en-
tered stratum of clouds more than a
thousand feet thick. Emerging from this,
the sun shone brightly on the air-ship
the sky over head was of the clearest and
deepest blue, and below lay cloudland-
an Unreasonable expanse of cloud, whose
surface looked as solid at that of the earth
not wholly lost to view. Lofty mountains
and deep, dark ravines, appeared below ;
the peaks and sides of those cloud-moun-
tains next the sun, glittered like snow,
but casting shadows as black as if they
were solid rock. Up rose the balloon
with tremendous velocity. Four miles
above earth a pigeon was let loose; it
dropped down through the air as if it had
been stone The air was too thin too
enable it too fly. 1t was as if a bark laden
to the deck were to pass from the heavy
waters of the sea into an inland unsaline
lake the bark would sink at once in the
thinner water. Up, up, still higher I!
What silence profound The heights of
the sky were as still as the deepest depths
of the ocean, where, as was found during
the search for the lost Atlantic cable, the
fine mad lies as unstirred from year to
year, as the dust which imperceptibly
gathers on the furniture Of a deserted
house. No sound, no life-only the bright
sunshine falling through sky which it
could not warm.
Up-fiVe miles above earth higher
than the inaccessible summit of ChimbO-
razo or Dawangiri Despite the sunshine,
everything freezes The air grows too
thin to support life, even for a few min
utes. Two men only are in that adven-
turous balloon-the one steering the air
ship, the other watching the scientific in
struments, and recording them with a
rapidity bred of long practice. Suddenly, as
the latter looks at his instruments, his sight
grows dim; he takes lens to help his
sight, and only marks from the falling ba-
rOmeter that they are rising rapidly. A
flask of brandy lies within foot of him !;
he tries to reach it, but his arms refuse to
obey his will. He tries to call on his COM
rade, who has gone up into the ring
above; a whisper in that deep silence
would suffice-but no sound comes from
his lips-he is voiceless. T.le steersman
comes down into the car he sees his COM
rade in swoon, and feels his own senses
failing him.
He saw at once that life and death hung
upon few moments He seized or tried
to seize the valve, in order to open it and
let out the gas. His hands are purple
with intense cold-they are paralyzed,
they will not respond to his will. He
seized the valve with his teeth, it opened a
little-once, twice, thrice The balloon
began to descend. Then the swooned
marksman returned to consciousness, and
saw the steersman standing before him.
He looked at his instrument; but now the
barometer was rising rapidly; the balloon
was descending. Brandy was used. They
had been higher above the earth than
mortal man or any living thing had ever
been before. One minute more of mac
tion-of compulsory inaction-on the part
of the steersman, whose senses were fail
ing him, and the air ship, with its intense
ly rarifed gas, would have been floating
unattended, with two corpses, in the wide
realms of space.-Once Week
THE other day a. poOrlV clad urchin