Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-12-10
Scientific Daring.

One dull day in August, just after
noon, balloon rose in the air at the
foot of Cleed Hills, on the western edge
of the central plain of England. 1t was
inflated with the lightest of gasses which
chemical skill could produce, and it rose
with surprising velocity. A mile up
and it entered strata of clouds more
than thousand feet thick. Emerging
from this, the sun shown brightly on
the air ship; the sky overhead was OF
the clearest and deepest blue, and below
lay an immeasurable eXpanse of clouds,
whose surface looked as solid as that OF
the earth, now wholly lost to view
Lofty mountains and then deep, dark
ravines, appeared below; the peaks and
sides of those cloud mountains next the
sun glittered like snow, but casting
shadows as black as if they were solid
rock. Up rose the balloon with tremen-
dous velocity. Four miles above earth a
pigeon was let loose; it dropped down
through the air as if it had been a stone.
The air was too thin to enable it to fly.
1t was as if ship 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.. What a
were as still as the deepest depths of the
ocean, where, as was found during the
seach for the lost Atlantic cable, the
fine mud lies as unstirred, from year to
wear, as the dust which imperceptably
gathers on the furniture of deserted
house. No sound, nor life-only the
bright sunshine falling through sky
which it could not warm.
TTn--fivo n1ilas ahOVe aarfhf-hiOhqr
than the inaccessible summit of Chin
borazo or Dawngiri. Despite the sun
shine, everything freezes. The air grows
too thin to support life, even for a few
minutes. Two men only are in that
adventurous balloOn-the one steering
the air ship, the other watching the sci
entific Instruments, and recording them
with a rapidity bred of long practice
as the latter looks at his in
his sight grows dim, he takes
a lens to help his sight, and only marks
from the falling barometer 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 comrade, who has
gone up to the ring above; whisper in
that deep silence would suffice-but no
sound comes from his lips-he is voice
less. The steersman comes down into
the car; he finds his comrade 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 some of the gas
His hands are purple with intense cold
they are paralyzed, they will not re-
spond to his will. He seized the valve
with his teeth; it opened a little-once,
twice, thrice. The balloon began to de-
scend. Then the swooned marksman
to consciousness, and saw the
steersman standing before him. He
looked at his instrument-they must
have been nearly eight miles up, but
now the barometer was rising rapidly
The balloon was descending. Brandy
was used. They had been higher above
earth than mortal man or any living
hing had been hefnre. One minute
more of inaction--',: compulsory inac-
.iOn-on the part of the steersman,
whose senses were failing him, and the
.ir ship, with its intensely rarified gas,
would have been floating unattended,
with two corpses, in the wide realms of
'pace.-[Once Week.