Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-12-09
Scientific Daring.

One dull day in August, just after noon, a
balloon rose in the air at the foot of Clecd
Hills, on the western edge Of the central
plain Of England. Ii waa inflated with the
lightcsi Of gases which chemical skill could
produce, aud it rose with surprising velocity.
A mile up and it entered strata of clouds
more than "A thousand feet thick Emerging
from this, the sun shone brightly ON the air
ship; the sky overhead was of the clearest
and deepest blue, and below lay an immea-
surable cxpanse Of clouds, whose surface
looked as solid as that Of the earth, now
wholly lost to view. Lofty mountains and
then deep, dark raynes, 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 tremendous We
locity. -Four miles above earth pigeon was
let loose; it dropped down through the air as
if it had been stone. The air was too thin
to enable il to fly 1t was as if ship laden
to the deck were to pass from the heavy wa
tiers OF the sea into an inland unsaline lake
the bark would sink at once in the thinner
water. Up, up, still higher What silence
Profound! The heights of the sky were as
still as thc deepest depths of the ocean, where,
as was found during the search for the lost
Atlanti3 cable, the fine mud lies as unstrred,
from year to year, as the dust impreceptibly
gatherE on the furniture of deserted house.
NO sIund, nor life--only the bright sunshine
iailiifg through a sky which it could not
warYa.
.FUp-fve miles above earth higher than
THE inaccessible summit of Chmborazo or
Dawngiri. Despite the sunshine, everything
freezes The air grows too thin to support
life, even for few minutes. Two men only
are in that adventurous balloon--the one
steering the air ship, the other watching the
scientific instruments, and recording them
with a rapidity bred of long practice Sud
denly, as the latter looks at his Instruments
his sight grows dim; he takes lens to help
his sight, and only marks from the falling
barometer that they are rising rapidly. A
flask of brandy lies within a foot Of him; he
tries to reach it, but his arms refuse to obey
his will. He tries to call on his eomradc,
who has gone up to the ring above; a whis-
per in that deep silence would suffice--but
no sound comes from his lips-he is voceless.
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 10
seize the valve, III order to open it, and let
out some of 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 topened little-oncc,
twice, thrice. The balloon began to descend
Then the swooned marksman returned to con-
seriousness, 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 thing had been
before. One minute more of inaction-of
compulsory inacton ON the part of the
steersman, whose senses were failing him, and
the air ship, with its intensely rarfed gas,
would have been floating unattended, with
two corpses, in the wide realms of space