The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1869-10-08
FIVE MILES ABOVE THE EARTH.
A THRILLING ADVENTURE.

One dull day in August, just aftel
| noon, a balloon rose in the air at tin
foot of Cloet Hills, OH The western edge
Of the centre plain of England. 1t was
inflated with the lightest of gases which
chemical skill could produce, and it rose
with amazing velocity. A mile up and
1t entered a stratum of cloud more than
thousand feet thick. Emerging from
this, the sun shone brightly on the air
linej the sky overhead was of the clear
est and deepest blue, and below Law
cloudland-an immeasurable expanse
OF white cloud whose surface looked as
solid as that of the earth not wholly
lost TO view, Lofty mountains, and
deep, dark ravines. appeared below the
peak and sides of those cloud noun
tains next to tile sun, glittering like
snow. but casting shadows as if they
were solid rock. Up rose the balloon
with tremendous velocity. Four miles
above the earth a pigeon was loose; it
dropped down as if it wasa stone. The
air was too thin to enable it to fly. 1t
was us if barque laden to the deck
were to pass from the heavy waters OF
the sea into an inland uasaline la le, the
barque would sink at once in the thin
ner water. Up, up, still higher What
a silence profound The heights OF the
sky were still as the deepest depths of
the ocean, where, as was found during
the search tor the lost Atlantic cable,
the mud 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 a sky IL
could not warm.
Up-miles above the earth higher
than the inaccessible summit of CHM
borazo or. Dawangiri. Despite the sun
shine, everything freezes. The air
grows too thin to support liiet even for
few minutes, Two men onfy are IN
that adventurous balloon---the one
steering the air ship, the other watch
ing the scientific instruments, and re-
cording them with a rapidity of long
practice. Suddenly. as the latter looks
at his instrument, his sight grows dim;
he takes lens to help his sight, and
only marks from the falling barometer
that they are testing rapidly. A flask
of brandy lies within foot OF him; he
tried to reach it, but his arm refused to
obey his will. He tries to call on his
comrade, who has gone up in the ring
above; whisper in that deep silence
would suflice-but no sound comes from
his lips-@he is voiceless. ,fhe steers
man comes down in the car; he sees
his comrade in "a swooh, and he feels
his own sense falling HIM.
He saw at once that life and death
hung upon d few moments. He seized
or tried TO seize the valve, in order TO
let out the gas. He seized the valve
with his teeth, it opened a little-once,
twice, thrice. The balloon began to
descend. Then the swooned marks
man returned to consciousness and saw
the steersman standing before him.
He looked at his instruments; but now
the bal ometer 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 inaction-of compulso-
ry inaction- on the part of steersman
whose senses were failing him, and the
air-ship with its intensely raretied gas
would have been floating unattended,
with two corpses in the wide realms of
space.