Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-11-06
5fliscellamg.
Above the CLOUDS.
THE EARTH AS SEEN FROM A BALLool

We clip the following from an account
of an ASCENSION with Professor Donald.
son, in the Baltimore American;
Now came the most stirring incident
of our trip, From the height of four
thousand feet we steadily assembled, the
country dwariing into a panorama of
toys below US. | had the aneroid baro-
meter in my hand, and so marked our
progress upward. AT six thousand six
hundred feet our breaths became yisi.
BILE, just as they would be on frosty
morning We already began to feel
cold in the body, but the rays of the sun
beat in upon us with fierce intensity.
The index of the barometer steadily
crept around the dial, marking off the
thousands until it reached the fourteenth,
then flying back again and starting from
zero, from whence it progressed once
more around the dial until it halted on
the verge Of the two thousandth, telling
us that we were only about hundred
feet less than sixteen thousand feet above
the earth.
At this height the world was an OBJ
security to us, vapory haze shut it out
from our view, and we could detect moth
ing of it but the silver lines that marked
the great bays and rivers. From a con-
temptation of the indistnct scene | re-
vert to my own feelings. The air was
very cold, and the sun was very warm.
The thermometer stood at 50 degrees, |
the sun was intensely hot, as its rays fell
upon us, but for all that we might as
we'll have been in an Arctic region. This
is one of the most curious phenomena OF |
life above the clouds. The rarefaction
of the air hardly accounts for the chill
ing cold which penetrates you through |
and through, while the thermometer and
the heat of the solar rays are indicating
a high summer temperature. At a
height of fifteen thousand feet | was
shiveriug, while my head seemed to be |
burning up, and all the blood in my body |
rushed toward it. felt a very slight
difficulty in breathing, but my ears we're
stopped up, and | could hardly hear
what Mr.. Fox was saying to me when
he was standing by my side
We did not remain long at this tre-
mendous elevation. We slipped down
through the atmosphere to between elev-
Gu and twelve thousand feet above the
earth, and it was there that we had ourI
grandest view. We had within our
range of vision at the same moment
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Harris
burg, the Chesapeake and Delaware bays
and all their upper tributaries, and also
Annapolis and the most of the smaller
towns were included with this extended
vision. But the grandest feature of all
was when gazing eastwardly, we very
plainly perceived the Atlantic ocean.
1beTs was NO lhlstah6 dbouJ III the mlSJ
had lifted little, and we could plainly
see where the waters Of the Delaware
bay mingled with those of the Atlantic.
The view at this time was above the
possibility of language to picture. The
peninsula of land between the Chesea-
peake and Delaware bays was but a
thread Of dark green upon the landscape;
the Susquehanna river was hardly per-
ceptible, except for the dark line which
we knew to be the great bridge across it;
the country below us was but checker
board of indistinct green and white
squares; Baltimore and Philadelphia
were only masses Of shade upon the map
but the great ocean was reality, and
10 view of it we constantly turned our
eyes, with feeling that here was some.
thing everlasting and enduring. The
panorama that came within our scope Of
vision was probably not less than two
hundred square miles, but from oul
height of sixteen thousand feet il seemed
to be dwarted to space you might GOV
er with your handkerchief, 1t seemed t.
us as if we were looking through the
wrong end of field glass
When at this height Of sixteen thou
sand feet, or over three miles above tn,
earth, Professor Donaldson told us tina
the balloon had obtained its equilibrium
that it was poised on an exact balance
and that as soon az the gas commenced
to condense. even in the slightest degree
we would descend rapidly. And it wa
precisely IN this fashion that we did g
down.
Too TRUE.-A few friends will GO an,
bury us, affection will rear stone an,
plant a few flowers over aur orava in