Year: 1874

ITO ChIth db seen IIOnu " UhEOOu bb
the height Of sixteen Thousand feet, from
an account of an ascension with Profess
sor Donaldson, In the Baltimore Ameri-
can.


Now came the most stirring incident
of our trip. From the height of four
thousand feet we steadily assembled, the
country dwarfing into panorama Of
toys below US. had the aneroid bar
ometer in my hand, and so marked our
progress upward. At six thousand six
hundred feet our breaths became visi-
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 intensi-
ty. The index Of the barometer steadi-
ly crept around the dial, marking off
the thousands until it reached the four
teenth, then flying back again and
starting from zero, from whence 1t pro-
gressed once more around the dial, un-
til 1t halted on the verge of the two
thousandth, telling US that we were
only about hundred feet less than six
teen thousand feet above the earth.


At this height the world was an OBJ
scurity to usi-n Vapory haze shut It out
from our view, and we could detect
nothing Of 1t but the silver lines that
marked the great bays and rivers. From
a contemplation Of the indistlnct scene
revert to my own feelings. The air
was very cold, and the sun was very
warm. The thermometer stood at S2e
the sun was intensely hot, as its rays
fell upon US, but for all that we might
as well have been in the Arctic region.
This 10 one Of the most curious pheno-
mena OF life. above the clouds. The
rarefaction of the air hardly accounts
for the chilling cold which penetrates
through and through, while the Their.
mometer and the heat of the solar rays
are indicating high summer tempera-
ture. At height of fifteen thousand
feet 1 was shivering, while my head
seemed to be burning up, and all the
blood in my body rushing. felt q
slight difficulty In breathing, but my
ears were stopped up, and could hard
ly hear what Mr.. Fox was saying to me
when he was standing by my side.
We did not long remain at this tre-
mendous elevation. We slipped down
through the atmosphere to between
eleven and twelve thousand feet above
the earth. and 1t was here that we had
our giandest view. We had within our
range of vision at the same moment
Philadelphia. Baltimore, and Harris
burg, the Chesapeake and Delaware
bays, and all the upper tributaries, and
also Annapolis and the most of the
smaller towns were included within this
extended vision. But the grandest
feature of all was when gazing east
wardiy, we very plainly perceived the
Atlantic Ocean. There was no mistake
about it; the mist had lifted a 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
possibilities of language to picture. The
peninsula of land between the Chesa-
peake and Delaware bays was but
thread of dark green upon the land
scape; the Susquehanna river was hard
ly perceptible. except for the dark line
which we knew to be the great bridge
across 1t; the country below us vas but
u checker board Of indistinct green and
white squares; Baltimore and Philadel-
phia were only masses of shade upon
the map; but the great ocean was real
ty, and to view OF 1t we constantly
turned our eyes, with feeling that
here was something everlasting and en-.
during. The panorama that came
within our scope OF vision was probably
not less than two hundred square
miles, but from our height Of sixteen
thousand feet 1t seemed to be dwarfed
to space you might cover with your
handkerchief. 1t seemed to US as IL we
were looking through the wrong end
OF field glass.


When at this height Of sixteen thou
sand feet, or over three miles above the
earth, Professor Donaldson told us that
the ballon had obtained Its equilibrium;
that 1t waspolsed on an exact balance,
and that as soon as the gas commenced
to condense, even In the slightest de-
gree, we would descend rapidly. And
IL was precisely In this fashion that we
did go down.