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Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies
·
Fulgence Marion
83
demanded
of
him,
like
one
newly
awaking
from
a
dream,
‘What
is
the
news?
Where
are
we?
What
time
is
it?
How
is
the
wind?’
“It
was
two
o’clock.
The
compass
had
been
broken,
and
was
useless;
the
wax
light
in
the
lantern
would
not
burn
in
such
a
rarefied
atmosphere.
We
descended
gently
across
a
thick
layer
of
whitish
clouds,
and
when
we
had
got
below
them,
Andreoli
heard
a
sound,
muffled
and
almost
inaudible,
which
he
immediately
recognised
as
the
breaking
of
waves
in
the
distance.
Instantly
he
announced
to
me
this
new
and
fearful
danger.
I
listened,
and
had
not
long
to
wait
before
I
was
convinced
that
he
was
speaking
the
truth.
It
was
necessary
to
have
light
to
examine
the
state
of
the
barometer,
and
thus
ascertain
what
was
our
elevation
above
the
sea
level,
and
to
take
our
measures
in
consequence.
Andreoli
broke
five
phosphoric
matches,
without
getting
a
spark
of
fire.
Nevertheless,
we
succeeded,
after
very
great
difficulty,
by
the
help
of
the
flint
and
steel,
in
lighting
the
lantern.
It
was
now
three
o’clock
in
the
morning--we
had
started
at
midnight.
The
sound
of
the
waves,
tossing
with
wild
uproar,
became
louder
and
louder,
and
I
suddenly
saw
the
surface
of
the
sea
violently
agitated
just
below
us.
I
immediately
seized
a
large
sack
of
sand,
but
had
not
time
to
throw
it
over
before
we
were
all
in
the
water,
gallery
and
all.
In
the
first
moment
of
fright,
we
threw
into
the
sea
everything
that
would
lighten
the
balloon--our
ballast,
all
our
instruments,
a
portion
of
our
clothing,
our
money,
and
the
oars.
As,
in
spite
of
all
this,
the
balloon
did
not
rise,
we
threw
over
our
lamp
also.
After
having
torn
and
cut
away
everything
that
did
not
appear
to
us
to
be
of
indispensable
necessity,
the
balloon,
thus
very
much
lightened,
rose
all
at
once,
but
with
such
rapidity
and
to
such
a
prodigious
elevation,
that
we
had
difficulty
in
hearing
each
other,
even
when
shouting
at
the
top
of
our
voices.
I
was
ill,
and
vomited
severely.
Grassetti
was
bleeding
at
the
nose;
we
were
both
breathing
short
and
hard,
and
felt
oppression
on
the
chest.
As
we
were
thrown
upon
our
backs
at
the
moment
when
the
balloon
took
such
a
sudden
start
out
of
the
water
and
bore
us
with
such
swiftness
to
those
high
regions,
the
cold
seized
us
suddenly,
and
we
found
ourselves
covered
all
at
once
with
a
coating
of
ice.
I
could
not
account
for
the
reason
why
the
moon,
which
was
in
its
last
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