244 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



afcent in the calmnefs of a beautiful evening, with the fixed and 

 trill attention of the inhabitants of a great metropolis, to the 

 amount of many hundreds of thoufands, produced a Angular 

 and very impreflive cited on (he mind. This paufe of expec- 

 tation which laded nine minutes and a quarter, and carried the 

 aeronaut fo high as not to be perfonally diftinguifhed, was fud- 

 denly terminated by the feparation of the parachute from the 

 balloon. It fuddenlv defcended for near a fecond, and then ex- 

 panded. The l>a!looi;y->roceeded immediately to the fouth, 

 and was found tiie next day in Kent, about twelve miles out 

 Of town. Admiration and fin prize now engaged the minds of 

 a!l the fpettators ; which foon gave place to a marked fenti- 

 ment of terror from the extreme vibrations of the apparatus. 

 The defcent appeared flow and regular, but its vibrations (per- 

 formed in about fix feconds each) were fo violent as frequently 

 to carry the balket nearly as high as the level of the parachute 

 itfelf, which collapfed at its lower edge every time, fo as to be 

 nearly half clofed, and opened again when it returned its per- 

 pendicular fituatiou. However firm the confidence of this 

 daring adventurer may have been in the truth of his combina- 

 tions, he muft have have found himfelf in a fituation requiring 

 the exertions of all his courage. He defcended in fafety in a 

 field near Pancras, having been very nearly fix minutes in his 

 defcent. He teemed to have been upwards of a mile high, or 

 probably about fix thoufand ihet ; and on this fuppofition he 

 Velocity of his Ie |l ti t the rate of fixteen \eet in a fecond. This is the velocity 

 "'• that would have been produced by jumping from the height of 



about four feet, and mutt therefore havebeen very fafe. 







