Balloon Ascensions 389 



extended straight out, and took up a pencil to continue observations. 

 M. Coxwell told me that he had lost the use of his hands, which had 

 become black and on which I poured brandy. 



He added that, while he had been in the ring, he had been seized 

 by an extreme cold and that icicles hung around the orifice of the 

 balloon, like a terrible candelabrum, worthy of the polar seas. When 

 he tried to descend from the ring, he could no longer use his hands, 

 and was forced to let himself slide on his elbows to get back into the 

 basket, where I was stretched out. He thought, seeing me on my 

 back, that I was resting, and spoke to me without getting an answer. 

 My face was serene and tranquil, without that anxiety which he had 

 noticed before climbing into the ring. 



Seeing that my arms and my head were hanging down, M. 

 Coxwell understood that I had fainted. He tried to approach me, but 

 could not, feeling unconsciousness overcome him too. Then he wanted 

 to open the valve, but, having lost the use of his hand, could not 

 manage it. He could not have succeeded in controlling our course, if 

 he had not had the idea of seizing the cord between his teeth 33 and 

 pulling it two or three times by shaking his head violently. 



I resumed my observations at 2:07, and the first figures that I 

 registered were 292 mm. for the barometer and 18 degrees for the 

 thermometer. I suppose that 3 or 4 minutes passed from the moment 

 when I heard the first words of M. Coxwell to the moment when I 

 began again to read my chronometer and my other instruments. If 

 this is so, I returned to life at 2:04, and was completely unconscious 

 for seven minutes. (P. 59-64) .... 



I felt no unpleasant result from my faint .... I walked eight 

 or nine miles after we had landed as easily as if nothing had happened 

 to me .... 



I made my last observation at 8838 meters. [That is within two 

 meters of the height of the highest peak on the surface of the earth, 

 the Gaourichnaka of Nepal, at the foot of which the Brahmin pil- 

 grims who are seeking Nirvana come to die; 39 one may say that no 

 human being ever could drag himself to this height following uneven 

 terrestrial surface, and in spite of their courage the brothers Schlag- 

 intweit did not aspire to mount there. However, I might have continued 

 my observations there, if the continued ascent of the balloon had not 

 taken me higher, where life is still more difficult.] When 40 I fainted, 

 we were ascending at the enormous speed of 305 meters per minute, 

 and when I resumed my observations, we were descending at a speed 

 of 610 meters, double our speed of ascent; this circumstance permits 

 me to calculate with a certain exactness the height to which we had 

 really risen. (Voyages aeriens, p. 65.) 



Calculations based both on the ascensional speed of the balloon 

 and on the temperature marked by a minimum thermometer have 

 led M. Glaisher to judge that the balloon had reached the height 

 of about 11,000 meters. The results of this calculation are, we 

 must say, evidently erroneous. We are surprised to see a scientist 

 of this caliber suppose that the balloon had a uniform speed in 



