966 



Summary and Conclusions 



same question. Croce nods his head with a very energetic sign of 

 affirmation. 



There were in the basket at least five bags of ballast; there were 

 about as many more hung outside on cords. The latter, I should add, 

 were not entirely filled; Sivel had certainly ascertained their weight, 

 but it is impossible for us to make an estimate of it. 



Sivel seized his knife and cut three cords successively; the three 

 bags emptied and we rose rapidly. The last very clear memory which 

 remains to me of the ascent goes back to a moment a little before this. 

 Croce-Spinelli was seated, holding in his hand the wash-bottle of the 

 oxygen; his head was slightly bent and he seemed oppressed. I still 

 had the strength to strike with my finger the aneroid barometer to 

 help the movement of its needle; Sivel had just raised his hand to- 



Fig. 86 — The basket of the Zenith at a high altitude. 



Sivel G. Tissandier Croce-Spinelli 



cuts the cords which hold observes the after making the spectro- 



to the basket the ballast barometers. scopic observations, is 



bags full of sand. about to breathe oxygen. 



