972 Summary and Conclusions 



death of which everyone had thought, that everyone had feared from 

 the day when the contrivance of Montgolfier appeared in the air; 

 that was death by falling. Thus they died. But here, for the first 

 time, we saw two men die in the very bosom of the air, and die while 

 ascending. They felt death coming, a death unknown till then; their 

 oppressed breasts warned them of danger; they took counsel: "Must 

 we descend?" Ah! The consultation was not long. "We have ballast, 

 we can make still more useful observations up there; excelsior, 

 higher! And then they say that an Englishman could live and make 

 observations above 8000 meters: the flag we carry must float higher 

 yet!" They leap up, and death seizes them, without a struggle, with- 

 out suffering, as a prey fallen to it in these icy regions where an 



Fig. 88— Sivel. 



eternal silence reigns. Yes, our unhappy friends have had this strange 

 privilege, this fatal honor, of being the first to die in what we call 

 the heavens. 



And by a painful jest of fate, they died at the moment when 

 science was furnishing them the means to triumph over the danger 

 to which they fell victims. 



It was a scientific purpose of great theoretical importance," of 

 immense practical consequences, that our two friends were pursuing. 

 To determine the direction, the strength, the thickness of the aerial 



