328 Remarks on ASrostation. 
Before the wind, and with a wind whose continuance could 
be counted upon, a balloon would be a superb machine for 
travelling ; and within the tropics the trade winds might afford 
that certainty. Were the aerial navigator always to sail over 
land, his chance of safety would be much increased, for he pos- 
sesses one resource of which the sailor is destitute. He can, 
with ease, andat pleasure, descend to terra firma, and his an- 
chors will enable him to bring up where he pleases ;—but if 
the sailor descends, he rises not again,—all the waves and the 
billows pass over him, and his place is found no more. 
aerial navigator can also ascend at pleasure, either by throwing 
out ballast, or by creating and injecting more gas, a thing not 
impracticable, even in the midst of aerial flights ; thus he can 
avoid trees, buildings, mountains and peaks—the rocks (not 
however hidden ones) of the atmosphere,—and as they would 
be, atleast in the day time, in view, he need not wait for the 
roaring and dashing of the breakers, te announce to him 
his danger. Piracy and robbery he need not fear, for were 
to encounter other aerial vehicles, they might hail him with the . 
trumpet, but they would have no artillery, and grappling and 
boarding would be out of the question. Musket balls might 
indeed wound the «ronauts, or perforate the sides of their 
and expense, compared with the amount of persons and of 
freight which they could transport, would be too great for 
¢ommon purposes, they mightstill be useful on particular oeca-_ 
sions» They might, as heretofore, convey intelligence, or 
an important individual into, or from, a besieged place ;—= 
they might ascertain the position of armies, as at Fleurus 
and Jemappe ;—they might aid, as was done by Gay-Lussac 
and « , in observing the eleetricity, magnetism, compo 
sition, weight, impurities, and refractive and sonorous power 
of the atmosphere, and the phenomena of its clouds and 
storms and tempests ;—but could they be used for actual ev- 
ry day travelling of business or pleasure ? 
_ This is uestio: i r. Genet proposes to resolve. 
' In admitting his discussions into our columns, we only give 
him fair play. Let him be heard, although he may utter 
some things new and strange. He who was the companion, 
pupil and friend of many of the great men both in France and 
England, who during the latter part of the late century illu~ 
