Andree's Cooking-stove 



to him that coiling down his drag-ropes outside 

 the balloon shed, as he was compelled to do, 

 owing to the ground being covered with rocks, 

 was a very weak point. 



I understand that when the start was made 

 early in the next year the front of the shed was 

 pulled out, and the drag-ropes in some way or 

 other fouled in the debris, as I imagined might 

 be the case. This brought the balloon down 

 almost into the water, to avoid which Andree was 

 compelled to free one set of his drag-ropes in 

 order to loose the balloon. He would then, with 

 at least a ton less to lift, have shot into the air 

 some thousands of feet high. He would not 

 open his valves to approach the surface again, 

 for it was important that he should reserve his 

 supply of gas, trusting to the natural escape 

 from diffusion to accomplish this object. When 

 last seen he was travelling due north, but at a 

 great height. Now, to soliloquize as to what 

 happened to him. My idea is that he remained, 

 so long as he could travel, in this satisfactory 

 direction. He would have put out his spare set 

 of drag-ropes so soon as possible, in order that 

 the weight of them should, on reaching the ice, 

 ease his descent owing to waste of gas. I think 

 that these ropes may have proved his undoing ; 

 they probably got caught up in a crevasse, acting 

 as an anchor. If the wind had been blowing 

 fresh to strong the balloon would inevitably 



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