Curiosities of Science. 169 



A THUNDEESTOEM SEEN FEOM A BALLOON. 



Mr. John West, the American aeronaut, in his observations 

 made during his numerous ascents, describes a storm viewed 

 from above the clouds to have the appearance of ebullition. 

 The bulging upper surface of the cloud resembles a vast sea of 

 boiling and upheaving snow ; the noise of the falling rain is 

 like that of a waterfall over a precipice ; the thunder above 

 the cloud is not loud, and the flashes of lightning appear like 

 streaks of intensely white fire on a surface of white vapour. 

 He thus describes a side view of a storm which he witnessed 

 June 3, 1852, in his balloon excursion from Portsmouth, Ohio : 

 Although the sun was shining on me, the rain and small hail were 

 rattling on the balloon. A rainbow, or prismatically-coloured arch or 

 horse-shoe, was reflected against the sun ; and as the point of observa- 

 tion changed laterally and perpendicularly, the perspective of this golden 

 grotto changed its hues and forms. Above and behind this arch was 

 going on the most terrific thunder ; but no zigzag lightning was per- 

 ceptible, only bright flashes, like explosions of " Roman candles" in 

 fireworks. Occasionally there was a- zigzag explosion in the cloud im- 

 mediately below, the thunder sounding like &feu-de-joie of a rifle-corps. 

 Then an orange-coloured wave of light seemed to fall from the upper to 

 the lower cloud; this was "still-lightning."- Meanwhile intense elec- 

 trical action was going on in the balloon, such as expansion, tremulous 

 tension, lifting papers ten feet out of the car below the balloon and 

 then dropping them, &c. The close view of this Ohio storm was truly 

 sublime ; its rushing noise almost appalling. 



Ascending from the earth with a balloon, in the rear of a 

 storm, and mounted up a thousand feet above it, the balloon 

 will soon override the storm, and may descend in advance of 

 it. Mr. West has experienced this several times. 



KEMAEKABLE AEEONAUTIC VOYAGE. 



Mr. Sadler, the celebrated aeronaut, ascended on one occa- 

 sion in a balloon from Dublin, and was wafted across the Irish 

 Channel ; when, on his approach to the Welsh coast, the balloon 

 descended nearly to the surface of the sea. By this time the 

 sun was set, and the shades of evening began to close in. He 

 threw out nearly all his ballast, and suddenly sprang upward 

 to a great height ; and by so doing brought his horizon to dip 

 below the sun, producing the whole phenomenon of a western 

 sunrise. Subsequently descending in Wales, he of course 

 witnessed a second sunset on the same evening. Sir John 

 Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy. 



