rising, and very quickly. The ascent took place normally: phos- 

 phorescent animals appeared and the speed increased progressively as 

 we approached the surface. The first rays of light pierced the liquid 

 layer : daylight became apparent, clearer and clearer. Suddenly we were 

 being tossed on the waves, for we had reached the surface. The sea, 

 just as the meteorologist had predicted, had become worse. 



Until then we had not yet used the device which allowed us to empty 

 our entrance shaft ourselves: in order to economize our compressed 

 air, we had waited each time for the Tenace to connect its compressed- 

 air hose to the coupling on the tower. This time we wanted to test our 

 facilities for emptying the bathyscaphe's lock. As soon as we were 

 on the surface, we opened the compressed-air cock. The water rose 

 through the discharge pipe and flowed out in a great jet. If the rubber 

 dinghy belonging to the Tenace was around it would see us blow like a 

 whale. Hardly was the lock emptied when we heard three knocks on 

 the deck. The dinghy had reached us, but why was the telephone not 

 ringing.^ We went up through the shaft and opened the hatch; and 

 were surprised to find a shower of shot lying about practically every- 

 where on deck. Salvio was just in the act of cleaning out the telephone 

 plug. What had happened ? Evidently before reaching bottom, at the 

 moment when the bathyscaphe was still going down rapidly, we threw 

 out ballast, and saw it escaping from the ballast tank. Issuing in a com- 

 pact stream, it went down faster than we did : but once spread about in 

 a wide cloud, the isolated grains, slowed down by the water, fell more 

 slowly. We overtook them. It was only when the bathyscaphe reached 

 bottom that the ballast caught up with us. A shower of iron-shot then 

 fell on the deck and some of it rolled from there to the ground. But the 

 uneven surfaces remained covered with it. The electro-magnets had 

 drawn a good part to them : and the telephone socket was full of them. 



That is exactly what happens in a balloon. If, while the balloon is 

 descending, a sack of ballast is emptied all at once, the sand at first 

 remains massed, then spreads out and forms a cloud: due to its 

 momentum, the balloon continues its descent and goes through the 

 cloud, but as soon as the unballasting has produced its effect, the 

 balloon stops, or goes up again ; at that moment a rain of sand falls 

 upon its envelope. On account of the eddies produced by the dis- 

 placement of the balloon, the car usually receives a goodly part 

 of it. 



Standing upright in the tower of the Trieste, with its deck swept 



[ 131 ] 



