Miscellanies. 197 
from its center a string eight feet long with a weight of four ounces - 
at the end of it. The whole weighed about three pounds. On 
exposing this apparatus to the sun’s rays, the black paper absorbing 
them, the interior air is heated and expanded, and the whole rises as 
a balloon filled with hydrogen gas, or common air heated by com- 
bustion. It was on the 10th inst. at half past seven, A. M. that 
I made my final experiment. It happened, that just at the moment 
we were engaged at it, an eddy of wind came upon us, a small rent 
was made in the paper, and we were obliged to let go, though it 
seemed to be only half filled. It floated, nevertheless, and soon 
began’ to expand more fully and to ascend. ‘The wind at the sur- 
face of the earth was then about W.S. W., but as it ascended, this 
new aerial voyager, which, if I may be allowed, I would name the 
Sun Flyer, getting into other currents, went first south, and then a 
little to the west of south, disappearing in about fifty five minutes, 
bearing due south. 
Hamilton lies at the head of Lake Ontario, on the western ex- 
iremity of Burlington bay and immediately beneath what is here 
termed the mountain—the limestone ridge that surrounds the head 
of the lake from Niagara falls to near Toronto. From the point 
where I stood, the summit of this was exactly three quarters of a mile 
distant and at least two hundred and fifty feet high. At some dis- 
tance above the trees which fringe the edge of the mountain, this new 
voyager of the air dwindled to a mere point and disappeared. The 
morning was very clear and our Canadian sky is very pure. I think 
therefore it must have been at least twenty miles off and therefore 
over a mile anda half high. I had calculated somewhat loosely, 
that it would rise, if no accident intervened, about six miles. ‘These 
calculations were founded on previous experiments with a small 
cubical bag about two feet on the side, formed of similarly pre- 
pared paper. In this, when exposed to the sun’s rays, the ther- 
mometer stood at 30°, 40°, 60°, or even 80°, higher than in the 
shade, (I mean Fahrenheit’s thermometer,) and it weighed itself 
from three fourths to one and a half ounces avoirdupois less in the 
former than in the latter situation. Iam unable to say what the 
precise buoyant power of the large bag may have been. In a pre- 
vious essay I had attempted to ascertain this and other particulars 
by leaving a large opening in the bottom, into which I got, and keep- 
ing it fast with strings attached all round; but it then inflated so 
rapidly. that before our preparations were completed the upper part 
