if this was not a continuation of the same plains covered with snow
which we had already noticed. From these masses of vapour, there seemed
more than once during the night to come a sound as of a great fall of
water, or the contending waves of the sea; and it required all the force
of our reason, joined to our knowledge--such as it was--of the direction
of our route, to repress the idea that we were approaching the sea, and
that, driven by the wind, we had, been carried along the coasts of
the North Sea or the Baltic. As the day advanced these apprehensions
disappeared. In place of the unbroken surface of the sea, we gradually
made out the varied features of a cultivated country, in the midst of
which flowed a majestic river, which lost itself, at both extremities,
in the mist that still lay on the horizon."

This river was the Rhine, and as the neighbourhood seemed suitable for
a descent, and as the travellers did not wish to be carried too far into
the heart of Europe, they allowed a portion of the gas to escape, came
gradually down, and dropped their anchor.

It was then half-past seven in the morning. It was only then that
the inhabitants, who had hitherto held themselves aloof, watching the
movements of the strangers from under the brushwood, began to assemble
from all sides. A few words in German spoken from the balloon dissipated
their fears, and, recovering from their mistrust, they hastened
immediately to lend assistance to the aeronauts The latter were now
informed that the place they had selected for their descent was in the
Duchy of Nassau. The town of Wiberg, where Blanchard had descended,
after his ascent at Frankfort in 1785 was, by a singular chance, only
two leagues distant. The three aeronauts received a most flattering
reception, and, in memory of the event, they placed the flag which they
had borne in their car during their adventurous excursion in the ducal
palace, side by side with that of Blanchard.

"Thus," says Mason, "terminated an expedition which, whether we regard
the extent of the journey, the length of time occupied in it, or
the results which were the objects of the experiment, may justly be
considered as one of the most interesting and most important ever
undertaken. The best answer which one could give to those who would be
disposed to criticise the employment of the peculiar means which we
made use of, or to doubt their efficiency, would be to state that, after
having traversed witho