aeronautic exhibitors to rise to, the arrangements of
ballast and inflation which were adopted, were such as to cause the
ascent to be infinitely more rapid than in the case of public
exhibitions; in short, the balloon darted upward with the speed of an
arrow, and in two minutes from the moment it was liberated, that is to
say, at twenty-nine minutes past ten, plunged into the clouds, and was
withdrawn from the anxious view of the distinguished persons assembled
in the garden of the Observatory.

While passing through this dense cloud, the voyagers carefully observed
the barometer, and knew by the rapid fall of the mercury that they were
ascending with a great velocity. Fifteen minutes elapsed before they
emerged from the cloud; when they did so, however, a glorious spectacle
presented itself. The balloon, emerging from the superior surface of the
cloud, rose under a splendid canopy of azure, and shone with the rays of
a brilliant sun. The cloud which they had just passed, was soon seen
several thousand feet below them. From the observations taken with the
barometer and thermometer, it was afterward found that the thickness of
the cloud through which they had passed, was 9800 feet--a little less
than two miles. On emerging from the cloud, our observers examined the
barometer, and found that the mercury had fallen to the height of 18
inches; the thermometer showed a temperature of 45 deg. Fahr. The height of
the balloon above the level of the sea was then 14,200 feet. At the
moment of emerging from the cloud, M. Barral made polariscopic
observation, which established a fact foreseen by M. Arago, that the
light reflected from the surface of the clouds, was unpolarized light.

The continued and somewhat considerable fall of the barometer informed
the observers that their ascent still continued to be rapid. The rain
which had previously fallen, and which wetted the balloon, and saturated
the cordage forming the net-work, had now ceased, or, to speak more
correctly, the balloon had passed above the region in which the rain
prevailed. The strong action of the sun, and almost complete dryness of
the air in which the vast machine now floated, caused the evaporation of
the moisture which enveloped it. The cordage and the balloon becoming
dry, and thus relieved of a certain weight of liquid, was affected as
though a quantity of ballast had been thrown out, and it darted upward
with increased velocity.

It was within one minute