et, and the noise of
a railway train to 8,200 feet, should be qualified an additional note
to the effect that both may be occasionally heard at distances vastly
greater. But perhaps the most curious observation of M. Flammarion
respecting sounds aloft relates to that of echo. To his fancy, this had
a vague depth, appearing also to rise from the horizon with a curious
tone, as if it came from another world. To the writer, on the contrary,
and to many fellow observers who have specially experimented with this
test of sound, the echo has always appeared to come very much from the
right place--the spot nearly immediately below--and if this suggested
its coming from another world then the same would have to be said of all
echoes generally.

About the same period when M. Flammarion was conducting his early
ascents, MM. de Fonvielle and Tissandier embarked on experimental
voyages, which deserve some particular notice. Interest in the new
revival of the art of aeronautics was manifestly be coming reestablished
in France, and though we find enthusiasts more than once bitterly
complaining of the lack of financial assistance, still ballooning
exhibitions, wherever accomplished, never failed to arouse popular
appreciation. But enthusiasm was by no means the universal attitude with
which the world regarded aerial enterprise. A remarkable and instructive
instance is given to the contrary by M. W. de Fonvielle himself.

He records an original ballooning exploit, organised at Algiers, which
one might have supposed would have caused a great sensation, and to
which he himself had called public attention in the local journals. The
brothers Braguet were to make an ascent from the Mustapha Plain in a
small fire balloon heated with burning straw, and this risky performance
was successfully carried out by the enterprising aeronauts. But, to the
onlooker, the most striking feature of the proceeding was the fact that
while the Europeans present regarded the spectacle with curiosity and
pleasure, the native Mussulmans did not appear to take the slightest
interest in it; "And this," remarked de Fonvielle, "was not the first
time that ignorant and fanatic people have been noted as manifesting
complete indifference to balloon ascents. After the taking of
Cairo, when General Buonaparte wished to produce an effect upon the
inhabitants, he not only made them a speech, but supplemented it with
the ascent of a fire balloon. The attempt was a complete f