reat oscillations. I crept along on
my knees, and I pulled Sivel and Croce by the arm. 'Sivel! Croce!' I
exclaimed, 'Wake up!' My two companions were huddled up motionless
in the car, covered by their cloaks. I collected all my strength, and
endeavoured to raise them up. Sivel's face was black, his eyes dull, and
his mouth was open and full of blood. Croce's eyes were half closed and
his mouth was bloody.

"To relate what happened afterwards is quite impossible. I felt a
frightful wind; we were still 9,700 feet high. There remained in the car
two bags of ballast, which I threw out. I was drawing near the earth.
I looked for my knife to cut the small rope which held the anchor, but
could not find it. I was like a madman, and continued to call 'Sivel!
Sivel!' By good fortune I was able to put my hand upon my knife and
detach the anchor at the right moment. The shock on coming to the
ground was dreadful. The balloon seemed as if it were being flattened.
I thought it was going to remain where it had fallen, but the wind was
high, and it was dragged across fields, the anchor not catching. The
bodies of my unfortunate friends were shaken about in the car, and I
thought every moment they would be jerked out. At length, however, I
seized the valve line, and the gas soon escaped from the balloon, which
lodged against a tree. It was then four o'clock. On stepping out, I was
seized with a feverish attack, and sank down and thought for a moment
that I was going to join my friends in the next world; but I came to.
I found the bodies of my friends cold and stiff. I had them put under
shelter in an adjacent barn. The descent of the 'Zenith' took place in
the plains 155 miles from Paris as the crow flies. The greatest height
attained in this ascent is estimated at 28,000 feet."

It was in 1884 that the brothers Tissandier commenced experiments with
a screw-propelled air ship resembling in shape those constructed by
Giffard and Dupuy de Lome, but smaller, measuring only 91 feet by
30 feet, and operated by an electric motor placed in circuit with a
powerful battery of bichromate cells. Two trials were made with this
vessel in October, 1883, and again in the following September, when it
proved itself capable of holding its course in calm air and of being
readily controlled by the rudder.

But, ere this, a number of somewhat similar experiments, on behalf of
the French Government, had been entered upon by Captains Renard and
Krebs at Ch