The hour for my
experiment
in ballooning finally arrived.
The Literary World - Seventh Reader
Stop!
" called out Andrey, dashing forth from the navigating
cabin.
The pinions cracked and the motors ceased to pulsate. Immediately the
air became hot, as in a Turkish bath. Andrey entered the water-tight
conning tower, which was flooded with diluted, greenish light from the
ports provided for the purpose of giving a view of the surrounding
waters. He peered through the glass pane. Vague, blurred forms and
shadows gradually became visible in the twilight of the deep. One of the
shadows wavered and glided along the window, and the round, tragic eyes
of a fish glanced at Andrey. The fish disappeared in the depths below
the boat. Evidently the _Kate_ had not run aground, nor were there any
submerged reefs in that quarter. Andrey gave an order to raise the boat
several feet. Then numerous shadows leaped aside and scattered, and the
captain plainly saw a jumbled heap of ropes and ladders. It was obvious
that the _Kate_ had blundered into the remains of a sunken ship.
The halt was unfortunate--indeed, might prove fatal. The uniform motion
of the boat had been disturbed, the [v]orientation lost; the inevitable
small error made at the point of submerging must have increased in the
course beneath the waves. The _Kate_ had lost her way, and something
must be done. Andrey drummed nervously on the window-pane as he
thought. It was impossible to stay under water any longer, and yet to
rise to the surface meant to be seen and attacked by enemy warships.
Only in this way, however, was it possible to determine the boat's
position.
Andrey, giving an order for the boat to rise slowly, returned to his
observation point. The water gradually grew clearer. Suddenly a dark
ball moved down to meet the craft. "A mine! " flashed across Andrey's
mind, and, overcoming the torpor which had begun to oppress his brain,
he ordered the submarine to be swerved from her course. The ball moved
away, but another appeared on the right. There was another change of
direction. And now everywhere in the midst of the greenish twilight
cast-iron shells lay in wait. The _Kate_ was in the toils of a mine net!
Sea water, when viewed from a great height, is so transparent that large
fishes can even be seen in it. Owing to this fact, the _Kate_ was
discovered by two enemy [v]hydroplanes as she rose among the mines
toward the surface of the bay. The aircraft were seen, however, and the
boat dived again to a great depth.
The _Kate_ now blindly groped her way forward. The motors worked at
their top speed, and the body of the boat trembled. Hundreds of demons
called horsepowers fiercely turned the various wheels, pinions, and
shafts. The air was hot and stuffy; the men at the engine, stripped to
the waist, worked feverishly. Speed was necessary, for only oxygen
enough to sustain the crew for one hour remained in the lead cylinders.
Yakovlev still sat at the compass, his elbows on his knees and his hands
pressing his head. The men lounged in the cabins and corridors, their
faces livid with suffocation. Prince Bylopolsky remained leaning over
his [v]logarithmic tables, which had now become useless. From time to
time he wiped his face, as if removing a net of invisible cobwebs.
Finally he rose to his feet, took a few steps, and fainted dead away.
Giving the order to proceed at full speed, Andrey hoped to pass the mine
zone, even though some of his men succumbed for lack of air. Pale and
excited, his hair in disorder, and his coat unbuttoned, he was
everywhere at once, and his voice sustained the failing strength of the
half-suffocated crew. Seeing the prince stretched unconscious on a
berth, Andrey poured a few drops of brandy in his mouth and kissed his
wet, childlike forehead. In making too rapid a movement, lurid flames
danced before his eyes, and he bent back, striking his head against a
sharp angle of an engine. He felt no pain from the blow.
"Bad! " thought Andrey, and crawled over to the emergency oxygen
container. He opened the faucet and inhaled the fragrant stream of gas.
His head began to swim and a sweet fire ran through his veins. With an
effort he rose to his feet. The outlines of the objects around him were
strangely distinct, and the faces of the men imploringly turned to
him--some of them bearded and high-cheekboned, others tender and
childlike--seemed to him touchingly human. . . .
In the corridor Andrey came upon a man standing against the wall and
gulping the air like a fish. Seeing the commander, he made an effort to
cheer up and mumbled, "Beg pardon, sir; I'm a bit unwell. " The captain
leaned over and looked into his eyes, which a film of death was already
beginning to veil. Andrey, turning to the telephone tube, gave a command
to rise. The _Kate_ shook all over and dived upward. The ascent lasted
four minutes and a half, at the end of which time the boat stood still
and light fell on the screen of the periscope. The sailors crawled up to
the main hatchway and unscrewed it. Cold salt air rushed into the boat,
swelling the chests of the sufferers and turning their heads; the
sensation of free breathing was delicious after the suffocation they had
so long endured.
Andrey, leaping on the bridge, found the evening sun suspended above
vast masses of warm clouds and the sea quiet and peaceful. He began to
take observations with the [v]sextant, which shook in his trembling
hand. Presently a loud buzzing was heard in the sky, followed by the
measured crackling of a machine gun; from the hull of the boat came a
sharp rat-a-tat, as if some one was throwing dry peas on it. A
hydroplane was circling above the _Kate_.
Andrey bit his lip and kept on working; a squad of his men loaded their
rifles. The hydroplane swooped down almost to the surface of the sea,
then soared with a shrill "F-r-r-r" and flew right over the boat. A
clean-shaven pilot sat motionless, his hands on the wheel; below him an
observer gazed downward, waiting. Suddenly the latter lifted a bomb and
threw it into a tube. The missile flashed in the air and plunged into
the sea at the very side of the boat. One of the crew fired his rifle,
and the observer threw up his leather-covered arms with outspread
fingers. Slowly circling under the fire of the submarine crew, the
aircraft rose toward the clouds and sailed off.
Over the sky-ridge another aeroplane appeared, looking like a long thin
line. Meantime the _Kate_ picked her way with graceful ease across the
orange-colored waters as if cutting through molten glass. Andrey,
buttoning his coat, said with a grimace, "Well, Yakovlev, the mines are
behind us, but what are we going to do now? "
"This region is full of reefs and sandbanks," replied Yakovlev.
"That's just the trouble. I wouldn't risk sailing under the water. Wait
a moment. " He raised his hand.
A violent whizzing sound came from the west; Andrey ordered greater
speed. A [v]grenade hissed on the right, and a jet of water spurted up
from the quiet surface. The _Kate_ tacked sharply toward the purpling
horizon in the west, and behind, in her shadowy wake, another bomb burst
and blossomed out into a small cloud. The boat then turned east again,
but now in front of her, on both sides, everywhere, shells burst and
sputtered fire. The scouting hydroplane dashed over the submarine like a
bat; two pale faces looked down and disappeared. Then right above the
stern of the _Kate_ a grenade exploded and one of the sailors dropped
his rifle, clutched his face, toppled over the railing, and disappeared
beneath the water.
"All hands below! " cried Andrey; and, watching where the shells fell
thickest, he began to give his orders. The _Kate_ circled like a
run-down hare, while all along the darkening skyline the smoking stacks
of mine-layers and destroyers were visible as the enemy's ruthless ring
rapidly tightened about the submarine.
Having had her wireless mast shot off by a shell, the _Kate_ now dashed
toward the rocky shore, running awash. Six sparks shot up in the dark
and six steel-clad demons hissed above the boat. The long shadow of a
ship glided along the shore. The _Kate_ shook, and a sharp-nosed torpedo
detached itself from her hull and glided away under the water to meet
the [v]silhouette of the vessel. A moment passed, and a fluffy,
mountainous mass of fire and water rose from the spot where the stacks
of a mine-layer had projected shortly before. The mountain sank and the
silhouette disappeared. The _Kate_ entered a baylet among the rocks,
submerged, and lay on the sandy sea-bed.
Two weeks the submarine remained in the inlet, completely cut off from
the rest of the world. By day she hid in the deep, and only under the
cover of night did she rise to the surface to get a supply of air. The
greatest precautions were necessary, for there was little likelihood
that the enemy believed the submarine to be destroyed.
At the end of that time some action was inevitable, as the boat's
supplies had given out; for three days the crew had fed on fish which
one of the men had caught at great risk. Audrey decided to leave the bay
and make a supreme effort to run the enemy's cordon.
About daybreak, as the _Kate_ was nearing the surface of the sea, the
crew became aware of a tremendous muffled cannonade; and when the boat
emerged into a white fog, the whole coast shook and echoed with the roar
and crash of a sea battle. Broadsides and terrific explosions alternated
with the crackling of guns. It was as though a multitude of sea-devils
coughed and blew and roared at each other.
"Quick, sir," shouted Yakovlev, holding on to the railing; "we can break
through now! " His teeth rattled.
The preparations for the dash had been completed. A strong gale swept
away the fog and drove its torn masses over the sea, laying bare the
rocky shore. The _Kate_ dashed out of the bay into the open. The firing
was now heard behind and on the right; the road to the port was open at
last. The submarine rushed along, ripping in twain the frothing waves.
In this moment of exaltation, to return safely to base, simply to do
one's duty, seemed too little to these fearless men. The feeling that
possessed them was not enthusiasm but a greediness, a yearning for
destruction.
"We cannot go away like this," Yakovlev shouted in Audrey's ear; "turn
back or I will shoot myself! " The man was completely beside himself; his
pale face twisted convulsively.
Just then the sun arose, turning the rolling sea into a dull orange.
Near at hand invisible ships thundered against each other. Suddenly a
gray mountain-like shape emerged from the fog, enveloped in flame and
smoke. Above its turrets, stacks, and masts fluttered a flag bearing a
black eagle.
Mad with the thought that the opportunity had come at last, Andrey
rushed down the hatchway, knocking over Yakovlev on the way, and loaded
the torpedo tube. The _Kate_ submerged a little, and sailing awash,
headed straight for the enemy vessel.
The shadow of the hostile ship glided along the periscope screen, every
now and then wrapping itself into a cloud pierced with fiery needles of
shots. The _Kate_ fired a torpedo but missed her aim. Leaning over the
screen and biting his lips to bleeding, Andrey examined the tiny image
of the vessel, one of the mightiest of battleships. The distance between
the _Kate_ and the enemy vessel continued to decrease; the image of the
ship already occupied half of the periscope screen.
"Another torpedo! " shouted Andrey.
At that very instant a blow was struck the boat and the periscope screen
grew dark. Andrey ran out from the navigating compartment and shouted:
"The periscope is shot away! Full speed forward! "
The engineer seized the handle of a lever and asked, "Which way? "
"Forward! forward! "
Andrey went into the conning tower; straight in front of him foamy
eddies whirled furiously. The dark hull of a ship appeared, obscuring
the light.
"Stop! " shouted Andrey. "Fire another one! Full speed backward! " He
closed his eyes.
For a moment it seemed to him that the end had come. He was hurled by
the explosion of the torpedo into the corridor and dashed against the
wall. The outcries of the men were drowned by the muffled thud of the
inrushing water. The light went out; the _Kate_ began to rotate and
sink.
The boat did not stay long in the deep; freed from the weight of two
torpedoes, she slowly began to rise, stopped before reaching the
surface, and commenced to sink again as the water continued to leak into
her hull.
A sailor found Andrey in a narrow passage unconscious, though breathing
regularly. The man dressed the captain's wounds, but could not bring him
to his senses. Another sailor tried to revive Yakovlev, but soon saw
that that officer was dead. All the available hands toiled at the pumps,
while the engineer and his two assistants worked frantically at the
engine.
The _Kate_ was near the surface, but as the periscope and the indicator
had been destroyed, it was impossible to tell precisely where she was.
On the other hand, to unscrew the hatch and look out would subject the
boat to the risk of being flooded. Finally, the engineer reported that
it was necessary to replace the cylinder, but that this was difficult to
do because the supply of candles was giving out. Kuritzyn, a sailor who
had assumed command, ordered the men at the pumps to pump until they
dropped dead, if necessary, but to raise the boat at least one yard. The
men obeyed in grim silence. Presently the last candle went out. "It's
all over, boys," said some one, and the pumps stopped. The only sound
that now broke the silence was the monotonous splash of water leaking
down on the periscope screen.
"Follow me," said Kuritzyn hoarsely to two of the men. "Let us unscrew
the hatches. What's the use of fooling any longer? "
Feeling their way in the darkness, several men followed the leader into
the corridor and up the spiral staircase in the main hatchway. When they
reached the top, they grasped the bolts of the lid.
"Here's our finish," said one of the men.
Just then the sound of footsteps on the outside of the boat reached
their ears. Some one was walking on the _Kate's_ hull!
"Down to the ballast tanks! " Kuritzyn ordered. "When I fire, blow them
out. We are ordered not to surrender the boat. "
With his revolver between his teeth, he pressed the bolt. The lid
yielded; light and air rushed into the opening.
"Hey, who is there? " Kuritzyn shouted.
"Russians, Russians," replied a voice.
"Thank God! " said Kuritzyn in a tone of intense gratitude.
COUNT ALEXIS TOLSTOI.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
Tell of the preparations made for the submerging of the _Kate_.
Describe the scene within the vessel. What accident halted the
boat? Describe the events that followed. Where did the _Kate_ find
anchorage? Describe her exit from the bay. What flag was it that
bore a black eagle? What was the fate of the ship bearing that
flag?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea--Jules Verne.
The Pilot--J. Fenimore Cooper.
A VOYAGE TO THE MOON
The moon, being the nearest to the earth of all the heavenly
bodies, has always occupied the imagination of men. Many fanciful
accounts have been written of voyages to the moon, of which the
following story by Edgar Allan Poe is among the best. So wonderful
has been the advance of science that it is conceivable that at some
distant time in the future the inhabitants of this world may
possibly be able to visit the beautiful body which lights the night
for us.
I
After a long and arduous devotion to the study of physics and astronomy,
I, Hans Pfaal of Rotterdam, at length determined to construct a balloon
of my own along original lines and to try a flight in it. Accordingly I
had made an enormous bag out of cambric muslin, varnished with
caoutchouc for protection against the weather. I procured all the
instruments needed for a prolonged ascent and finally prepared for the
inflation of the balloon. Herein lay my secret, my invention, the thing
in which my balloon differed from all the balloons that had gone before.
Out of a peculiar [v]metallic substance and a very common acid I was
able to manufacture a gas of a density about 37. 4 less than that of
hydrogen, and thus by far the lightest substance ever known. It would
serve to carry the balloon to heights greater than had been attained
before, for hydrogen is the gas usually used.
The hour for my experiment in ballooning finally arrived. I had chosen
the night as the best time for the ascension, because I should thereby
avoid annoyances caused by the curiosity of the ignorant and the idle.
It was the first of April. The night was dark; there was not a star to
be seen; and a drizzling rain, falling at intervals, made me very
uncomfortable. But my chief anxiety was concerning the balloon, which,
in spite of the varnish with which it was defended, began to grow rather
heavy with the moisture. I therefore set my assistants to working, and
in about four hours and a half I found the balloon sufficiently
inflated. I attached the car and put all my implements in it--a
telescope, a barometer, a thermometer, an [v]electrometer, a compass, a
magnetic needle, a seconds watch, a bell, and other things. I had
further procured a globe of glass, exhausted of air and carefully closed
with a stopper, not forgetting a special apparatus for condensing air, a
copious supply of water, and a large quantity of provisions, such as
[v]pemmican, in which much [v]nutriment is contained in comparatively
little bulk. I also secured a cat in the car.
It was now nearly daybreak, and I thought it high time to take my
departure. I immediately cut the single cord which held me to the earth,
and was pleased to find that I shot upward with [v]inconceivable
rapidity, carrying with all ease one hundred and seventy-five pounds of
leaden ballast and able to have carried as much more.
Scarcely, however, had I attained the height of fifty yards, when
roaring and rumbling up after me in the most [v]tumultuous and terrible
manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire and gravel and burning wood
and blazing metal that my very heart sunk within me and I fell down in
the car, trembling with terror. Some of my chemical materials had
exploded immediately beneath me almost at the moment of my leaving
earth. The balloon at first collapsed, then furiously expanded, then
whirled round and round with sickening [v]velocity, and finally, reeling
and staggering like a drunken man, hurled me over the rim of the car;
and in the moment of my fall I lost consciousness.
I had no knowledge of what had saved me. When I partially recovered the
sense of existence, I found the day breaking, the balloon at a
[v]prodigious height over a wilderness of ocean, and not a trace of land
to be discovered far and wide within the limits of the vast horizon. My
sensations, however, upon thus recovering, were by no means so
[v]replete with agony as might have been anticipated. Indeed, there was
much of madness in the calm survey which I began to take of my
situation. I drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other,
and wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of
the veins and the horrible blackness of the finger nails. I afterward
carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly and feeling it with
minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying myself that it was
not, as I had more than half suspected, larger than the balloon. It now
occurred to me that I suffered great uneasiness in the joint of my left
ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to glimmer through
my mind. I began to understand that my foot had caught in a rope and
that I was hanging downward outside the car. But strange to say! I was
neither astonished nor horror-stricken. If I felt any emotion at all, it
was a sort of chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness I was about to
display in getting myself out of this [v]dilemma.
With great caution and deliberation, I put my hands behind my back and
unfastened the large iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my
pantaloons. This buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty,
turned with great difficulty on their axis. I brought them, however,
after some trouble, at right angles to the body of the buckle and was
glad to find them remain firm in that position. Holding with my teeth
the instrument thus obtained, I proceeded to untie the knot of my
cravat; it was at length accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then
made fast the buckle, and the other end I tied, for greater security,
tightly around my wrist. Drawing now my body upward, with a prodigious
exertion of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in
throwing the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had
anticipated, in the circular rim of the wicker-work.
My body was now inclined toward the side of the car at an angle of about
forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that I was therefore
only forty-five degrees below the [v]perpendicular. So far from it, I
still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon, for the change of
position which I had acquired had forced the bottom of the car
considerably outward from my position, which was accordingly one of the
most extreme peril. It should be remembered, however, that when I fell
from the car, if I had fallen with my face turned toward the balloon,
instead of turned outwardly from it as it actually was--or if, in the
second place, the cord by which I was suspended had chanced to hang over
the upper edge instead of through a crevice near the bottom of the
car--in either of these cases, I should have been unable to accomplish
even as much as I had now accomplished. I had therefore every reason to
be grateful, although, in point of fact, I was still too stupid to be
anything at all, and hung for perhaps a quarter of an hour in that
extraordinary manner, without making the slightest farther exertion, and
in a singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment.
This feeling, however, did not fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto
succeeded horror and dismay, and a sense of utter helplessness and ruin.
In fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head and
throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with delirium, had
now begun to retire within its proper channels, and the distinctness
which was thus added to my perception of the danger merely served to
deprive me of the self-possession and courage to encounter it. But this
weakness was, luckily for me, of no very great duration. In good time
came to my rescue the spirit of despair, and with frantic cries and
struggles, I jerked my body upward, till, at length, clutching with a
vice-like grip the long-desired rim, I writhed my person over it and
fell headlong and shuddering within the car.
When I had recovered from the weakness caused by being so long in that
position and the horror from which I had suffered, I found that all my
implements were in place and that neither ballast nor provisions had
been lost.
It is now high time that I should explain the object of my voyage. I had
been harassed for long by poverty and creditors. In this state of mind,
wishing to live and yet wearied with life, my deep studies in astronomy
opened a resource to my imagination. I determined to depart, yet
live--to leave the world, yet continue to exist--in short, to be plain,
I resolved, let come what would, to force a passage, if possible, to the
moon.
This was not so mad as it seems. The moon's actual distance from the
earth was the first thing to be attended to. The mean or average
interval between the centers of the two planets is only about 237,000
miles. But at certain times the moon and earth are much nearer than at
others, and if I could contrive to meet the moon at the moment when it
was nearest earth, the above-mentioned distance would be materially
lessened. But even taking the average distance and deducting the
[v]radius of the earth and the moon, the actual interval to be traversed
under average circumstances would be 231,920 miles. Now this, I
reflected, was no very extraordinary distance. Traveling on the land has
been repeatedly accomplished at the rate of sixty miles an hour; and
indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. But even at this
velocity it would take me no more than 161 days to reach the surface of
the moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe
that my average rate of traveling might possibly very much exceed that
of sixty miles an hour.
The next point to be regarded was one of far greater importance. We know
that at 18,000 feet above the surface of the earth we have passed
one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the [v]ponderable
body of air upon the globe. It is also calculated that at a height of
eighty miles the [v]rarefaction of air is so great that animal life can
be sustained in no manner. But I did not fail to perceive that these
calculations are founded on our experimental knowledge of the air in
the immediate vicinity of the earth, and that it is taken for granted
that animal life is incapable of [v]modification. I thought that no
matter how high we may ascend we cannot arrive at a limit beyond which
no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I argued, although it may
exist in a state of [v]infinite rarefaction.
Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little farther
hesitation. Granting that on my passage I should meet with atmosphere
essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, I thought that, by
means of my very ingenious apparatus for that purpose, I should readily
be able to condense it in sufficient quantity for breathing. This would
remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon.
I now turned to view the prospect beneath me. At twenty minutes past six
o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of 26,000 feet, or five miles
to a fraction. The outlook seemed unbounded. I beheld as much as a
sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe. The sea
appeared as unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the telescope,
I could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. I now began
to experience, at intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about
the ears, due to the rarefaction of the air. The cat seemed to suffer no
inconvenience whatever.
I was rising rapidly, and by seven o'clock the barometer indicated an
altitude of no less than nine miles and a half. I began to find great
difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too, was excessively painful;
and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, I at length
discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of
my ears. These symptoms were more than I had expected and occasioned me
some alarm. At this juncture, very imprudently and without
consideration, I threw out from the car three five-pound pieces of
ballast. The increased rate of ascent thus obtained carried me too
rapidly into a highly rarefied layer of atmosphere, and the result
nearly proved fatal to my expedition and myself. I was suddenly seized
with a spasm, which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when
this in a measure ceased, I could catch my breath only at long
intervals, and in a gasping manner--bleeding all the while copiously at
the nose and ears and even slightly at the eyes.
The cat mewed piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth,
staggered to and fro in the car as if under the influence of poison. I
now too late discovered the great rashness of which I had been guilty in
discharging my ballast, and my agitation was excessive. I expected
nothing less than death, and death in a few minutes. I lay down in the
bottom of the car and endeavored to collect my faculties. In this I so
far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood.
Having no lancet, I was obliged to open a vein in my arm with the blade
of a penknife. The blood had hardly commenced flowing when I experienced
a sensible relief, and by the time I had lost about half a basin-full
most of the worst symptoms were gone. The difficulty of breathing,
however, was diminished in a very slight degree, and I found that it
would be soon positively necessary to make use of my condenser.
By eight o'clock I had actually attained an elevation of seventeen miles
above the surface of the earth. Thus it seemed to me evident that my
rate of ascent was not only on the increase, but that the progress would
have been apparent to a slight extent even had I not discharged the
ballast which I did. The pains in my head and ears returned at intervals
and with violence, and I still continued to bleed occasionally at the
nose; but upon the whole I suffered much less than might have been
expected. I now unpacked the condensing apparatus and got it ready for
immediate use.
The view of the earth at this period of my ascension was beautiful
indeed. To the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I
could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which
every moment gained a deeper and deeper tint of blue. At a vast distance
to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of
Great Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a
small portion of the northern part of the continent of Africa. Of
individual edifices not a trace could be found, and the proudest cities
of mankind had utterly faded away from the surface of the earth.
At a quarter-past eight, being able no longer to draw breath without the
most intolerable pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car
the apparatus belonging to the condenser. I had prepared a very strong,
perfectly air-tight gum-elastic bag. In this bag, which was of
sufficient size, the entire car was in a manner placed. That is to say,
the bag was drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up its sides and so
on, up to the upper rim where the net-work is attached. Having pulled up
the bag and made a complete inclosure on all sides, I was shut in an
air-tight chamber.
In the sides of this covering had been inserted three circular panes of
thick but clear glass, through which I could see without difficulty
around me in every horizontal direction. In that portion of the cloth
forming the bottom was a fourth window corresponding with a small
aperture in the floor of the car itself. This enabled me to see straight
down, but I had been unable to fix a similar window above me and so I
could expect to see no objects directly overhead.
The condensing apparatus was connected with the outer air by a tube to
admit air at one end and by a valve at the bottom of the car to eject
foul air. By the time I had completed these arrangements and filled the
chamber with condensed air by means of the apparatus, it wanted only ten
minutes of nine o'clock. During the whole period of my being thus
employed, I endured the most terrible distress from difficulty of
respiration, and bitterly did I repent the foolhardiness of which I had
been guilty in putting off to the last moment a matter of so much
importance. But having at length accomplished it, I soon began to reap
the benefit of my invention. Once again I breathed with perfect freedom
and ease--and indeed why should I not? I was also agreeably surprised to
find myself, in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains which
had hitherto tormented me. A slight headache, accompanied by a sensation
of fulness about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all
of which I had now to complain.
At twenty minutes before nine o'clock, the mercury attained its limit, or
ran down, in the barometer. The instrument then indicated an altitude of
twenty-five miles, and I consequently surveyed at that time an extent of
the earth's area amounting to no less than one three-hundred-and-twentieth
part of the entire surface.
At half-past nine, I tried the experiment of throwing out a handful of
feathers through the valve. They did not float as I had expected, but
dropped down like a bullet and with the greatest velocity, being out of
sight in a very few seconds. It occurred to me that the atmosphere was
now far too rare to sustain even feathers; that they actually fell, as
they appeared to do, with great speed, and that I had been surprised by
the united velocities of their descent and my own rise.
At six o'clock P. M. , I perceived a great portion of the earth's visible
area to the eastward involved in thick shadow, which continued to
advance with great rapidity, until at five minutes before seven the
whole surface in sight was enveloped in the darkness of night. It was
not, however, until long after this time that the rays of the setting
sun ceased to illumine the balloon, and this fact, although, of course,
expected, did not fail to give me great pleasure. In the morning I
should behold the rising [v]luminary many hours before the citizens of
Rotterdam, in spite of their situation so much farther to the eastward,
and thus, day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, I should
enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and longer period. I now
resolved to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days by
twenty-four hours instead of by day and night.
At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie down for the rest of
the night; but here a difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it
may appear, had escaped my attention up to the very moment of which I
am now speaking. If I went to sleep, as I proposed, how could the air in
the chamber be renewed in the meanwhile? To breath it more than an hour
at the farthest would be impossible; or, even if this term could be
extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences might
ensue. This dilemma gave me no little anxiety; and it will hardly be
believed that, after the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon
this business in so serious a light as to give up all hope of
accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally make up my mind to the
necessity of a descent.
But this hesitation was only momentary. I reflected that man is the
slave of custom and that many things are deemed essential which are only
the results of habit. It was certain that I could not do without sleep;
but I might easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience from being
awakened at intervals of an hour during the whole period of my repose.
It would require but five minutes to renew the air, and the only
difficulty was to contrive a method of arousing myself at the proper
moment for so doing.
This question caused me no little trouble to solve. I at length hit upon
the following plan. My supply of water had been put on board in kegs of
five gallons each and ranged securely around the interior of the car. I
unfastened one of these and, taking two ropes, tied them tightly across
the rim of the wicker-work from one side to the other, placing them
about a foot apart and parallel, so as to form a kind of shelf, upon
which I placed the keg and steadied it. About eight inches below these
ropes I fastened another shelf made of thin plank, on which shelf, and
beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small pitcher was placed. I bored
a hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher and fitted in a plug of
soft wood, which I pushed in or pulled out, until, after a few
experiments, it arrived at that exact degree of tightness at which the
water, oozing from the hole and falling into the pitcher below, would
fill the latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. Having
arranged all this, the rest of the plan was simple. My bed was so
contrived upon the floor of the car as to bring my head, in lying down,
immediately below the mouth of the pitcher. It was evident that, at the
expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting full, would be forced to run
over and to run over at the mouth, which was somewhat lower than the
rim. It was also evident that the water, falling from a height, could
not do otherwise than fall on my face and awaken me even from the
soundest slumber in the world.
It was fully eleven by the time I had completed these arrangements, and
I at once betook myself to bed with full confidence in my invention. Nor
in this matter was I disappointed. Punctually every sixty minutes I was
aroused by my trusty clock, when, having emptied the pitcher into the
bung-hole of the keg and filled the chamber with condensed air, I
retired again to bed. These regular interruptions to my slumber caused
me less discomfort than I had anticipated; and when I finally arose for
the day, it was seven o'clock and the sun was high above the horizon.
I found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and the earth's
roundness had now become strikingly manifest. Below me in the ocean lay
a cluster of black specks, which undoubtedly were islands. Overhead, the
sky was of a jetty black, and the stars were brilliantly visible; indeed
they had been so constantly since the first day of ascent. Far away to
the northward I saw a thin, white and exceedingly brilliant line, or
streak, on the edge of the horizon, and I had no hesitation in supposing
it to be the southern disc of the ices of the Polar sea. My curiosity
was greatly excited, for I had hopes of passing on much farther to the
north, and might possibly, at some period, find myself directly above
the Pole itself. I now lamented that my great elevation would, in this
case, prevent me from taking as accurate a survey as I could wish.
My condensing apparatus continued in good order, and the balloon still
ascended without any perceptible change. The cold was intense, and
obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat. When darkness came over
the earth, I went to bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad
daylight all around me. The water-clock was punctual in its duty, and I
slept until next morning soundly, with the exception of the periodical
interruptions.
APRIL 4TH. I arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished at the
singular change which had taken place in the appearance of the sea. It
had lost, in a great measure, the deep tint of blue it had hitherto
worn, being now of a grayish-white and of a luster dazzling to the eye.
The curve of the ocean had become so evident that the entire mass of
water seemed to be tumbling headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and
I found myself listening on tiptoe for the echoes of the mighty
cataract. The islands were no longer visible; whether they had passed
down the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing elevation
had left them out of sight, it is impossible to say. I was inclined,
however, to the latter opinion. The rim of ice to the northward was
growing more and more apparent. The cold was by no means so intense.
APRIL 5TH. I beheld the singular sight of the sun rising while nearly
the whole visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in
darkness. In time, however, the light spread itself over all, and I
again saw the line of ice to the northward. It was now very distinct and
appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I was
evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity. I fancied I could
again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the
westward, but could not be certain.
APRIL 6TH. I was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate
distance, and an immense field of the same material stretching away off
to the horizon in the north. It was evident that if the balloon held its
present course, it would soon arrive above the Frozen Ocean, and I had
now little doubt of ultimately seeing the Pole. During the whole of the
day I continued to near the ice. Toward night the limits of my horizon
very suddenly and materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth's
form, which is round but flattened near the poles. When darkness at
length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over
the object of so much curiosity when I should have no opportunity of
observing it.
APRIL 7TH. I arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what
there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern Pole itself. It
was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my feet; but alas! I
had now ascended to so vast a distance that nothing could with accuracy
be made out. Indeed, I estimated that at four o'clock in the morning of
April the seventh the balloon had reached a height of not less than
7,254 miles above the surface of the sea. At all events I undoubtedly
beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere
lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself
formed the boundary line of my horizon.
APRIL 8TH. I found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a
material alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole area
partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some
portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view was
somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless I could
easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in
North America and was holding a course due south which would soon bring
me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartfelt satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken had filled me with
uneasiness, for it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all,
which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator.
APRIL 9TH. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the
color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon
kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine P. M.
over the Mexican Gulf.
APRIL 12TH. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction
of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very
greatest delight. Having reached, in its former course, about the
twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an
acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day,
keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's
path around the earth.
APRIL 13TH. Great decrease in the earth's apparent size. The moon could
not be seen at all, being nearly above me. I still continued in the
plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward.
APRIL 14TH. Extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. To-day I
became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the
direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it
comes nearest the earth. The moon was directly overhead, and
consequently hidden from my view. Great and long continued labor was
necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.
APRIL 16TH. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through each of
the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great delight, a very
small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides
beyond the huge bulk of the balloon.
cabin.
The pinions cracked and the motors ceased to pulsate. Immediately the
air became hot, as in a Turkish bath. Andrey entered the water-tight
conning tower, which was flooded with diluted, greenish light from the
ports provided for the purpose of giving a view of the surrounding
waters. He peered through the glass pane. Vague, blurred forms and
shadows gradually became visible in the twilight of the deep. One of the
shadows wavered and glided along the window, and the round, tragic eyes
of a fish glanced at Andrey. The fish disappeared in the depths below
the boat. Evidently the _Kate_ had not run aground, nor were there any
submerged reefs in that quarter. Andrey gave an order to raise the boat
several feet. Then numerous shadows leaped aside and scattered, and the
captain plainly saw a jumbled heap of ropes and ladders. It was obvious
that the _Kate_ had blundered into the remains of a sunken ship.
The halt was unfortunate--indeed, might prove fatal. The uniform motion
of the boat had been disturbed, the [v]orientation lost; the inevitable
small error made at the point of submerging must have increased in the
course beneath the waves. The _Kate_ had lost her way, and something
must be done. Andrey drummed nervously on the window-pane as he
thought. It was impossible to stay under water any longer, and yet to
rise to the surface meant to be seen and attacked by enemy warships.
Only in this way, however, was it possible to determine the boat's
position.
Andrey, giving an order for the boat to rise slowly, returned to his
observation point. The water gradually grew clearer. Suddenly a dark
ball moved down to meet the craft. "A mine! " flashed across Andrey's
mind, and, overcoming the torpor which had begun to oppress his brain,
he ordered the submarine to be swerved from her course. The ball moved
away, but another appeared on the right. There was another change of
direction. And now everywhere in the midst of the greenish twilight
cast-iron shells lay in wait. The _Kate_ was in the toils of a mine net!
Sea water, when viewed from a great height, is so transparent that large
fishes can even be seen in it. Owing to this fact, the _Kate_ was
discovered by two enemy [v]hydroplanes as she rose among the mines
toward the surface of the bay. The aircraft were seen, however, and the
boat dived again to a great depth.
The _Kate_ now blindly groped her way forward. The motors worked at
their top speed, and the body of the boat trembled. Hundreds of demons
called horsepowers fiercely turned the various wheels, pinions, and
shafts. The air was hot and stuffy; the men at the engine, stripped to
the waist, worked feverishly. Speed was necessary, for only oxygen
enough to sustain the crew for one hour remained in the lead cylinders.
Yakovlev still sat at the compass, his elbows on his knees and his hands
pressing his head. The men lounged in the cabins and corridors, their
faces livid with suffocation. Prince Bylopolsky remained leaning over
his [v]logarithmic tables, which had now become useless. From time to
time he wiped his face, as if removing a net of invisible cobwebs.
Finally he rose to his feet, took a few steps, and fainted dead away.
Giving the order to proceed at full speed, Andrey hoped to pass the mine
zone, even though some of his men succumbed for lack of air. Pale and
excited, his hair in disorder, and his coat unbuttoned, he was
everywhere at once, and his voice sustained the failing strength of the
half-suffocated crew. Seeing the prince stretched unconscious on a
berth, Andrey poured a few drops of brandy in his mouth and kissed his
wet, childlike forehead. In making too rapid a movement, lurid flames
danced before his eyes, and he bent back, striking his head against a
sharp angle of an engine. He felt no pain from the blow.
"Bad! " thought Andrey, and crawled over to the emergency oxygen
container. He opened the faucet and inhaled the fragrant stream of gas.
His head began to swim and a sweet fire ran through his veins. With an
effort he rose to his feet. The outlines of the objects around him were
strangely distinct, and the faces of the men imploringly turned to
him--some of them bearded and high-cheekboned, others tender and
childlike--seemed to him touchingly human. . . .
In the corridor Andrey came upon a man standing against the wall and
gulping the air like a fish. Seeing the commander, he made an effort to
cheer up and mumbled, "Beg pardon, sir; I'm a bit unwell. " The captain
leaned over and looked into his eyes, which a film of death was already
beginning to veil. Andrey, turning to the telephone tube, gave a command
to rise. The _Kate_ shook all over and dived upward. The ascent lasted
four minutes and a half, at the end of which time the boat stood still
and light fell on the screen of the periscope. The sailors crawled up to
the main hatchway and unscrewed it. Cold salt air rushed into the boat,
swelling the chests of the sufferers and turning their heads; the
sensation of free breathing was delicious after the suffocation they had
so long endured.
Andrey, leaping on the bridge, found the evening sun suspended above
vast masses of warm clouds and the sea quiet and peaceful. He began to
take observations with the [v]sextant, which shook in his trembling
hand. Presently a loud buzzing was heard in the sky, followed by the
measured crackling of a machine gun; from the hull of the boat came a
sharp rat-a-tat, as if some one was throwing dry peas on it. A
hydroplane was circling above the _Kate_.
Andrey bit his lip and kept on working; a squad of his men loaded their
rifles. The hydroplane swooped down almost to the surface of the sea,
then soared with a shrill "F-r-r-r" and flew right over the boat. A
clean-shaven pilot sat motionless, his hands on the wheel; below him an
observer gazed downward, waiting. Suddenly the latter lifted a bomb and
threw it into a tube. The missile flashed in the air and plunged into
the sea at the very side of the boat. One of the crew fired his rifle,
and the observer threw up his leather-covered arms with outspread
fingers. Slowly circling under the fire of the submarine crew, the
aircraft rose toward the clouds and sailed off.
Over the sky-ridge another aeroplane appeared, looking like a long thin
line. Meantime the _Kate_ picked her way with graceful ease across the
orange-colored waters as if cutting through molten glass. Andrey,
buttoning his coat, said with a grimace, "Well, Yakovlev, the mines are
behind us, but what are we going to do now? "
"This region is full of reefs and sandbanks," replied Yakovlev.
"That's just the trouble. I wouldn't risk sailing under the water. Wait
a moment. " He raised his hand.
A violent whizzing sound came from the west; Andrey ordered greater
speed. A [v]grenade hissed on the right, and a jet of water spurted up
from the quiet surface. The _Kate_ tacked sharply toward the purpling
horizon in the west, and behind, in her shadowy wake, another bomb burst
and blossomed out into a small cloud. The boat then turned east again,
but now in front of her, on both sides, everywhere, shells burst and
sputtered fire. The scouting hydroplane dashed over the submarine like a
bat; two pale faces looked down and disappeared. Then right above the
stern of the _Kate_ a grenade exploded and one of the sailors dropped
his rifle, clutched his face, toppled over the railing, and disappeared
beneath the water.
"All hands below! " cried Andrey; and, watching where the shells fell
thickest, he began to give his orders. The _Kate_ circled like a
run-down hare, while all along the darkening skyline the smoking stacks
of mine-layers and destroyers were visible as the enemy's ruthless ring
rapidly tightened about the submarine.
Having had her wireless mast shot off by a shell, the _Kate_ now dashed
toward the rocky shore, running awash. Six sparks shot up in the dark
and six steel-clad demons hissed above the boat. The long shadow of a
ship glided along the shore. The _Kate_ shook, and a sharp-nosed torpedo
detached itself from her hull and glided away under the water to meet
the [v]silhouette of the vessel. A moment passed, and a fluffy,
mountainous mass of fire and water rose from the spot where the stacks
of a mine-layer had projected shortly before. The mountain sank and the
silhouette disappeared. The _Kate_ entered a baylet among the rocks,
submerged, and lay on the sandy sea-bed.
Two weeks the submarine remained in the inlet, completely cut off from
the rest of the world. By day she hid in the deep, and only under the
cover of night did she rise to the surface to get a supply of air. The
greatest precautions were necessary, for there was little likelihood
that the enemy believed the submarine to be destroyed.
At the end of that time some action was inevitable, as the boat's
supplies had given out; for three days the crew had fed on fish which
one of the men had caught at great risk. Audrey decided to leave the bay
and make a supreme effort to run the enemy's cordon.
About daybreak, as the _Kate_ was nearing the surface of the sea, the
crew became aware of a tremendous muffled cannonade; and when the boat
emerged into a white fog, the whole coast shook and echoed with the roar
and crash of a sea battle. Broadsides and terrific explosions alternated
with the crackling of guns. It was as though a multitude of sea-devils
coughed and blew and roared at each other.
"Quick, sir," shouted Yakovlev, holding on to the railing; "we can break
through now! " His teeth rattled.
The preparations for the dash had been completed. A strong gale swept
away the fog and drove its torn masses over the sea, laying bare the
rocky shore. The _Kate_ dashed out of the bay into the open. The firing
was now heard behind and on the right; the road to the port was open at
last. The submarine rushed along, ripping in twain the frothing waves.
In this moment of exaltation, to return safely to base, simply to do
one's duty, seemed too little to these fearless men. The feeling that
possessed them was not enthusiasm but a greediness, a yearning for
destruction.
"We cannot go away like this," Yakovlev shouted in Audrey's ear; "turn
back or I will shoot myself! " The man was completely beside himself; his
pale face twisted convulsively.
Just then the sun arose, turning the rolling sea into a dull orange.
Near at hand invisible ships thundered against each other. Suddenly a
gray mountain-like shape emerged from the fog, enveloped in flame and
smoke. Above its turrets, stacks, and masts fluttered a flag bearing a
black eagle.
Mad with the thought that the opportunity had come at last, Andrey
rushed down the hatchway, knocking over Yakovlev on the way, and loaded
the torpedo tube. The _Kate_ submerged a little, and sailing awash,
headed straight for the enemy vessel.
The shadow of the hostile ship glided along the periscope screen, every
now and then wrapping itself into a cloud pierced with fiery needles of
shots. The _Kate_ fired a torpedo but missed her aim. Leaning over the
screen and biting his lips to bleeding, Andrey examined the tiny image
of the vessel, one of the mightiest of battleships. The distance between
the _Kate_ and the enemy vessel continued to decrease; the image of the
ship already occupied half of the periscope screen.
"Another torpedo! " shouted Andrey.
At that very instant a blow was struck the boat and the periscope screen
grew dark. Andrey ran out from the navigating compartment and shouted:
"The periscope is shot away! Full speed forward! "
The engineer seized the handle of a lever and asked, "Which way? "
"Forward! forward! "
Andrey went into the conning tower; straight in front of him foamy
eddies whirled furiously. The dark hull of a ship appeared, obscuring
the light.
"Stop! " shouted Andrey. "Fire another one! Full speed backward! " He
closed his eyes.
For a moment it seemed to him that the end had come. He was hurled by
the explosion of the torpedo into the corridor and dashed against the
wall. The outcries of the men were drowned by the muffled thud of the
inrushing water. The light went out; the _Kate_ began to rotate and
sink.
The boat did not stay long in the deep; freed from the weight of two
torpedoes, she slowly began to rise, stopped before reaching the
surface, and commenced to sink again as the water continued to leak into
her hull.
A sailor found Andrey in a narrow passage unconscious, though breathing
regularly. The man dressed the captain's wounds, but could not bring him
to his senses. Another sailor tried to revive Yakovlev, but soon saw
that that officer was dead. All the available hands toiled at the pumps,
while the engineer and his two assistants worked frantically at the
engine.
The _Kate_ was near the surface, but as the periscope and the indicator
had been destroyed, it was impossible to tell precisely where she was.
On the other hand, to unscrew the hatch and look out would subject the
boat to the risk of being flooded. Finally, the engineer reported that
it was necessary to replace the cylinder, but that this was difficult to
do because the supply of candles was giving out. Kuritzyn, a sailor who
had assumed command, ordered the men at the pumps to pump until they
dropped dead, if necessary, but to raise the boat at least one yard. The
men obeyed in grim silence. Presently the last candle went out. "It's
all over, boys," said some one, and the pumps stopped. The only sound
that now broke the silence was the monotonous splash of water leaking
down on the periscope screen.
"Follow me," said Kuritzyn hoarsely to two of the men. "Let us unscrew
the hatches. What's the use of fooling any longer? "
Feeling their way in the darkness, several men followed the leader into
the corridor and up the spiral staircase in the main hatchway. When they
reached the top, they grasped the bolts of the lid.
"Here's our finish," said one of the men.
Just then the sound of footsteps on the outside of the boat reached
their ears. Some one was walking on the _Kate's_ hull!
"Down to the ballast tanks! " Kuritzyn ordered. "When I fire, blow them
out. We are ordered not to surrender the boat. "
With his revolver between his teeth, he pressed the bolt. The lid
yielded; light and air rushed into the opening.
"Hey, who is there? " Kuritzyn shouted.
"Russians, Russians," replied a voice.
"Thank God! " said Kuritzyn in a tone of intense gratitude.
COUNT ALEXIS TOLSTOI.
=HELPS TO STUDY=
Tell of the preparations made for the submerging of the _Kate_.
Describe the scene within the vessel. What accident halted the
boat? Describe the events that followed. Where did the _Kate_ find
anchorage? Describe her exit from the bay. What flag was it that
bore a black eagle? What was the fate of the ship bearing that
flag?
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea--Jules Verne.
The Pilot--J. Fenimore Cooper.
A VOYAGE TO THE MOON
The moon, being the nearest to the earth of all the heavenly
bodies, has always occupied the imagination of men. Many fanciful
accounts have been written of voyages to the moon, of which the
following story by Edgar Allan Poe is among the best. So wonderful
has been the advance of science that it is conceivable that at some
distant time in the future the inhabitants of this world may
possibly be able to visit the beautiful body which lights the night
for us.
I
After a long and arduous devotion to the study of physics and astronomy,
I, Hans Pfaal of Rotterdam, at length determined to construct a balloon
of my own along original lines and to try a flight in it. Accordingly I
had made an enormous bag out of cambric muslin, varnished with
caoutchouc for protection against the weather. I procured all the
instruments needed for a prolonged ascent and finally prepared for the
inflation of the balloon. Herein lay my secret, my invention, the thing
in which my balloon differed from all the balloons that had gone before.
Out of a peculiar [v]metallic substance and a very common acid I was
able to manufacture a gas of a density about 37. 4 less than that of
hydrogen, and thus by far the lightest substance ever known. It would
serve to carry the balloon to heights greater than had been attained
before, for hydrogen is the gas usually used.
The hour for my experiment in ballooning finally arrived. I had chosen
the night as the best time for the ascension, because I should thereby
avoid annoyances caused by the curiosity of the ignorant and the idle.
It was the first of April. The night was dark; there was not a star to
be seen; and a drizzling rain, falling at intervals, made me very
uncomfortable. But my chief anxiety was concerning the balloon, which,
in spite of the varnish with which it was defended, began to grow rather
heavy with the moisture. I therefore set my assistants to working, and
in about four hours and a half I found the balloon sufficiently
inflated. I attached the car and put all my implements in it--a
telescope, a barometer, a thermometer, an [v]electrometer, a compass, a
magnetic needle, a seconds watch, a bell, and other things. I had
further procured a globe of glass, exhausted of air and carefully closed
with a stopper, not forgetting a special apparatus for condensing air, a
copious supply of water, and a large quantity of provisions, such as
[v]pemmican, in which much [v]nutriment is contained in comparatively
little bulk. I also secured a cat in the car.
It was now nearly daybreak, and I thought it high time to take my
departure. I immediately cut the single cord which held me to the earth,
and was pleased to find that I shot upward with [v]inconceivable
rapidity, carrying with all ease one hundred and seventy-five pounds of
leaden ballast and able to have carried as much more.
Scarcely, however, had I attained the height of fifty yards, when
roaring and rumbling up after me in the most [v]tumultuous and terrible
manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire and gravel and burning wood
and blazing metal that my very heart sunk within me and I fell down in
the car, trembling with terror. Some of my chemical materials had
exploded immediately beneath me almost at the moment of my leaving
earth. The balloon at first collapsed, then furiously expanded, then
whirled round and round with sickening [v]velocity, and finally, reeling
and staggering like a drunken man, hurled me over the rim of the car;
and in the moment of my fall I lost consciousness.
I had no knowledge of what had saved me. When I partially recovered the
sense of existence, I found the day breaking, the balloon at a
[v]prodigious height over a wilderness of ocean, and not a trace of land
to be discovered far and wide within the limits of the vast horizon. My
sensations, however, upon thus recovering, were by no means so
[v]replete with agony as might have been anticipated. Indeed, there was
much of madness in the calm survey which I began to take of my
situation. I drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other,
and wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of
the veins and the horrible blackness of the finger nails. I afterward
carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly and feeling it with
minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying myself that it was
not, as I had more than half suspected, larger than the balloon. It now
occurred to me that I suffered great uneasiness in the joint of my left
ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to glimmer through
my mind. I began to understand that my foot had caught in a rope and
that I was hanging downward outside the car. But strange to say! I was
neither astonished nor horror-stricken. If I felt any emotion at all, it
was a sort of chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness I was about to
display in getting myself out of this [v]dilemma.
With great caution and deliberation, I put my hands behind my back and
unfastened the large iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my
pantaloons. This buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty,
turned with great difficulty on their axis. I brought them, however,
after some trouble, at right angles to the body of the buckle and was
glad to find them remain firm in that position. Holding with my teeth
the instrument thus obtained, I proceeded to untie the knot of my
cravat; it was at length accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then
made fast the buckle, and the other end I tied, for greater security,
tightly around my wrist. Drawing now my body upward, with a prodigious
exertion of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in
throwing the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had
anticipated, in the circular rim of the wicker-work.
My body was now inclined toward the side of the car at an angle of about
forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood that I was therefore
only forty-five degrees below the [v]perpendicular. So far from it, I
still lay nearly level with the plane of the horizon, for the change of
position which I had acquired had forced the bottom of the car
considerably outward from my position, which was accordingly one of the
most extreme peril. It should be remembered, however, that when I fell
from the car, if I had fallen with my face turned toward the balloon,
instead of turned outwardly from it as it actually was--or if, in the
second place, the cord by which I was suspended had chanced to hang over
the upper edge instead of through a crevice near the bottom of the
car--in either of these cases, I should have been unable to accomplish
even as much as I had now accomplished. I had therefore every reason to
be grateful, although, in point of fact, I was still too stupid to be
anything at all, and hung for perhaps a quarter of an hour in that
extraordinary manner, without making the slightest farther exertion, and
in a singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment.
This feeling, however, did not fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto
succeeded horror and dismay, and a sense of utter helplessness and ruin.
In fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head and
throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with delirium, had
now begun to retire within its proper channels, and the distinctness
which was thus added to my perception of the danger merely served to
deprive me of the self-possession and courage to encounter it. But this
weakness was, luckily for me, of no very great duration. In good time
came to my rescue the spirit of despair, and with frantic cries and
struggles, I jerked my body upward, till, at length, clutching with a
vice-like grip the long-desired rim, I writhed my person over it and
fell headlong and shuddering within the car.
When I had recovered from the weakness caused by being so long in that
position and the horror from which I had suffered, I found that all my
implements were in place and that neither ballast nor provisions had
been lost.
It is now high time that I should explain the object of my voyage. I had
been harassed for long by poverty and creditors. In this state of mind,
wishing to live and yet wearied with life, my deep studies in astronomy
opened a resource to my imagination. I determined to depart, yet
live--to leave the world, yet continue to exist--in short, to be plain,
I resolved, let come what would, to force a passage, if possible, to the
moon.
This was not so mad as it seems. The moon's actual distance from the
earth was the first thing to be attended to. The mean or average
interval between the centers of the two planets is only about 237,000
miles. But at certain times the moon and earth are much nearer than at
others, and if I could contrive to meet the moon at the moment when it
was nearest earth, the above-mentioned distance would be materially
lessened. But even taking the average distance and deducting the
[v]radius of the earth and the moon, the actual interval to be traversed
under average circumstances would be 231,920 miles. Now this, I
reflected, was no very extraordinary distance. Traveling on the land has
been repeatedly accomplished at the rate of sixty miles an hour; and
indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. But even at this
velocity it would take me no more than 161 days to reach the surface of
the moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe
that my average rate of traveling might possibly very much exceed that
of sixty miles an hour.
The next point to be regarded was one of far greater importance. We know
that at 18,000 feet above the surface of the earth we have passed
one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the [v]ponderable
body of air upon the globe. It is also calculated that at a height of
eighty miles the [v]rarefaction of air is so great that animal life can
be sustained in no manner. But I did not fail to perceive that these
calculations are founded on our experimental knowledge of the air in
the immediate vicinity of the earth, and that it is taken for granted
that animal life is incapable of [v]modification. I thought that no
matter how high we may ascend we cannot arrive at a limit beyond which
no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I argued, although it may
exist in a state of [v]infinite rarefaction.
Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little farther
hesitation. Granting that on my passage I should meet with atmosphere
essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, I thought that, by
means of my very ingenious apparatus for that purpose, I should readily
be able to condense it in sufficient quantity for breathing. This would
remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon.
I now turned to view the prospect beneath me. At twenty minutes past six
o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of 26,000 feet, or five miles
to a fraction. The outlook seemed unbounded. I beheld as much as a
sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe. The sea
appeared as unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the telescope,
I could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. I now began
to experience, at intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about
the ears, due to the rarefaction of the air. The cat seemed to suffer no
inconvenience whatever.
I was rising rapidly, and by seven o'clock the barometer indicated an
altitude of no less than nine miles and a half. I began to find great
difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too, was excessively painful;
and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, I at length
discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of
my ears. These symptoms were more than I had expected and occasioned me
some alarm. At this juncture, very imprudently and without
consideration, I threw out from the car three five-pound pieces of
ballast. The increased rate of ascent thus obtained carried me too
rapidly into a highly rarefied layer of atmosphere, and the result
nearly proved fatal to my expedition and myself. I was suddenly seized
with a spasm, which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when
this in a measure ceased, I could catch my breath only at long
intervals, and in a gasping manner--bleeding all the while copiously at
the nose and ears and even slightly at the eyes.
The cat mewed piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth,
staggered to and fro in the car as if under the influence of poison. I
now too late discovered the great rashness of which I had been guilty in
discharging my ballast, and my agitation was excessive. I expected
nothing less than death, and death in a few minutes. I lay down in the
bottom of the car and endeavored to collect my faculties. In this I so
far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood.
Having no lancet, I was obliged to open a vein in my arm with the blade
of a penknife. The blood had hardly commenced flowing when I experienced
a sensible relief, and by the time I had lost about half a basin-full
most of the worst symptoms were gone. The difficulty of breathing,
however, was diminished in a very slight degree, and I found that it
would be soon positively necessary to make use of my condenser.
By eight o'clock I had actually attained an elevation of seventeen miles
above the surface of the earth. Thus it seemed to me evident that my
rate of ascent was not only on the increase, but that the progress would
have been apparent to a slight extent even had I not discharged the
ballast which I did. The pains in my head and ears returned at intervals
and with violence, and I still continued to bleed occasionally at the
nose; but upon the whole I suffered much less than might have been
expected. I now unpacked the condensing apparatus and got it ready for
immediate use.
The view of the earth at this period of my ascension was beautiful
indeed. To the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I
could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which
every moment gained a deeper and deeper tint of blue. At a vast distance
to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of
Great Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a
small portion of the northern part of the continent of Africa. Of
individual edifices not a trace could be found, and the proudest cities
of mankind had utterly faded away from the surface of the earth.
At a quarter-past eight, being able no longer to draw breath without the
most intolerable pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car
the apparatus belonging to the condenser. I had prepared a very strong,
perfectly air-tight gum-elastic bag. In this bag, which was of
sufficient size, the entire car was in a manner placed. That is to say,
the bag was drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up its sides and so
on, up to the upper rim where the net-work is attached. Having pulled up
the bag and made a complete inclosure on all sides, I was shut in an
air-tight chamber.
In the sides of this covering had been inserted three circular panes of
thick but clear glass, through which I could see without difficulty
around me in every horizontal direction. In that portion of the cloth
forming the bottom was a fourth window corresponding with a small
aperture in the floor of the car itself. This enabled me to see straight
down, but I had been unable to fix a similar window above me and so I
could expect to see no objects directly overhead.
The condensing apparatus was connected with the outer air by a tube to
admit air at one end and by a valve at the bottom of the car to eject
foul air. By the time I had completed these arrangements and filled the
chamber with condensed air by means of the apparatus, it wanted only ten
minutes of nine o'clock. During the whole period of my being thus
employed, I endured the most terrible distress from difficulty of
respiration, and bitterly did I repent the foolhardiness of which I had
been guilty in putting off to the last moment a matter of so much
importance. But having at length accomplished it, I soon began to reap
the benefit of my invention. Once again I breathed with perfect freedom
and ease--and indeed why should I not? I was also agreeably surprised to
find myself, in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains which
had hitherto tormented me. A slight headache, accompanied by a sensation
of fulness about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly all
of which I had now to complain.
At twenty minutes before nine o'clock, the mercury attained its limit, or
ran down, in the barometer. The instrument then indicated an altitude of
twenty-five miles, and I consequently surveyed at that time an extent of
the earth's area amounting to no less than one three-hundred-and-twentieth
part of the entire surface.
At half-past nine, I tried the experiment of throwing out a handful of
feathers through the valve. They did not float as I had expected, but
dropped down like a bullet and with the greatest velocity, being out of
sight in a very few seconds. It occurred to me that the atmosphere was
now far too rare to sustain even feathers; that they actually fell, as
they appeared to do, with great speed, and that I had been surprised by
the united velocities of their descent and my own rise.
At six o'clock P. M. , I perceived a great portion of the earth's visible
area to the eastward involved in thick shadow, which continued to
advance with great rapidity, until at five minutes before seven the
whole surface in sight was enveloped in the darkness of night. It was
not, however, until long after this time that the rays of the setting
sun ceased to illumine the balloon, and this fact, although, of course,
expected, did not fail to give me great pleasure. In the morning I
should behold the rising [v]luminary many hours before the citizens of
Rotterdam, in spite of their situation so much farther to the eastward,
and thus, day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, I should
enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and longer period. I now
resolved to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days by
twenty-four hours instead of by day and night.
At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie down for the rest of
the night; but here a difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it
may appear, had escaped my attention up to the very moment of which I
am now speaking. If I went to sleep, as I proposed, how could the air in
the chamber be renewed in the meanwhile? To breath it more than an hour
at the farthest would be impossible; or, even if this term could be
extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences might
ensue. This dilemma gave me no little anxiety; and it will hardly be
believed that, after the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon
this business in so serious a light as to give up all hope of
accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally make up my mind to the
necessity of a descent.
But this hesitation was only momentary. I reflected that man is the
slave of custom and that many things are deemed essential which are only
the results of habit. It was certain that I could not do without sleep;
but I might easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience from being
awakened at intervals of an hour during the whole period of my repose.
It would require but five minutes to renew the air, and the only
difficulty was to contrive a method of arousing myself at the proper
moment for so doing.
This question caused me no little trouble to solve. I at length hit upon
the following plan. My supply of water had been put on board in kegs of
five gallons each and ranged securely around the interior of the car. I
unfastened one of these and, taking two ropes, tied them tightly across
the rim of the wicker-work from one side to the other, placing them
about a foot apart and parallel, so as to form a kind of shelf, upon
which I placed the keg and steadied it. About eight inches below these
ropes I fastened another shelf made of thin plank, on which shelf, and
beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small pitcher was placed. I bored
a hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher and fitted in a plug of
soft wood, which I pushed in or pulled out, until, after a few
experiments, it arrived at that exact degree of tightness at which the
water, oozing from the hole and falling into the pitcher below, would
fill the latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. Having
arranged all this, the rest of the plan was simple. My bed was so
contrived upon the floor of the car as to bring my head, in lying down,
immediately below the mouth of the pitcher. It was evident that, at the
expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting full, would be forced to run
over and to run over at the mouth, which was somewhat lower than the
rim. It was also evident that the water, falling from a height, could
not do otherwise than fall on my face and awaken me even from the
soundest slumber in the world.
It was fully eleven by the time I had completed these arrangements, and
I at once betook myself to bed with full confidence in my invention. Nor
in this matter was I disappointed. Punctually every sixty minutes I was
aroused by my trusty clock, when, having emptied the pitcher into the
bung-hole of the keg and filled the chamber with condensed air, I
retired again to bed. These regular interruptions to my slumber caused
me less discomfort than I had anticipated; and when I finally arose for
the day, it was seven o'clock and the sun was high above the horizon.
I found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and the earth's
roundness had now become strikingly manifest. Below me in the ocean lay
a cluster of black specks, which undoubtedly were islands. Overhead, the
sky was of a jetty black, and the stars were brilliantly visible; indeed
they had been so constantly since the first day of ascent. Far away to
the northward I saw a thin, white and exceedingly brilliant line, or
streak, on the edge of the horizon, and I had no hesitation in supposing
it to be the southern disc of the ices of the Polar sea. My curiosity
was greatly excited, for I had hopes of passing on much farther to the
north, and might possibly, at some period, find myself directly above
the Pole itself. I now lamented that my great elevation would, in this
case, prevent me from taking as accurate a survey as I could wish.
My condensing apparatus continued in good order, and the balloon still
ascended without any perceptible change. The cold was intense, and
obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat. When darkness came over
the earth, I went to bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad
daylight all around me. The water-clock was punctual in its duty, and I
slept until next morning soundly, with the exception of the periodical
interruptions.
APRIL 4TH. I arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished at the
singular change which had taken place in the appearance of the sea. It
had lost, in a great measure, the deep tint of blue it had hitherto
worn, being now of a grayish-white and of a luster dazzling to the eye.
The curve of the ocean had become so evident that the entire mass of
water seemed to be tumbling headlong over the abyss of the horizon, and
I found myself listening on tiptoe for the echoes of the mighty
cataract. The islands were no longer visible; whether they had passed
down the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing elevation
had left them out of sight, it is impossible to say. I was inclined,
however, to the latter opinion. The rim of ice to the northward was
growing more and more apparent. The cold was by no means so intense.
APRIL 5TH. I beheld the singular sight of the sun rising while nearly
the whole visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in
darkness. In time, however, the light spread itself over all, and I
again saw the line of ice to the northward. It was now very distinct and
appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I was
evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity. I fancied I could
again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the
westward, but could not be certain.
APRIL 6TH. I was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate
distance, and an immense field of the same material stretching away off
to the horizon in the north. It was evident that if the balloon held its
present course, it would soon arrive above the Frozen Ocean, and I had
now little doubt of ultimately seeing the Pole. During the whole of the
day I continued to near the ice. Toward night the limits of my horizon
very suddenly and materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth's
form, which is round but flattened near the poles. When darkness at
length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over
the object of so much curiosity when I should have no opportunity of
observing it.
APRIL 7TH. I arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what
there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern Pole itself. It
was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my feet; but alas! I
had now ascended to so vast a distance that nothing could with accuracy
be made out. Indeed, I estimated that at four o'clock in the morning of
April the seventh the balloon had reached a height of not less than
7,254 miles above the surface of the sea. At all events I undoubtedly
beheld the whole of the earth's diameter; the entire northern hemisphere
lay beneath me like a chart, and the great circle of the equator itself
formed the boundary line of my horizon.
APRIL 8TH. I found a sensible diminution in the earth's size, besides a
material alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole area
partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow, and in some
portions had acquired a brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view was
somewhat impeded by clouds near the earth, but nevertheless I could
easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the great lakes in
North America and was holding a course due south which would soon bring
me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to give me the most
heartfelt satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken had filled me with
uneasiness, for it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
there would have been no possibility of my arriving at the moon at all,
which revolves around the earth in the plane of the equator.
APRIL 9TH. To-day the earth's diameter was greatly diminished, and the
color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon
kept steadily on her course to the southward, and arrived at nine P. M.
over the Mexican Gulf.
APRIL 12TH. A singular alteration took place in regard to the direction
of the balloon, and, although fully anticipated, afforded me the very
greatest delight. Having reached, in its former course, about the
twentieth parallel of southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an
acute angle to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day,
keeping nearly, if not altogether, in the exact plane of the moon's
path around the earth.
APRIL 13TH. Great decrease in the earth's apparent size. The moon could
not be seen at all, being nearly above me. I still continued in the
plane of the moon's path, but made little progress eastward.
APRIL 14TH. Extremely rapid decrease in the size of the earth. To-day I
became strongly impressed with the idea that the balloon was holding the
direct course which would bring it immediately to the moon where it
comes nearest the earth. The moon was directly overhead, and
consequently hidden from my view. Great and long continued labor was
necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.
APRIL 16TH. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through each of
the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great delight, a very
small portion of the moon's disk protruding, as it were, on all sides
beyond the huge bulk of the balloon.
