This
picture shows the manner in which we would come down in a parachute.
[Illustration]
This man's balloon has probably burst, for we see it is tumbling down,
and it will no doubt reach the ground before him.
When all is ready and we are properly seated in the car, with our
instruments and extra clothes and ballast, and some provisions, we
will give the word to "let her go."
There!
Did you see that?
The earth dropped right down. And it is dropping, but more slowly,
yet.
That is the sensation persons generally experience when they first go
up in a balloon. Not being used to rising in the air, they think at
first that they are stationary, and that the earth and all the people
and houses on it are falling below them.
Now, then, we are off! Look down and see how everything gets smaller,
and smaller, and smaller. As we pass over a river, we can look down to
its very bottom; and if we were not so high we could see the fishes
swimming about. The houses soon begin to look like toy-cottages, and
the trees like bushes, and the creeks and rivers like silvery bands.
The people now appear as black spots; we can just see some of them
moving about; but if they were to shout very loud we might hear them,
for sound travels upward to a great distance.
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