Page:Travels in the Air, Glaisher, 2nd ed.djvu/18

x unmoved while its fellows radiate fan-like on either side during the bird's flight. On receiving these minute despatches they were submitted to the microscope, enlarged, copied, and forwarded to their destination.

Some of the pigeons returned on the day of departure, some after two or three days, and others after long intervals. Several returned, injured by birds of prey; a few were wounded by shots, for the Germans were as anxious to prevent the pigeons returning to Paris, as they were to stop the balloons leaving it. A great many of the pigeons were never heard of. One bird which left Paris on the 12th of October from the Orleans Station, by the balloon Washington, did not return till the 5th of December. The balloon itself took a northerly direction, and crossed the Prussian outposts in the midst of a well-sustained fire. The projectiles reached them at 2,500 and 3,000 feet, and the travellers did not feel secure until they had gained a height of 3,500 feet. They met with the same reception at Chantilly, Senlis, Compiègne, and Noyon. The enemy's fire ceased at some distance from Ham. Towards half-past eleven the balloon descended at Carrières, near Cambrai, in the midst of a violent gale, and the passengers were much hurt. The tables on pages xvi. to xx., containing the statistics and particulars of the departures of all the balloons that left Paris during the siege, their size, &c, have been most kindly furnished me by M. Jules Godard.

After the 20th of January MM. Godard removed from the Orleans to the Eastern Railway Station, in consequence of the works at the latter place having been damaged by Prussian shells, and one of the balloons in course of construction injured. An examination of the tables will show that after November 21 the ascents were at night. This change was made with the view of avoiding the fire of the besiegers. It was not, however, foreseen that the air is much calmer by night than by day, and that consequently the balloon would make but little progress at night; unfortunately, too, it was a rule established in Paris that no light of any kind should be used in a balloon—not even a Davy lamp—for fear of an explosion. It was therefore impossible to read the barometer; and in addition to the perils of these nocturnal ascents, the voyagers had no idea of their rate of travelling or their