Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/244

 of circular form, and fifteen feet in diameter, of osier, strengthened by a light iron covering, and fastened to the lower part by elastic springs, with a view to break the force of concussion. Its weight, including the net, did not exceed 280 pounds.

The doctor caused to be made also four chests of sheetiron about one-eighth of an inch thick. These were joined together by tubes furnished with taps. He added a coil about two inches wide, which terminated in two straight branches of unequal lengths, of which the greater was twenty-five feet high, and the shorter fifteen feet only. The chests were fitted into the car so as to occupy the least ossible space. The large tap, not easily fitted, was packed separately, as well as a large galvanic battery. This apparatus had been so ingeniously contrived that it only weighed 700 pounds, and contained as much as twenty-five gallons of water in one case alone.

The instruments prepared for the journey were two barometers, two thermometers, two compasses, a sextant, two chronometers, an artificial horizon, and an instrument to take the levels of distant and inaccessible objects. He had access to the Greenwich Observatory. He, however, did not propose to make any experiments in physics, he wished merely to become acquainted with his intended route, and to determine the position of the principal rivers, mountains, and towns.

He provided three grapnels of well-tested iron, also a silken ladder, tough and tight, about fifty feet in length.

He also estimated the weight of his provisions; they consisted of tea, coffee, biscuits, salt meat, and pemmican, a preparation which, in a very small compass, contains a great deal of nourishment. Besides a reserve of brandy, he stowed away two tanks of water,

The consumption of these viands would, by degrees, diminish the weight of the balloon. For it is very necessary to know that in the air a balloon is sensible of the least difference of weight. An almost inappreciable loss is sufficient to make a considerable difference in displacement.

The doctor had not forgotten a tent, which could cover up part of the car; neither rugs, which composed all their bed-clothes during the journey; nor the rifles and ammunition.