f 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,