take place.

"There, we are going into the clouds now, and they will not trouble
any more about us."

"I thought that we were going to have wind," Ralph said. "The
barometer at the hotel had fallen a good deal; and the clouds,
before we started, looked like it but, now we are once up here, we
do not seem to move."

In another two minutes, they passed through the layer of clouds,
and the sun shone brightly upon them. They looked down on a sea of
white mist, without a break.

"There," Ralph continued, "we are entirely becalmed. These clouds
below do not move, nor do we."

"You cannot tell that," Monsieur Teclier said. "We go in the same
direction, and at the same speed, as the clouds. It is just as if
you were in a boat, at night, upon a rapid stream. If you could see
no banks, or other stationary objects, you might believe yourself
to be standing still; while you were being drifted forward, at the
rate of twenty miles an hour. We may be traveling, now, forty or
fifty miles an hour; and as I agree with you, as to the look of the
clouds before starting, I believe that we are doing so--or, at any
rate, that we are traveling fast--but in what direction, or at what
rate, I have no means, whatever, of knowing.

"Even if we found that we moved, relatively to the clouds below us,
that would only show that this upper current was somewhat different
from that below."

"But how are we to find out about it?" Percy asked.

"We must keep a sharp lookout for rifts in the clouds. If we could
get a peep of the earth, only for a minute, it would be sufficient
to tell us the direction and, to some extent, the speed at which we
are going."

The boys, in vain, hung over the side. The sea of clouds beneath
them changed, and swelled, and rolled its masses of vapor over each
other; as if a contest of some gigantic reptiles were going on with
them.

"There must be a great deal of wind, to account for these rapid
changes of form," Percy said, after a long silence. "Suppose you
see nothing of the earth? At what time will you begin to descend?"

"In five hours from the time of starting, at twenty-five miles an
hour--supposing that the wind holds north--we should fall south of
the Loire, somewhere between Orleans and Bourges. At eleven
o'clock, then, I will let out gas; and go down below the clouds, to
see whereabouts we are. If we cannot recognize the country, or see
any river which may guide us, we shall at least see our direction