ting on that the data required by meteorologists are not
sufficiently supplied by the readings of instruments placed on or near
the ground, or by the set of the wind as determined by a vane planted
on the top of a pole or roof of a building. The chief factors in our
meteorology are rather those broader and deeper conditions which obtain
in higher regions necessarily beyond our ken, until those regions are
duly and diligently explored.

Mr. Glaisher's estimate of the utility of the balloon as an instrument
of research, formed at the conclusion of his aeronautical labours, has
a special value and significance. Speaking with all the weight attaching
to so trained and eminent an observer, he declares, "The balloon,
considered as an instrument for vertical exploration, presents itself to
us under a variety of aspects, each of which is fertile in suggestions.
Regarding the atmosphere as the great laboratory of changes which
contain the germ of future dis discoveries, to belong respectively, as
they unfold, to the chemist and meteorologist, the physical relation
to animal life of different heights, the form of death which at certain
elevations waits to accomplish its destruction, the effect of diminished
pressure upon individuals similarly placed, the comparison of mountain
ascents with the experiences of aeronauts, are some of the questions
which suggest themselves and faintly indicate enquiries which naturally
ally themselves to the course of balloon experiments. Sufficiently
varied and important, they will be seen to rank the balloon as a
valuable aid to the uses of philosophy, and rescue it from the
impending degradation of continuing a toy fit only to be exhibited or to
administer to the pleasures of the curious and lovers of adventure."

The words of the same authority as to the possible practical development
of the balloon as an aerial machine should likewise be quoted, and will
appear almost prophetic. "In England the subject of aero-station has
made but little progress, and no valuable invention has arisen to
facilitate travelling in the air. In all my ascents I used the balloon
as I found it. The desire which influenced me was to ascend to the
higher regions and travel by its means in furtherance of a better
knowledge of atmospheric phenomena. Neither its management nor its
improvement formed a part of my plan. I soon found that balloon
travelling was at the mercy of the wind, and I saw no probability of any
method