feet Tissandier wrote in his notes: "My hands are freezing. I am well. We are all right. Haze on horizon with small rounded cirrus. We are rising. CrocÈ pants. We breathe oxygen. Sivel shuts his eyes, CrocÈ does the same." Five minutes later: "Sivel throws out ballast, temperature -11∞ Cent., barometer 300 millimeters." After this, Tissandier became so weak that he could not turn his head to look at his companions. He tried to seize the oxygen tube, but was unable to move his arms. His mind was clear, and he saw the barometer sink below 280 millimeters, indicating a height of 27,000 feet. Then he fainted. After a half-hour of unconsciousness he revived and wrote: "We are falling, temperature -8∞, barometer 315 millimeters. I discharge ballast. CrocÈ and Sivel unconscious in bottom of basket. We fall rapidly." Again he fell into a stupor, from which he was roused by CrocÈ shaking his arm, saying, "Throw out ballast!" which he did, together with the pump, wraps, etc. What happened after this is unknown, but probably the balloon, thus lightened and the gas in it being warm, rose again nearly as high as before. When Tissandier came to his senses the balloon was falling with frightful speed, and in the bottom of the basket, which was oscillating violently from side to side, were crouched his two companions with black faces and bloody mouths. The shock of striking the ground was terrific, but the anchor held, and the balloon soon emptied. From the barometric data it appears probable that the _Zenith_ attained twice a height of about 28,000 feet, and that asphyxiation from the long deprivation of sufficient oxygen killed the two companions of Tissandier and nearly proved fatal to him. This disaster discouraged further attempts to reach high altitudes, and with the exception of the ascent to 23,000 feet in France by MM. Jovis and Mallet, no more were made until the past decade. The results of the meteorological observations were seen to be strangely discordant; for example, the temperature of 40∞ below zero, observed by Barral and Bixio at a height of 23,000 feet, and 80∞ above zero, noted by the American aeronaut Wise, at 6000 feet. The prophecy "that the balloon-basket would be the cradle of the young science of meteorology" seemed unlikely to be realized, but, nevertheless, observations in balloons continued to be made in France, Italy, and Russia. In the United States a series of balloon ascents was conducted by the Signal Service, which then included the Weather Bureau, and the height of 15,500 feet reached by Professor Hazen in 1887 is probably the greatest at which observations in the free air have been made in America.