CHAPTER XII. HENRY COXWELL AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. Mention
should be made in these pages of a night sail of a hundred
miles, boldly carried out in 1849 by M. Arban, which took the
voyager from Marseilles to Turin fairly over the Alps. The main
summit was reached at 11 p.m., when the "snow, cascades, and
rivers were all sparkling under the moon, and the ravines and
rocks produced masses of darkness which served as shadows to the
gigantic picture." Arban was at one time on a level with the
highest point of Mont Blanc, the top of which, standing out well
above the clouds, resembled "an immense block of crystal
sparkling with a thousand fires." In London, in the year of the
Great Exhibition, and while the building was still standing in
Hyde Park, there occurred a balloon incident small in itself,
but sufficient to cause much sensation at the crowded spot where
it took place. The ascent was made from the Hippodrome by Mr.
and Mrs. Graham in very boisterous weather, and, on being
liberated, the balloon seems to hav