This feat, of very rare occurrence, was accomplished in September, 1838,
when Mr. Hampton ascended with a parachute attached to a gas balloon,
from Cheltenham, to the height of 9000 feet. At this altitude, he cut
the connecting-cord, when the balloon rose for some hundred feet, and
burst; Mr. Hampton safely descending in the parachute, within thirteen
minutes; the collapsed balloon having reached the earth before him.
------------------
"FOSSIL RAIN."
In 1838, there was discovered at Liverpool, the impression of a fossil
shower of rain upon sandstone. Dr. Buckland observes of the
phenomenon:--"It could not be mistaken for ripple of the water, that was
common enough: it had all the small-pox character, the pitted
appearance, which a heavy shower of rain would leave, and which would be
covered up by the next tide, and so preserved to future generations."
------------------