My Life and Balloon Experiences. By Charles Coxwell. (W. H.
Allen and Co.)—Mr. Coxwell was born, he tells us, in 1819; he witnessed a balloon ascent (by Mr. C. Green) in 1828, but it was not till 1845 that, after many disappointments, he made an aerial voyage himself. Ile has many things to tell of his own proceedings, and he has watched with the attention of an expert the proceedings of others. Very curious stories there are among them, a mixture of comedy with not unfrequent tragedy. One of Mr. Coxwell's greatest risks was run in an early ascent (1847), when he went up at night on the eve of a thunderstorm. A rent of sixteen feet was made in the balloon (by not opening the valve soon enough, Mr. Coxwell thinks). They went down at a fearful rate. As it is graphically put, the "gaslit Metropolis appeared to come up towards us." The balloon caught in some scaffold poles, and the force of the collision was broken. Albert Smith was one of the party. The next night, a gentleman went up, and won thereby a bet of 2100. At this time Mr. Coswell was by profession a dentist. Soon afterwards he took regularly to aeronautics. On the whole, he has been the most success- ful professor of the art. This record of his life is, we need not say, well worth reading.
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