"Hans Phaall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

possibility, it was very certain that, at all events, from the 237,000
miles I would have to deduct the radius of the earth, say 4,000, and
the radius of the moon, say 1080, in all 5,080, leaving an actual
interval to be traversed, under average circumstances, of 231,920
miles. Now this, I reflected, was no very extraordinary distance.
Travelling on land has been repeatedly accomplished at the rate of
thirty miles per hour, and indeed a much greater speed may be
anticipated. But even at this velocity, it would take me no more
than 322 days to reach the surface of the moon. There were, however,
many particulars inducing me to believe that my average rate of
travelling might possibly very much exceed that of thirty miles per
hour, and, as these considerations did not fail to make a deep
impression upon my mind, I will mention them more fully hereafter.
The next point to be regarded was a matter of far greater
importance. From indications afforded by the barometer, we find
that, in ascensions from the surface of the earth we have, at the
height of 1,000 feet, left below us about one-thirtieth of the
entire mass of atmospheric air, that at 10,600 we have ascended
through nearly one-third; and that at 18,000, which is not far from
the elevation of Cotopaxi, we have surmounted one-half the material,
or, at all events, one-half the ponderable, body of air incumbent upon
our globe. It is also calculated that at an altitude not exceeding the
hundredth part of the earth's diameter- that is, not exceeding eighty
miles- the rarefaction would be so excessive that animal life could
in no manner be sustained, and, moreover, that the most delicate means
we possess of ascertaining the presence of the atmosphere would be
inadequate to assure us of its existence. But I did not fail to
perceive that these latter calculations are founded altogether on
our experimental knowledge of the properties of air, and the
mechanical laws regulating its dilation and compression, in what may
be called, comparatively speaking, the immediate vicinity of the earth
itself; and, at the same time, it is taken for granted that animal
life is and must be essentially incapable of modification at any given
unattainable distance from the surface. Now, all such reasoning and
from such data must, of course, be simply analogical. The greatest
height ever reached by man was that of 25,000 feet, attained in the
aeronautic expedition of Messieurs Gay-Lussac and Biot. This is a
moderate altitude, even when compared with the eighty miles in
question; and I could not help thinking that the subject admitted room
for doubt and great latitude for speculation.
But, in point of fact, an ascension being made to any given
altitude, the ponderable quantity of air surmounted in any farther
ascension is by no means in proportion to the additional height
ascended (as may be plainly seen from what has been stated before),
but in a ratio constantly decreasing. It is therefore evident that,
ascend as high as we may, we cannot, literally speaking, arrive at a
limit beyond which no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I
argued; although it may exist in a state of infinite rarefaction.
On the other hand, I was aware that arguments have not been
wanting to prove the existence of a real and definite limit to the