Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-10-12
TflE RAFIsNlAalss JOURNAL.
THE pER1Us OF BALLoov1Ne.

On Thursday. Sept. I'D, Mr.. La Mountain
and Mr.. John a. Haddock ascended in bal
loon from Watertown, N. Y. At 81 minutes
before -6 PM, they stepped into the car
The rest Mr.. Haddock relates thus;
As we rose into the light, feecy clouds,
they looked between us and the earth Ike
patches of snow We see lying upon the land
scape in Spring time; but when We rose ut
tie higher the clouds completely shut out the
earth. and the cold, white masses below US had
precisely the same look that mountainous,
snow covered country does as you look down
upon it from higher mountain. In min
utes after leaving the earth, the thermometer
showed fall of "a degrees. 1t stood "a when
we lett. The balloon rotated good deal,
showing that she was ascending with great ra-
pidity. At 5:4S thermometer stood at AZ, and
falling very fast. At $50 we were at least
miles high-thermometer "a. The wet sand
bags now became stiff with cold-they We're
frozen. Ascending very rapidly. AT 5:54
thermometer %, and falling. Here we causht
| our last sight of the earth by daylight. | re-
| cognized the St. Lawrence to the southwest of
US, which showed we were drifting nearly
| north. At Clio, thermometer Is, we drifted
| along until the sun left us, and in short time
| thereafter the balloon began to descend. At
| 6:30, threw over about five pounds of ballast.
| We must have been, before began to de-
! scend from this height, 81 miles high. At
/ G., thermometer 23-rising. We were now a
| bout stationary, and thought we were sailing
north of east. We could, we thought, distin-
| guish water below US, but were unable 10 rec
| ognize it. At 6:38 we rev over a bag of
sand, making so pounds of ballast discharged.
leaving about 120 pounds on hand. We dis
| tinctly heard dog bark.
| We heard. soon after dark, locomotive
| whistle, and occasionally could hear wagons
rumbing along the ground or over bridge,
while the dogs kept up an almost ceaseiess
/ do fl,ara irp
/ in the sky monstrous and unusual. We sailed
along, contented and chatty, until about :
| O'Clock, when We distinctly saw lights, and
| heard the roaring OF a mighty waterfall. We
| descended into valley, near very high
| mountain, but as the place appeared rather
forbidding we concluded to go up again. o.
/ yer with 80 pounds of ballast, and skyward we
! sailed. In about 20 minutes we again desccn-
| ded, but this time friendly light or s.deep-
mouthed watch-dog's heavy bay'' greeted us.
We were over dense wilderness, and settled
down over small lake. We had our life-pre-
servers ready for use, but got up again by
| throwing over all our ballast except about ! &
pounds. Mr.. La Mountain now said it was
| folly and madness to stay up longer; that we
| were over a great wilderness, and the sooner
! we descended the better. We concluded to
settle down by the side of a tree, tie up, and
wait until morning. In a moment we were
| near the earth, and we fell | graSped the
extreme top of tall spruce, which stopped
! her descent, ana we were soon fastened to it
| BY the large drag-rope. The touch OF that
! spruce sent thrill of discomfort to my heart,
for knew that its kind did not grow in any
weii-settled, nor any warm country.
We rolled ourselves up in our blankets, and
| patiently waited until morning. The rain
| dripped down upon us III rivulets from the
! great balloon, and ii was not long before we
were wet as men could be. After a night
passed in great discomfort we We're glad to see
| the first faint ray of daylight. Gold, and wet,
and rainy, the morning broke, the typical pre-
! cursor, we were to learn, OF many other morn
! ipgs TO be spent in these uuinhabted wilds.
! We waited until O'Clock in hopes the rain
| would cease, and that the rays of the sum- tv
| warming the gas in the balloon, would give us
| ascending power sufficient 10 get up again, for
the purpose, ii no other, of obtaining view
OF the country into which we had descended.
| The rain did not cease, and We concluded to
| throw over all we had in the balloon except
| coat apiece, the life preservers, the anchor
and the compass. The atlantic, relieved of
her wet load, rose majestically with us, and we
were able to behold the country below. Ii was
| an unbroken wilderness of lakes and spruce
| and We felt, then, that we had gone too far,
| through miscalculation of the velocity OF the
| balloon. As the current was driving us still
! TO the north, we are not stay up, we were
drifting further and still further to that .sfro-
zen tide'' from which we knew there was no
{
cord and discharged gas, and we descended in
safety by the side of tall spruce. We made
the .dfiantic fast by her anchor, and for a mo-
| ment talked over what we should do. We had
not mouthful to eat-no protection at night
| from the damp ground; were distant we knew
| not how far from habitaton, were hungry to
start with, earthly hope of raising a fire,
| and no distinct idea as to where we were. We
concluded to trust to the compass. and take a
course which would bring us out of any will
derness we might be in. To the southeast,
| then, VIC started. After travelling about mile
and a half we came to the bank of small
creek, flowing down from the westward.
We travelled all day Friday up the unknown
creek, which kept its general course TO the
south of west, crossing it about noon on float
| ing log, and striking on its southern bank, a
sblazedo track, which led us up to a deserted
timber road, lying on the opposite side from a
large numbering shanty. We hoped one of the
lumber roads might take US out TO settle
ment, bnt after travelling up them all until they
terminated in the wilderness, we conclud ed
| TO cross the creek TO the shanty, and stay at il
all night.
1t was evident, we reasoned. that the creek
we were upon was used for driving logs in the
Spring season. If. then, we followed it TO its
confluence with the Ottawa, or some stream
which emptied into the Ottawa, we would in
time get out the same way the timber went on {.
The roof of the shanty Was covered with the
halves of logs, ,scooped out in a manner famil-
lar to all woodmen. These were light and
dry, and would form an excellent raft. Why
not, then, take four of these, tie them to
I cross pieces by wythes and such old things as
| We could find around the shanty, and pole the
structure down to that civilization which a
saw log ought to be able to reach. Such was
the course we adopted. We dragged the logs
down 10 the creek, and La Mountain tied them
together, as he was evidently more of sailor