The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1859-10-10
The Perils Of BallOoning.-ThrilliD
Narrative Of the Adventures of Messr 5.
La Mountain and HaddOck.

La Mountain and HaddOck.
The public has already been informed Of the
safe arrival at Ottawa, G. w., on the Sd inst,
of Prot. La Mountain and Mr.. Haddock, who
assembled in the balloon "Atlantio" fromW ater-
town, N. Y, on the 22d of September, and for
whose safety much fear was felt. Mr.. Had
dock has written q long but interesting account
Of their wanderiDgs and sufferings in the
wilderness. 1t appears the balloonists were
up in the air some four or Eve hours, when
finding themselves over o dense wilderness,
and the darkness Of the night around them,
they concluded to descend. They did SO and
passed the night in the balloon fastened to the
top Of tall spruce tree, and exposed to a
drenching rain. At daylight they again
assembled, and here we leave Mr.. Haddock to
speak for himself:
GAS the current was driving us still to the
north, we dare not stay up, as we were drifting
farther and still farther to the "frozen tide"
from which we knew there could be no escape.
Mr.. La M. seized the valve cord and discharged
gas, and we descended in safety by the
side of large spruce. We made the
Atlantic fast by her anchor, and talked over
for moment 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 habitation, were hungry to
start with, no earthly hope of raising fire
and no distinct idea as to where we were. We
settled in our minds that We were in John
Browns tract or in the great Canada wilder
ness-to the south, we thought of the Ottawa,
and knew that course south by east would
take US out if we had strength enough to travel
the distance. La M. stepped up to the bal
loon and gave the edge of the basket parting
shake, saying, Good bye, old Atlantic and I
fancied I could see a tear in his honest eye
| when he said it." .
A minute account Of their wanderings in o
dense forest is then given. They travelled
miles on foot along o creek, crossed and re-
crossed it on log, slept on its banks, suffering
intensely meanwhile from cold and wet
weather. Subsequently they formed raft,
and on this slowly proceed on by polling it,
in the hope Of reaching some habitablo settle.
ment. Here we quote:
"It had now been four full days since we ate
a meal. All we had ate in the mean time was a
| frog apiece, four CLAIMS and a few wild berries,
whose acid properties and bitter tasto had
| probably done us moro harm than good. Our
strength was beginning to fail very fast, and
our systems wero evidently about to undergo
an extraordinary change. did not permit
myself to think Of food-the thought Of we'll
covered table would have been too much. I
thought over all of poor Strains suiTcrings on
! tho Isthmus Of Darien, where he, too, was
padding raft down an unknown stream; but
never believed we could stand half tho amount
of suffering he did. Besides, he had means to
make q fire-we had none. He was upon a
stream which he know would lead to the sea
and safety--we were upon waters whose flow
we knew really nothing of, and were as much
lost as though in tho mountains Of the moon.
But. we "could not give it up So" and took
fresh courage as troubles appeared to thickon."
Soon after they heard the report a gun, and
tho two lost men padded their raft in the
direction whence the report came, distance Of
nearly a mile. Seeing shantee, Mr.. Had
dock rushed on shore. Here we quote again:
halloed--a noise was heard inside, and o
noble-looking Indian came to the door.
Hous parley Francaise" was my eager in
| quiry, as l grasped his outstretched hand.
'Yes, sir; and English, too" He drew me
into the cabin, and there was the head of the
party, noble-hearted Scotchman, named
Angos Cameron. l Immediately told my
story-that we came in with balloon, were
lost, and had been four days without food
asking where we were. Imagine my surprise
when he said we were one hundred and fifty
miles due north of Ottawa, in the dense, un-
inhabited forest, whose only limit was the
Arctic circle. In q word, we were nearly
three hundred miles in due north course
from Watertown, in latitude AZ.
"Dinner was all ready. The party con-
sisted of four persons-Mr. Cameron and his
assistant, who was also named Cameron,
LaMab MacDougal, a half-breed, and his
son Beauceil. l dispatched the young Indian
after LaMountain, who came in after mo-
ment the absolute picture of wretchedness.
All that the cabin contained was freely tend
cred us, and we began to eat. Language is
inadequate to express our sensations while
doing so. The clouds had all lifted from our
sombre future, and the silver lining shone
all the brighter for the deep darkness through
which we had passed."
| The narrative concludes with an account
of their return to Watertown, N. Y. They
were conducted sixty miles through the
Canadian wilderness by Indians.