The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-10-08
TIE GREAr BALLOON YoYaeR.


ment Of the Aip.ship p. suffr rims /. ss.
wilderness. FinsI Rescs<, &c, &c.
The fact that La Mountain. the pron.n+
ana j. A. Haddock, newspaper rcportsr,
VINO assembled in the balloon "a tlantic ), from,
"atertown, N. Y, on tho 22d ult.. have heen
found alive and safe in Canadian wilder.
ness, 300 miles north of their point OF denar.
ture, has been published It appears. n thev
mad staid upa few hours longer, thew would
nave solved the question of the North uva.t
passage through the Arctic Ocean at the u.p.,
cost-their lives. The ascension was mae,a :,
"a minutes before O'Clock, p. M. and ahont !,
o'clock they made the first landing. having
Travelled the extraordinary distance of aol
miles In about one hour and half From
mighty interesting narrative by Mr.. Hadaock,
we iake the following account Of the perilou.
adventure:
THE FIRST LANDING
we concluded to settle down bv tho side ~
.Iee, tie up, and wait until morning. In
xsaiuinent x.i, we were near the earth, and as we
,sh h, grasped the extreme top OF q tall spruce
fas,anas ss.opned her descent, and we were soon
tanoh ~ 20 ~ by the large drag rope The
oucn oI tnat spruce sent thrill of discom
loIt 70 my heart for knew that its kind did
con conatrv eruw IN M any well settled nor any warm
Sunl.y. Mr. La Mountain said after no
looked around and made as much nf a = sx.rn
ihailon OF the scenery as we could do for the
darkness and rain (for it had rained the nast
were Ia ina. ,ne Atlantic was played out-we
M Msre Iar INFO the woods, and il we rot ont
anve we ought to be thankful.
.t,a, tolieo 80, ourselves up in our blankets and
psiy paialentiy waited until morning. The rain
erept ha,,aoM nown upon us in riyulets from the
s.ea. s odIioon, and 1t was not long before we
were as wet as men could be. After a nipht
passeo In great discomfort we were glad to see
ana sne nasa Iaint ray OF daylight Cold, and wet
ha avvaHn Hn,.s,~
cursor we ,rsr sns morning broke the typical pre-
| Ings 10 be spent in these uninhabited wiIds =
we waIfed until six O'Clock in homes The rain
wouaa ,o. cease, and that the rays of the sun, by
warming the gas in the balloon would give
us ascending power sufficient to get mn again :.
ior the purpose, if no other. Of ob,ainino .
view OF the country into which we had de-
sieaasa. sspa Inc rain did not cease, and we con-
Siuoeu 10 throW over all we had in the bal
loon, except coat apiece, the life preseryers.
tne anchor and the compass. Overheard. then
tney went-good shawls and blankets. Mr
aayHas ya;ai osercoa. botties OF ale and flask of
eoroiai, ropes and traps of all kinds. The At
lantic, reviewed OF her wet load, rose maiesti-
caily Win us, and we were able to behold the
country below. 1t was an unbroken wilder
ness OF lakes and spruce; and we felt then that
we had gone too far through a miscalcnIation
OF the velocity of the balloon.
SECOND DESCENT
AS the current was driving us still to the
north, we dare not stay up as we were drift.
| ing farther and still farther to that frozen
tide from which we knew there could he NO
escape. Mr.. La M. seized the valve cord and
discharged gas, and we descended in safety by
| the side of II large spruce. We made the At
| lantic fast by her anchor and for a moment
| talked over what we should do. We had not
mouthfult to eat. No protec ction at night
from the damp grsund, were distant we knew
not how far from habitation were hungry to
| start with, no earthly hope of raising q 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. We settled in our own
minds that we were either in Jno. Brown s
| tract or in the great Canada wilderness-to the
south, We thought, of the Ottawa, and knew
that a course south by east would take us out
| If We had strength enough to travel the dis.
| tance. La Nj. stepped up to the balloon and
| gave the edge of the basket a parting shake.
saying, 'Good bye, old Atlantic" and fancied
could see tear in his eye when he said it.
| TRAINING IN THE WOODS.
To the southeast, then, we started. After
| travelling about mile and a half we came to
| the bank of small creek, flowing down from
the westward. At this point we were agree
| ably surprised to find that some human beine
| had been there before US, for we found several
| small trees cut down, the Goals from an old
fire, and half barrel which had con ntained
| pork l eagerly examined the stamp. 1t read
| 'Mess Pork, p. NJ, Montreal This settled
| the question that we were in Cat ada-for
| very well knew that no Montreal inspection
OF pork ever found its way into the interior OF
New York State. We travelled all day Friday
up the unknown creek, which kept its general
course to the south of west crossing it abou,
| noon, on hoatlng log, and striking on its
| southern bank "blaZed" track which led us
up 70 deserted timbe road. lying on the OPP
| posite side from large numbering shanty.-
We hoped one of the numbering roads might
| take us out to a settlement, but after travelling
up them all until they terminated in the wild
| erness, we concluded to cross the creek TO the
shanty, and stay in it all night. La Mountain
| got across safely; but my weight was greater
| than his, and the raft let me in to the stream. L.
sank IN All over. and swan out, though il
| required all my strength to do So and on reach
ing the bank l found myself so chilled as
scarcely to be able TO stand. 1 took off my
clotnes, Wrung them, and we proceeded to the
shanty, where we found plenty of refuse
| straw, but 1T was dry, and under pile of il
| we crawled, pulling it over our heads and
| faces. in the hope that our breath might aid in
| warming our chilled bodies. I think the most
revengefui, stony heart would have pited our
| condition then. The weary hours of night at
| last wore away, and we held new COUNSEL
1t was evident, we reasoned, that the creek we
were upon, was used for driving logs in the
| spring season: Ii, then, we followed it to its
| commence with the Ottawa, or some stream
| which emptied into the Ottawa we could in
time get out the same way the timber went
| out.
TAKING TO A RAFT.
The roof of the shanty was covered with
the halves of logs, scooped out in manner
familiar to all woodnen. These Were light
and dry, and would form an excellent raft
| Why not, then, take four of these tie them to
cross pieces by wythes and such old things
| as we could find around the shauty, 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 to the creek and La Mountain tied
| then together, as he was evidently more of a
sailor than myself We got under way, and
| as we pushed off acrow set up dismal cav
| lng-an Inauspicions sign, and ominous of the
great trials and suffelings in store for u.s.
| We polled down stream about ten miles, and
came abruptly upon an immense pine tree
which had fallen across the stream, complete
| ly blocking the passage of the raft. No other
alternative was left but to unite the pieces,
and attempt TO push them through under the
log. This was at last done; tied the raft to-
gether again, and polled her down stream.-
| To-day re eat each ra,c frog, all we could
| find, and began to feel that we were hungry.
But there was no plaining-our talk was
| of the hopeful future and the civilization we
| hoped yet to reach. Down the creek we went
| into lake some two miles long, and in to
which we of course supposed the stream pass
| ed, having its outlet at the lower end. We
| followed down the northern bank, keeping
always in shallow spots, so that our poles
| could touch the bottom, until we arrived at
| the bottom of the lake, where we found no
outlet, and turned back upon the southern
| bank in quest of it. On reaching the head of
| the lake we found that the current of the
creek turned abruptly to the right which was
| the reason of our losing it.
FEARFUL NIGHT.
At night we did not stop, but kept the raft
going down through the shades Of awful
| forests whose solemn stiffness seemed to hold
the unreyealed mystery of our darkening fu-
ture. About ten o'clock it began to rain again
We stopped the 'svessel'' and crawled in nader
some stag" alders on the bank, where our ex-
trelne weariness enabled us to get, perhaps
half an hours sleep. Rising again, ffor it was
easier 70 pole at night in the rain down an nm
known stream, than to Lie ON the ground and
freeze,) we pressed on for couple of hours
until about three O'Clock, when pure exhaus-
tion induced us to stop again. This time we