Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-07-07
THE GREAT BALLOON VOYAGE

The great aerial voyage of Profs Wise, La
Mountain, and eager, from st. Louis, for the
Atlantic coast was interrupted, by heavy
storm, on Sunday. The balloon descended
safely in Henderson, Jefferson county, n Y,
having travelled distance of eleven hundred
and fifty miles in nineteen hours and fifty min
utes, at an average speed of fifty seven miles
an hour! Mr.. Wise furnishes a thrilling &C
count of the interesting adventure. He says
"The Atlantic was ready to sail at 720 p
NJ. on Friday. The boat contained six hun
dred pounds of ballast, one bucket of water,
one bucket of lemonade, with an abundance of
bread and wine, poultry and sandwiches, be-
sides delicacies too numerous to enumerate
furnished by kind friends. Mr.. LaMountain
took command of the boat and ballast, and
took his place on one end Mr.. eager took
the other end, and took charge of the charts
and compass Mr.. Hyde of the St. Louis Re
publican, took his seat in the middle, with note
book and pencil, as historian. Although Mr..
Hyde was not in the original programme we
unanimously agreed to let him accompany us,
provided it would not interfere with our ulti-
mate design and it was arranged that under
any circumstances, when the balloon should fail,
the boat with its occupants should be disposed
OF, ana my sell OF MT. LaNlOunlan should pro-
coed with the voyage alone.
At $50 p. NJ, the shades of the evening
shut off from our view the noble city of st.
Louis and the father of waters. Mr. LaMoun-
tain having suffered from sickness on Thurs
day, and being too unwell to work hard under
a burning sun at the imitation, left much hard
labor for me at that work. | submitted this
whole thing to his charge for the night, with
the understanding to have me walked when
ever he wanted the valve worked, and he took
it with alacrity. Before l went to sleep we
had mounted to hight at which the balloon
had become completely distended, and where
we found the current due east Here it be-
came chilly, and Mr.. LaMountain, as well as
all of u.s. suffered from the change of air; and
with all the clothing we could put on us it was
still uncomfortable, though the thermometer
stood at AZ, and the barometer at %, and this
was the lowest of both the instruments during
the whole voyage, except the crossing of Lake
Ontario
Mr.. La Mountain proposed to take the lower
current as long as 1t would take us but few
points north of east, and l told him to do as
he deemed best, and report his reckoning in
the morning. After bidding the party in the
boat good might and God speed, coiled myself
up in blankets, and laid down as best as |
could, and in few moments was sound asleep,
and / knew of nothing but repose till IL 30 p
NJ. AT this time Mr.. La Mountain again
mounted for the upper-current; being DESTROYS
OF making little more casting he hailed me
to open the valve, as the balloon had become so
tense, and the gas was rushing from the neck
with noise, but finding no answer from me,
he suspected that l was being smothered in
the gas, and admonished Mr.. eager to mount
to my car by a rope provided for that purpose,
and Mr.. eager found me breathing spasmodi-
| naII h,k 1 i. Al.
OF the neck of the balloon from my face,
with plenty of pure cold air around me,
soon brought me back to a knowledge of what
was going on, and | resolved not to sleep
more during the night.
| AT midnight the whole dome of heaven was
lit up with a mellow phosphorescent light the
stars shone with crystalline brilliancy, and
the milky way looked like an illuminated stra-
tum of cumulous clouds. Whenever we cross
ed water the heaven-it dome was as visible
below, by reflection as above. So remarkable
was this phosphorescent light of the atmosphere
that the balloon looked translucent and looked
like light shining through oiled paper. We
could also tell prairie from forest, and by keep
ing the eye for moment downward we could
see the roads, fences fields, and even houses,
quite distinctly at any elevation not over a
mile, and even at the greatest elevation we
could discern prairie from woodland, and from
| water.
Whenever we halloed it was followed by
distinct echo, and even this served us differ
entail index to hight. We always found re-
spouse in numerous bow-wow-wows, and these
TOO, were always Indicative of the fullness and
sparseness of tho habitation below, as we could