Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-07-15
Wise's Narrative Of his 3 .uoon
Voyage.
\ Ew ! 0RK, July 18th

Wise:
Although it was intended to have started {
this voyage on the 23d Of J une. we were d
layed in our preparations until the first of u!
BY o'clock P NJ. the air-silip - \ tlantic'' vi
duly inflated, and while we were putting her
trim with ballast and provisions, Mr. Brook
lessee of the St Louis Museum, who had kind
volunteered to escort us over the Mississippi
! his balloon Comet got ready for the Gee.
! sion, and upon signal agreed. aacend.d frol
! the ground. At 7:20 2. NJ The A tlaatie
was ready to sail. Messrs La Mountain an
eager, thinking some difficulty might aris
/ from the start if they should attach the for,
wheels to the shafts and whecigcarng, deter
mined to omit that until we should be fairl
under way next morning. Having had Inuc
/ experience In hard Winds aud the periIs of lane
! ing balloon under them, we had constructed
at st. Louis, a good wicker-work car (wbici
with good and strong concentric hoop, ar
life preseryers in these perils,) which was sus
pended between the boat and balloon, and a
bout eight feet above the former and within
six feet of the hoop, so that the neck of the bal
! loon hung in the basket-car whenever the bal
loon was fully distended
The boat contained 600 pounds of ballast
one bucket of water, one bucket OF Iemenade
with an abundance of bread aud wine poultr
| and sandwiches, besides delicacies too numcr
Gus to enumerate, furnished by kind friends
Mr.. La Mountain took command Of the boa
and ballast, and took his place at one end; Mr.
eager took the other end, and took charge o
the charts and compass Mr. HYDE. local edit
or of the ST. Louis Republican, took his sea
in the middle, with notebook and pencil "a
historian. Although Mr.. Hyde was not in tht
original programme, we unanimously agreed t
let him accompany us provided it would moi
Interfere with our ultimate design; and a.; i
was arranged that, under any circumstances
when the ballast should fail the boat with it.
contents should be disposed of, and myself OF
Mr. La Mountain should proceed on the voy-
age alone.
The basket contained $50 pounds Of ballast
barometer, wet and dry bulb thermometer
besides quantity Of wine and provisions; and
took my place in the basket and large of
the valve rope, and, as director OF the general
plan of the voyage, by the unanimous consent
ef the party engaged in this long devised enter
prise.
| must say here that Mr.. Ia Mountain took
in charge part Of the programme, that none
but a cool head and most accomplished pron-
ant could be trusted with and especially the
n ght sailing. AT 7:20 P. NJ. we set sail from
the Washington Square of St. Louis. and our
course at starting was north of east When
we got up and over the Mississippi aud well
under way, we saw Mr.. Brooks land in clear
poca about sunset,
:, At 8:30 2. NJ, the shades Of the evening
shut from our view the noble city of st. Louis
and the father of waters, though it continued
light until after 9. Mr.. La Mountain having
suffered from sickness on Thursday, and was too
unwell to work hard under a burning sun at
the infation left much hard labor fof me at
that work. I submitted the whole thing to
his charge for the night, with the understand
ing to have me walked whenever he wanted the
valve worked, and he took it with alacrity-
Before | went to sleep we had mounted to
hight at which the balloon became completely
and where we found the currert due
east. Here it became chilly, and Mr.. LaMeun-
tian, as well as all of us, suffered from this
change Of air; and with all the clothing we
could put ON us it was still uncomfortable.
though the Thermometer stood at ~ 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 tile low
er current as long as it would take hs but
few points north of east and told him to do
as he deemed best, and report his reckoning in
the morning. After bidding the party in the
boat good night and God speed / coied my
self up in blankets, and laid down as best 7
could, and in few minutes was sound asleep,
and knew of nothing but repose until Il:30
P. NJ.
At this time Mr. La Mountain again MOUNT
ed for the upper current; being dosirous Of
making little more casting he hailed me to
open the valve as the balloon had became 50
tense, and the gas was rushing from the neck
with a noise, but finding no answer from me,
he suspected that / was being smothcrcd in the
gas and he adnonished Mr. Gager to mount
to my car by rope provided for that purpose,
and Mr.. eager found me breathing spasmodi-
cal ", but good shaking, and the removal OF
the neck of the balloon from my my face, with
plenty of pure cold air around me, soon
brought me back to knowledge of what was
going on, and [ resolved to sleep no more du-
ring the night.
Al midnight [ felt quite well, with an invig-
GRATED spirit of observation and interest in our
experiment. The whole dome of heaven was
lit up with mellow phosphorescent light, the
stars shone with a crystalline brilliancy and
the milky way looked like an Illuminated
stratum of cumulus clouds. Whenever We
crossed water the heaven-lit dome was as visi-
bic below by reflection as above, So remark
able was this phosphorescent light Of the at
mosphere that the balloon looked translucent,
and looked like light shining through oiled pa
per. We could also tell prairie from forest.
and by keeping the eye for moment down
ward we could see 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
land from water.
V hencver we halloed it was followed by a
distinct echo, and even this served as diff
rental index to height We always found
response in numerous bow-wow-wows, and
these too were always indicative of the full
ness and sparseness of the inhabitants below.
as we could hear them for many miles around
u.s. Mr. La Mountain remarked that nobody
lived in that country but dogs, or else people
barked like dogs, he having got little out of
humor, because nobody would tell him in what
State we were sailing, and he gave up the in
qury with the remark that it must he over
some other country than America, as VIC had
been moving along at a rapid pace.
AT o'clock, A. NJ, Saturday, we came to
a general conclusion that we were somewhere
over the State of Indiana or Ohio. At 4.
NJ. we passed a city but could not make it
out, but at A. NJ, we discovered Lake Erie
ahead of us, and then concluded that the city
we left little south of our track must have
been Fort Wayne. At 6 A. NJ, we passed