Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-07-15
From the N Y. Tribune, 5th.l
The Great Balloon Voyage.
TnEILLISG NARRATIVE OF PROF. WISH


On Saturday (2D at 1920 A. NJ. we were
skirting along the Canada sh re, and passed
near the me nth of the Welland Canal, and
soon began to mount fl r our most Easterly
current, so as to take Bnffalo in our track,
but we crcled up into it between Buffa and
Niagara Falls, crossing Grand Island and
leaving Buffalo to the right and Lockport to
the lett Of us. In our onward course. find
ing ourselves in the State o. New York, but
too far North to make the city of New
York, it was agreed that We would make q
landing near Rochester, detach the boat,
leave out Mr.. Gager and Mr.. Hyde, and Mr..
La Mountain and myself pursue the voyage
to point at Boston or Portland. Accord.
ingly we descended gradually, but before We
got to within thousand feet Of the earth,
we found most terrible gale sweeping
| along below. The surface of the earth was
covered with clouds OF dust, and tod my
friends certain dest ructIon awaited Us, If We
should touch the earth in that tornado. The
huge Atlantic was making terrific sweep
earthward. Already we were near the tops
of the trees of tall forest, and cried out
s 'mewhat excitedly, For Gods sake heave
out anything you can lay Jeur hands on,
La Mountain and in another moment he
responded ''All right" standing on the side
of the BOAT with u shaft and wheels intsnd-
ed for working the fans, ready to- leave
them should it be necessary.
! Mr.. Hyde looked up to my car and very
solemnly said, sThis is an exciting time,
Professor; what shall we do p ''TruSt in
Providence and all our energies" said I.
We were fast running On to Lake Ontario,
and OH! how terribly it was fosming, how
ling and moaning. ! said, ''La Mountain,
have $50 pounds of ballast in my car yet,
and a heavy valise, an Expre.s bag, sent by
the U. S Express Company, anu lot Of
PROVISIONS SWELL" he answered, "if that
won't do, will cut up the boat for ballast;
and we can keep above water until We
reach the opposite shore," which was near
hundred miles off, in the direction We were
going. Here handed my ballast down to
La Mountain, as we were rapidly mounting
above the terrific gale, believing by that
course we should ut least get out of the ,asin
track. Everything now indicated that we
should perish in the water or on land, and
our only sal vation was to keep aaoas until
We got out of the gale if we could. said,
"fou must all get into the basket if you
want to be saved, should we ever reach land
and truly tell you, the per Is OF the land
are even more terrible than those OF the WA
easier to meet death by drowning than tC
have our bodies mangled by dashing against
rocks and trees"
By this time Mr.. eager and Mr.. Hyde had
clambered into the basket with me. Mr..
Hyde said very coolly, II am prepared to Z
die, but would rather die on land than in
the water" remarked. "What do you say,
Mr.. Gager?" He replied, II would rather
meet it on land, but do as you think best"
Mr.. La Mountain was busily engaged in col.
Letting what he could for ballast. Every
thing was now valuable to Us that had weight
our carpet-bags, our Instruments, tre Ex-
press-bag, and our provisions, were all ready
to 90, anG go they did, one after another,
until we were reduced to the Ex. ress bag !;
that went overheard last.
We deserted the shore, some 40 mics of,
peering between a sombre bank Of clouds
and the water horizon, but we were sweep
ing at fearful rate upon the turbulent wa
ter, and in another moment crash went the
boat upon the water, sideways, staving in
two of the planks, and giving our whole
craft two fearful jerks, by the swell of the
waves. La Mountain stuck to the boat like
a hero. He lost his hat and got fierce
dash from the waves, but soon recovering,
he threw over the Express bag and last re-,
naming ballast, and cried out, 'sBs easy.
gentlemen, I'll have her af,at once more"
In another moment, we were up few hun
dred leet again, aud the steam propeller
Young America was tacking across our path.
l now proposed to swamp the boat and
balloon In the lake, aud trust to being pick
ed up by the Young America, but the desire
was we should make the shore and try the
land, and as we crossed the bow Of the
steamer they gave u a hearty hurrah. La
Mountain had now cut out of the boat all he
could, and we were within Is miles of shore.
the gale still raging b. low La Mountain
might have remained in the boat and Jump
ed out at first touching earth-and raw no
inpropriety in his doing 50, as the lessenisx
weight would have given US another hour or
two to wait the luling of the gale-but he
said he would share our f,te, and lie also
clambered into the basket just as we were
reaching the land.
saw by the swaying to and fro Of the
lofty trees ito which we must inevitab y
dash, that our worst perils were at hand but
still had blind hope that we should be-
saved. ordered two men on the valve.
rope, and we struck within 100 yards Of the
water, among some scattered ees, our hook.
which was of II in. iron, breaking Ikea
and we kept hurting through the tree-toI,sg
with horrible rapidity. After dashing along
this way for n-arly mile, crashing and
breaking down .ree,, wa W. ere dashed s.o.t
fearfully into the boughs OF tall efsa, so
that the basket swung under and up through
the crotch of limb, while tho boat caught
in some Of the other branches, This brought
US to little, but in another moment the
Atlantic puffed up her huge proportisns, anil
at ore sw0op away went the limb, basket.
and boat 100 feet into the air, and | wus
afraid some Of the crew were left iu,palsd
upon the scrags. This limb WAS about 8
inches thick at tie butt, and full of branch.
es, weighing not less than 600 or 800 lbs.
1t proved too mnch for the Atlantic, and
brought her suddenly down upon the top of
a very tall tree and collapse her. 1t was
fearful plunge, ana Left US d.nging between
heaven and earth in tho most s,rrowful-
looking plight of machinery imaginable.
None of Us were seriously iLjared, the many
cords, the strong hoop male OF wood AID
iron, and the close wicker work baske, all
combining to save US from harm su long Ms
the machinery hung together; bat that
could not have lasted two minutes more:
~ The Iowa Democratic State Oonren.
tion has declared that the Democracy is inde
pendent of the Supreme Court and its decis-
ions that there was no power on earth to
prevent the Territorial Legislature from
passing laws against slavery, etc. This IS
new track that the Popular Sovereignty
men in Iowa have taken, and it is a palpa-
Bile acknowledgment of the fatal error made
by Judge Douglas, when he I'M reduced the
Nebraska bill. That bill has but one foun-