The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-09-17
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.


COuUI, Nv ~
loon voyage from St. Louis to Northern York.
in company with Messrs. La Mountain,
eager and Hyde:
"The ascent was smooth and graceful,
and was preceded by MIR. Brooks, of 81. LOUIS
with his balloon Comet, who acted as an
escort to our expedition, and as a compliment
tn his aeronautic friends. A little before sum
set we saw Mr.. Brooks descend on a prairie
farm, and nearly the same time we saw the
noble CITY of St. Louis and the great father
of waters fleeing away in the golden vista OF
the western horizon. Mr.. La Mountain hav-
ing been unwell for several days past. de-
yolved upon me extraordinary labor at the
initiation during the day, which made me feel
the want of repose. | asked him to AXE
charge of the sailing of the ship while would
take a sleep, to which he responded with
alacrity.
cat eleven and a half P. M. Mr.. La Noun
tain and his friends suffered much from the
GOODNESS of the air, and he called to me to
bring down the balloon to a more congenial
temperature, but he says without answer from
me. After repeated calls unanswered, he told
Mr.. eager to mount up to my car, by a rope
provided for that purpose, as he feared was
smothering from the gas that was now blow
ing off by expansion, as the balloon had been
completely filed. MI. eager pulled my head
to one side, and with a shake or two, and a
few inhalations of fresh air, | was aroused,
but for a few moments unable to tell where
was, or what doing. Feeling the ropes
brought me back to a proper sense of duty. l
slept no more that night. The suffering of
the thin clad party was so great that l could
feel the tremor of their shivering and chat
tering above-indeed, so sensitively poised in
the air is a balloon, that the whole thing
trembled. | drew the valve and descended
until it was bearable temperature, and In that
altitude we sailed most of the night. At IL
midnight, and through the whole of the night,
it was light enough to see our watch time.
There was a mellow, phosphorescent atmos-
phere around us, that seemed remarkable.
The stars shone with a b%rilliancy as | never
saw them before, and the milky way looked
like a fiery, we'll defined cloud. The balloon
itself was translucent, and every seam upon it
could be traced. We could see the earth all
the time. We could distinguish prairie from
wood land, and the blue flower of the prairie
showed its habitation, as did the yellow,
wherever these beauties lived in families.
We could see the rivers and ponds, and
whenever we came over the water the stars
of heaven shone as brightly from below, by
reflection, as did the armament above. We
could see the roads, and the fences, and the
houses; and it was truly remarkable how
distinctly outlined everything appeared in
this midnight mellow light. 1t was the Joy
and remark of all our party.
cat l A. NJ, we were trying to find our
whereabouts, but we could get no response
from below, except from the dogs, and those
vigilant accompaniments of man never failed
to make the welkin ring with their bow-wow-
vows whenever we hallooed. La Mountain
observed that we must be in a country inhab-
tied solely by dogs, or that the people barked.
He got out of humor because nobody would tell
us what State we were over, but said we must
excuse the people for being asleep that time
of night. We always got distinct echoes of
our calls, and the time of return a different
index of our height. The barking of the
dogs also served to indicate the f~ullness and
sparseness of the population. Sometimes
there seemed a hundred of these canine re-
sponders at once, at others apparently dozen
or two.
"Thus we sailed on through the night.
To the east and southeast there were two
beautiful pyrotechnic displays for over ar
hour, in two thunder-gusts, but before day.
light they were over, and they were so far
distant that no thunder was heard, as they
were on the verge of the eastern horizon. On
we went Though the quiet solemn dome OF
heaven, and for the last hour of darkness,
from two to three, there was even no DISPOSE
tion to maj the grandeur of this solemnity by
any one, and this appeared to be unanimous
and spontaneous with us.
cat 3 A. nj. the dome of heaven was
lighting up, and soon the earth appeared
from beneath her twilight mantle. We
Judged we were over Indiana from the topo-
graphy below, but there was no certainty by
which we could tell. At A P. M. we saw a
city to the south of us, and before 5 we saw
Lake Erie in the distance. At 5 A. M. we
deserted Toledo to the front and left, and
Sandusky to the front and right. From this
time we never lost our bearings, and knew
all the time where we were going. We
verged on Lake Erie a little north of Sun
dusky, at y A. NJ, and before going on the
water threw over papers and bills. We came
down low on the edge of the Lake, to satisfy
La Mountain of its certainty, as he still
thought it might be Lake Michigan.
Having thrown over much ballast to rise
over the marshes we had just crossed, the
balloon scared up a great height, until the
bar. stood at below %, which was also our
greatest altitude during the voyage. except for
a few moments over Lake Ontario, at the
close of the trip. We now resolved to sail
near the surface of the Lake and reach Buff
falo, which our charts indicated would be the
case if we took the lower current. The
upper current would nave carried us over
Cleveland.
cat 81 A. M. we were within a thousand
feet OF the surface of the water, and going
down the middle of the lake at the rate of a
mile per minute. We passed some sailing
vessels, and several steamboats, going down
the lake. One of the propeIler-men said, as
we overlook him and passed him, "You are
going it like thunder.
cat 1920 A. NJ, we were near the Can
ada shores, and about twenty miles from
Buffalo. We passed over the mouth of the
Wellend canal, and commenced ascending to