Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-02-25

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by Its rays was cooling and condensing, thus
gradually losing q portion of its bnosuncy.---
Night was approaching, and, though felt
sure that it should be moonlight, 1 looked in
vain for that silvcry orb. Thinking must
DO mistaken, thought of landing without
further delay, and looking below found thut
the suns RAYS had left the earth, though il
was still shining on the balloon in passing
over some water almost directly beneath me
the reflection of the moon on its surface, bright
as the original, caught my eye; the balloon
4 had hidden it from mo, SO continued on my
Journey During the daylight had noticed
smoke curling from the woods in many places,
! cut now all'over the country, near and far, the
hres could be seen, fairly sprnkling the earth
with lights in some places they were SO hu-
merous and near togethcr that they gavc in
! the distance the exact appearance Of 1urge
city, with its thousands of gas.lights. T
thought Mt the time, however, that no matter
how fine to look upon, they would be danger.
GUS places to come in contact with when land
ing l looked at my compass occasionally,
ard sometimes fonDd myself going north Of
cast and sometimes southeast, the. upper cur.
rent carrying mo in Tho latter direction, I
did not know my exact whereabouts, but1I
hoped [ was nearing Charleston aud tLis
caused me to continue the voyage longer than
otherwise should have DONE ct'noou did
ne good service 3!rthe feGections given rs 1
passed along, showing tho exit .rs4nro of the
ground w'H isr rs%SSS%ps IS s,iS! dry land Twas f.
past s"ycn O'clock, When ,suddHnIy left be- a
mind Inc all ,iigas Of cultivation and started
into wha, sco'icd to y the beginning oc ai.t
district bearing character ent,rcv different
from anything that had come under my obser- !
votion before. knew %%y::t be approaching
the. Atlantic, and thought could make it. out
in the distareeS, g, AN and,it now struck mo that
possibly 1 mghG sih,fsWD Wsye n,thing better before
y. f,:,n Tho, l.. v-sua l.As Ill
had struck the swamps in the vicinity of San
tee river, and being ovcraowed by the river,
they presented for miles the most uninvting
for landing that ever bcheld, and
my relief can be imagined when | passed
again to dry land now allowed the balloon
to settle gradually, with the view of landing
as soon as an opportunity offered. | lloatcd
alonv some time, however, before clearing
came in my way; when this cnmc at last in
the shape of field walled around by taick
woods The rate Of speed at which was
travelling and the uncertainty with which
height is measured by the eye in the absence
of daylight, showed me the difficulty of land
ing under such circumstances. The attempt
was made, however, but without success, just
touching the tree tops on the opposite side of
tho lot, had one bag of ballast loft 1t
was Immediately thrown over aud kept the
balloon out of the trees for awhile, but it soon
settled again and brushed the tops of five or
six pines, causing it to rebound from fifty to
q hundred feet. This brought to Wow an
other field just ahead, on which were num-
Der of naked dead pines. TO have tue ball
loon impalcd op one of these is probably the
most dangerous position in which the @ronaut
could be placed, and l would much rather
have taken the chances among the green pines,
but my ballast was gone. quickly let 50
my drag rope hoping to clear them by letting
tho rope drag instead of carrying its dead
weight In the basket, but it was not enough,
aud in another moment tho Hyperion dashed
broadside against one Of the,tallest of these
Gendish. looking skeletons and was fastened in.
its arms; the sudden escape, Of all the, gas
must of course follow, and what then? |
jumped on to the edge Of the basket, soised
tic drag rope with my hands, took turn
around one leg and the next moment ~oud
bavo been safe upon the ground; butFthe gas
had escaped in less time than it took me to
mako my preparations, and With oa'crash the
rotten limbs gave way, and tile whole mass
4 fell together. The distance from the ground
must havo boon from fifty to sixty feet, and
how I escaped with whole bones seems to me,
u at thia moment, a miracle, The shook was
4 terrible, Inarose Immediately to my, feet,
staggering about like a drunken man, and
vet astonished that I was able to do SO much.
soon regained. strength, however, sufficient
. to enable me to reach o. house near by, where
: found some, very Intelligent coiored people,
who did all lin, their rpower to Eoudehme Tho
assistanaegI needed. hI suffered much pain
during the night. and did not pretend to
, sleopp' But by Thursday afternoon | had so
fat Recovered is to DO ablc ID See to tho pack.