Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-10-14

uoWHWaTu passage II III approached 700
near the trees. By these means he avoid
ed the loss of either gas or ballast, and
secured the use of the balloon in jour
neying out of the wilderness for longer
period. 1t has repeatedly been demon
strated in Mr.. Kings experience, but
never more fully than on this voyage,
that balloon travels with greater uni
formity and consequently with less loss
of power in the night than in the day,
when the suns heat, clouds, and other
extraneous influences cause continual
and sudden changes In the degree of
rarefaction of the gas, inducing at first
high ascent with an overflow and then
an expenditure of ballast to equalize the
buoyant power and secure for the time,
or until further waste takes place, the
equilibrium of the aerial machine For
at least six hours after passing over the
White Mountains the balloon travelled
through the air. without the loss of a
single ounce of ballast, and for the most
part at nearly the same elevation. The
quality of the gas, the wet condition of
the balloon before starting, which called
for certain added amount of buoyant
power at the outset of the voyage, and
the rapid rate at which we were travel
ing. all contributed doubtless to this re-
suit. but the main cause was the uni
form temperature encountered at given
plane of elevation. The balloon would
occasionally rise to an unusual hight,
but the overflow of gas would check its
flight, and in no instance was the es-
cape so exhaustive as to bring US fully
down to the earth. Once, toward morn
ing, we mounted above the clouds into
the clear atmosphere. and again we saw
the moon, which rose late, shining faint
ly between two strata of clouds, but for
nearly the whole night we were in, or a
short distance below. dense clouds, and
much of the time within the influence of
the rain clouds.
1t was a strange sensation, and by no
means pleasurable one, to be thus jour-
neying through the air, over a wild and
densely wooded region of which we knew
nothing-for even our own course was
hidden from us-with strong proba-
bility that We would ultimately be COM
pelled to descend, perhaps in the very
heart of the wilderness, and work our
way out as best we might, without the
most remote Indication of which direc-
ton we had best take to reach the near
est settlement, and that. hundred miles
or more away. If we had continued in
the same direction in which VIC had
travelled in the early stage of our voy-
age, we were somewhere over the north
ern wilds of Maine, but even had we
been sure regarding our actual course.
we might err vastly in our estimates of
the progress we had made, for it was an
utter impossibility for us to establish
the merest reliable fact relative to our
rate of speed since the lakes and noun
tains of Western Maine were passed
We might starye to death in the forests
in our vain endeavors to extricate our
, selves. While these and kindred thoughts
with the faces of loved ones at home who
} might never know our fate, continually
haunted our minds, neither courage nor
, calmness once forsook us, and we coolly
and manfully discussed our chances, and
determinedly laid our plans of action in
case we encountered the worst
! CAMP FIRES IN THE WILDERNESS.
Whenever we came beneath the clouds,
and for considerable space of time we
were floating above feecy masses which
l obscured the surface only in patches,
2 while the denser clouds hung about us
2 like a pail, we strained our eyes in
search of habitations or camp fires. We
: saw several of the latter at different
e times-perhaps dozen in all-but in
e every case they were too far away to
< risk descent among high trees in order
to reach them, and our most lusty at
tempts to attract the attention of the
a campers utterly failed Twice or more
a the woodsmen were known to be stirring
d their fires, for the joyous CLEAN danced
: high in the air, as if in mockery of our
+ helplessness. At one place, probably on
d the extreme upper Penobscot or some
! one of its tributaries, we saw three camp
n fires at no very great distance apart
r They were doubtless in some logging
o district. None of these 1lluminations
n appeared later than eleven or twelve o
/ clock, and we judged, and rightly too,
e that we had reached the solitudes of the
e inner and unbroken wilds.
e ON THE LOOKOUT FOR BREAKERS AHEAD.
= When the clouds were running low
y and the balloon itself CHANGED to be
2 coursing at comparatively slight alti-
e tude among them, we found it advisable
IS to keep close watch ahead for mount
IS ain peaks, in very much the same man.
d ner sailors maintain a lookout from the
5. masthead for breakers when near dan
'e gerous coast. The country seemed q
'f succession of mountain ridges, and many
le of the highest peaks lifted their giant