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

tahdin, which we probably left fifty or
sixty miles south of us.
THE NIGHT WEARS ON.
The hours were long to us benighted
travellers in these mysterious regions
They seemed to have no end. Many
times did we peer into the darkness to
discover some indications of the rising
moon, or the coming day. Once we as
certained the hour by feeling the hands
of watch, and it was then only half |
an hour after midnight. We had thought
it to be an hour or two earlier. Again,
in the early gray of the morning we
thought we had discovered the hour. but
long after were brought to a sense of our
mistake by finding it even then much
earlier. The mournful cry of a loon
once startled us-the same unhappy
note we had heard while passing over
Lake Umbagog some hours before-but
aside from this no sound came up to us
save the ripping and FLASHING of the
countless streams over which we passed
The sound was varied sometimes by the
addition of the deeper tones of a large
fall. As we rose into the upper ether
the music grew fainter, but rarely did
it cease altogether Our experience
gave us fresh and extended ideas of the
water powers of Maine. Had we been
forced to descend in the wilderness and
to there abandon the balloon, we should
have been inclined to follow some one
of these water courses southwark in the
expectation of finding ourselves ulti-
mately on the Penobscot river, if our
strength held out long enough; but had
we followed out this intent, we should
in all probability have been greatly mis-
led, for by midnight or soon after we
had reached the watershed of the Wool
astook or Upper st. John, which describes
very extended curve near the upper
borders of Maine before reaching even
that remote section, the Madawaska set
Elements. In eur plannings to meet
possible and probable exigencies, Mr..
King had already devised the means of
providing ourselves with boat. The
balloon could be torn up, and the oiled
cloth converted into an envelope for the
basket or car, and we might turn the
seats into paddles if nothing better Of
fered. In the early stage of our journey
board fitted to the ropes and resting
across the top of the basket had served
the purposes of table and writing. desk.
This would have served much better for
conversion into some means of propulsion,
but we had cast it overheard at the time
of our brief sojourn in the mountain
glen where we suffered the balloon to ap.
proach nearly to the tree-tops. We
specialized much as to what we could dc
if brought down to earth in the forests
and with far more calmness than oul
friends will probably give us credit fol
possessing under such disheartening cir
cumstances. We fully realized the dan
gers of our situation, and made up oul
minds to face them in whatever form
they might be met with, in as cheerful
and hopeful mood as it might b.
possible to summon to our aid. Whel
we were not exposed to the rain we con
trived to make ourselves passably com
Portable, although in some of our up
ward flights we encountered an exceed
ingly chilly atmosphere. At such time
we would crowd ourselves into sue
space as the bottom of the basket al
forded, which as matter of course wa
not much In its most extended meas
urement the basket had a length of fou
feet eight inches and a width of abou
three feet, its form being similar to thu
of an old-fashioned work basket, til
walls bullying in the center. The seal
at the ends furnished good accommod;
tions when we chose to sit upright, b.
in an attempt to put ourselves in an,
thing like recumbent position we wei
obliged to double up like jack knive
Once at least, we must have reached &
altitude of two and half miles OF NOR
for not only were we intensely cold, b
our respiration became less easy al
there was strange ringing in the ear
to an extent much in excess of anythil
L had ever experienced in all my aeri
travels with Mr. King. When runnil
at lower level and in proximity to t
earth, we sometimes hallooed at the to
of our voices, but no sleepers did '
wake save possibly the caribous, bea
and wildcats with which these northe
wilds are said to abound.
FIGHTING AGAINST THE DRowsY GOD
We dared not sleep, for we knew L
into what new dangers we might dri
The greatest we feared was the liabili
Of an ENHANCEMENT among the tree-tc
in case of sudden descent among the
With all our anxieties and fears,
could have slept soundly and happi
however, and it required our utmost
forts to keep ourselves and each otl
from succum hinp IN the drowsinaSc viii
so beset u.s. A moments cessation fir
conversation or bodily activity seen