Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-07-16

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about us, and still we sped upward.
Then it was very hut, and fluids
quenched not our thirst.
Almost beneath us, observed
very peculiar appearance. Itmight, /
perhaps, he ikened to q piece of
green velvet, from which the nap
had been worn in spots and streaks.
Sinuous, angular and eccentric, were
the lines traced up and down the
mountain on either side of little
stream. | then saw numerous OBJ
jects which resembled church stee-
Piles (Methodist or otherwise, and
was happy in the thought that here
was people who had actually more
churches than houses, and wbose de-.
vout footsteps had worn the paths |
had noted. Then we found, with
the aid of glass, other cheese-shap-
ed structures, and the fact dawned
upon us that we were passing over
Oil City-that my steeples were der
ricks, and that the worn appearance
of the many hillsides had been caus-
ed by the feet of a generation of
prospectors. l had a premonition
that it was dangerous to give West
ern Pennsylvania so much credit for
morality. We were now three miles
high, and the Professor had pre-
empted all the loose coats in the par
ty to keep warm The air was very
Octobery. Ahead of us lay the great
unbroken forests on the submits of
the Alleghenies. We were tagging
along at some sixty miles per hour
In this upper current, and the clouds
had assumed grander forms, as
though in keeping with the majesty
of the scene below.
Mr.. Hatfield produced his camera
and obtained, after much trouble,
two excellent cloud effects.
A storm cloud had been running
race with us for many miles, gather
ing breadth and energy as it pro-
gressed, until it had drawn'its shad-
ow over large portion of the coun
try in view. We knew that its shad-
ow once cast upon the aerostat would
cool the gas and cause us to fall
rapidly. So out went all portable
objects to enable us to rise above
the evil, but without effect; down
we went through layer fterlayer of
clouds which tossed about US like
the surf OH some ocean-troubled
strand. We were falling so rapidly
now that the drag rope bid fair to
fail in its mission. 1t was evident
that the balloon could not reach the
shelter of the valley before the
storm would be upon us. Even
while appreciating the emergency
we were approaching, the sudden
view which burst upon us as we
left the last cloud above us, called
up our love for the majestic, and so
we gazed as though spell bound out
upon the rocky billows of these ev-
erlastipg hills far away to the west
ward; one side bathed in brightness
and the other swept in the sullen
gloom of ga storm in the noun
tains." -a.
A crash of trees, tossing indis-
cribable,. and unpleasantly sudden
stopping of our downward course,
and we were fully awake to the fact
that we were in the midst of giant
pines and mountain oaks. A quick fas-
tening of the grapnel to a tree
against which our basket beat none
too soon flor in another moment our
steed was trying to purloin that tree
in dead earnestly an additional LASH
ing with other ropes and we were
safe, but suspended forty feet from
the ground.
True the principle, which 1 have
often seen proven, that friends for
aronants will be on hand wherever
they may land, within afew moments
numbers of helping hands were
ready to do us service. They seemed
to have been waiting around there
on purpose for that Identical balloon
and worked with will in spite of
the drenching rain, while we gently
slid down the drag rope. Trees were
felled by axes and in a very short
time space had been made on the
ground, to which the great air-ship
was pulled with but little injury.
We were upon one of the highest
points of the mountains in the town
of Hebron, Potter county, Pennsyl-
vania, and to the citizens of that
town we are indebted for many acts
of kindness. We were conveyed
by one of them to this point down
the mountain in the twilight, and
await the morning stage which shall
take us "out of the wilderness"
Yours very truly,
FRANK II. TAYLOR.
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