The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1875-09-11
THE LOST EaoNAUr.
(Trom the Cincinnati Times.i

The narrative furnished by the Penn
broke. Ontario Nel1s of the death of Prof.
Donaldson, the eronaut, and OF the con-
fession he made previous to breathing his
last, is full of mournful and tragic inter-
est, especially at the time when the re-
mains of the unhappy Grimwood, are be-
inc buried at his home in Indiana. 1t
relates that lust two weeks subsequent to
the starting of the ill-fated balloon, that
is on the 1st of August, Mr.. Wilson,
one of the editors OF the NetcS. together
with a party offriends, set out for II fish
ing excursion, intending to be gone until
the 1st of September. Their plan vas to
push up the Ottawa river to its junction
with the Montreal, and thence up the lat
ter stream to its source in Lake des
Quines, where they intended to make
their headquarters. 1t was when within
about fifty miles of the lake, amid the
dense and untrodden forest through which
the Montreal river runs, that the doomed
seronaut was found partly protected by
the ruins of a ishinghut, with his left
arm aud leg broken, aud starvation slowly
making its way against the few roots and
berries that he had been able to drag him.
self out to gather. Gangrene had also
set in. in consequence of his unattended
wounds, and even the most unprofes-
sional eye could see that death was in
evitable, aud that u few more hours must
terminate his sufferings. And yet it must
have been grand thing. judging from
Mr.. Wilson's narrative, to note how the
magnificent physique and daredevil spirit
of the man rose triumphant over pain
and death. shattered. starved, dying us
he was, his bearing was as proud and
self-reIiant as In the hour of his perfect
prime, and his voice. through the story
OF all his snfferings, was firm to the last
The narrative which Mr.. Wilson noted
down from the lips of the dying man is
two long for our space, but the first por-
ton is so full of thrilling interest that
we give it in Donaldson's S own words.
THE fact that the wind, upon our first
sisiug, carried us directly over the lake.
did not distrub me particle, for that had
been my very plan from the first. The
breeze Was a stiff one, and its trend was
TO carry US directly across into Michigan,
dong before the natural loss of gas could
have exceeded the amount of ballast that
could throw out. Once in Michigan. |
intended to seek 4 landing in the woods,
die quiet until our absence had given us
sufficient advertising. aud then report ut
the nearest town The storm upset all
our calculation. 1t struck us abont mid
way In the lake, and at an elevation of
abont 1000 feet. It needed bat few
moments to show me that disaster was
inevitable. You see storm is not neces-
sarily fatal to balloon. provided it be
slow in its rise and steady IN its progress.
The ballon moves as rapidly as the
air and thus escapes injury. Bnt this
storm was succession Of furious gusts.
collapsing the balloon on one side before
it could yield on the other, and driving
the gas ont of the neck in such volumes
as almost to stife u.s. OF course to ia ten
up the neck would have resulted iHim-
mediate bursting. We had to let the gas
go. though our lives were goiug with it.
The rain, too. added greatly to the weight
Of the balloon, and ia less than ten min-
utes all our ballast was out aud we were
still settling. An Immediate discharge of
all the ballast at the time the storm struck
US might possibly have shot the balloon
up clear of the storm level but feared
at the first moment to risk a counter cur
rent that would carry us up the lake, and
in the next we were SO stupetied with the
escaping gas as to be able to work only
with great difficulty and slowness 1t
was only when the ballast was all
gone, and our descent rapid, that the
thought forced its way to my mind that
one of us must die to save the other.
think the thought appeared to Mr..
Grimwood ut the same moment as to N.Y.
self, only with this difference, that to me
it was only new element of danger that
had confronted all my life-time-I faced
it'quietly- TO him it had an appalling
strangeness - he sat covering in the
basket, his teeth chattering. his face
aivid, his hair blowing wildly in the
storm. He vas completely unnamed,
and pitied him deeply, butt was life
or death. For the moment the thought
occurred to me of giving him a chance
for his life by drawing lots but in the
next saw il would be to him only an
other mode of death, for he had not the
nerve even if had the experience TO prop
~erly manage the now almost hopeless bal
loon. At that moment, and it seems to me
khe strangest thing on the journey. there
flashed across my mind passage of
Blackstone--I studded law little bit
once in my life, which refers to two men
on plank at sea. % Men think very
rapidly at such times. sir, and all this
occurred more quickly than can tell it
to you How the matter would have
ended in my mind cannot say. had
not seen at that moment Mr.. Grimwood
trying to draw derringer from his pocket.
His hand trembled so that have no idea
now that he could have hit me; but the
movement was sufficient to end my hesi-
tation. All the instinct to self-preserva-
ton ieaped to my muscles, and it seemed
70 me but single wave of my hand be-
lore drimwood was falling towards the
iake, ana the balloon shooting up above
sne storm. The scream of agony which
4ns poor wretch trailed down to the wa