The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-11-04
PERILS OF BALLOONING

luaI OI MI. LII Mountain, tnc ueTOhdHl, anu
Mr.. John 4, Haddock, who accompanied
! Kim.
They started from Watertown, New York
IN September, 1859, in the fine balloon At
lantic, and shot up some three thousand
feet almost in straight line Then north
east current caught it, and away they drove
! q; the rate of mile IN two minutes, rising
as they went. When they got to an altitude
! of three miles and half, they began to
move eastwardly. Cloudsnow hid the earth
entirely from view, and the sun went down.
| In that tracklcss waste Of air they could
neither tell their direction nor the rate at
which they were going, Gradually, how
| ever, they descended to the surface Of the
clouds, and iloated on them as boat does
. on water, lit up by the clear twilight La
Mountain then opened the valve, and as the
balloon descended through the clouds it
became impenetrably dark.
BY the time they got clear Of the clouds
they found themselves not more than 500
feet from the ground and, as far IS they
could distinguish in the darkness, over
vast unbrokcn forest They knew there
were trees, not water, below, as in the still
ness, they heard some sand they threw out
rattle on the leaves. After this, they made
six different attempts to land az intervals Of
ten or fifteen minutes, rising each time.
On the third descent they came down on
the surface Of a small lake, set IN the woods,
This would not do, and throwing out bal
last, they rose again. On fourth attempt
they came down by very large tree, and
laid hold Of the branches TO try and make
out where they were. But they could make
out nothing but tai! mountain before
them.
Once more they rose, and on the sixth
attempt caught a tree AGAIN. 1t was a
spruce and tins settled the question. They
were far up in the forests Of Upper Canada,
Making fast their balloon TO the tree, they
prepared to pass the night as best they could,
and slept quite soundly till the rain began
to fall in torreTts.
Daylight found them thoroughly soaked
and perplexed, but not disheartened They
must rise again, and they threw out the re-
naming ballast and everything they could
spare, and once more shot up. As the suns
rays beat on the wet balloon, the gas eX-
pandes, and they shot up like rocket.
LaMountain again touched the valve, and
they came nearer the surface.
And what view As fur as the eye
could reach stretched one unbroken sea Of
tree-tops. There was now no alternative.
They must descend. Discharging the gas,
the Atlantic settled down between two tall
spruce trees, and caught in the limbs about
eight feet from the ground. They leapcd
down and faced the situation. After con
suting, they concluded to strike southeast,
50 as to reach the Ottawa River and, bid
ding adieu 10 the Atlantic, they started,
The woods We're wet and swampy, and their
progress was slow. Atlast, after walking
about mile, they reached a creek, and to
their Joy, found rude marten.trap, with
rude clearing. This gave them hope, and
they plodded on, throwing off their wet
stockings and drawers which impeded their
progress. They crossed the creek on
round log, polling their way along, and en-
tered swamp. 4 blaled path through the
woods soon gave them new installmCnt of
courage, which they needed sadly, as they
were Wei, weary anu laullSHtu'
When they had plodded on about five
miles, they came in sight of lumber
shanty, and they rushed eagerly forward.
1t was deserted and had evidently been so
for manga day. Several roads led from it,
They tried them all, one after another; but
all ended in thick woods--they led TO no
main thoroughfare, In one Of these roads
they found two tiny white frogs, and these
they deyoured at once headquarters
only, but forequarters, head, bones and all.
They spent cheerful night in the hut,
endeavoring TO cover themselves with some
old musty straw to get a little warmth, all
ingenuity failing TO get a spark Of fire.
In the morning they took some boards
of the roof, and, making raft, started
down the creek. They were within three
miles Of clearing, but this they did not
know; and, although they heard a gun
twice, were unable to make their shouts
! heard, or TO make out the exact direction.
SO they kept on down the creek, and en-
tered lake, around which they padded for
five miles and, reaching an outlet, entered
it, but after hard days work found them.
selves just where they had abandoned their
balloon.
Another miserable night, the rain pouring
IN torrents, found them at day break on the
verge of despair; but, nerviDg themselves
for u last struggle, they again set out, and
reached rapid Around this they had to
drag their raft, stick by stick, and so weak
were they that they repeatedly Then
they put the raft together below the rapid,
and kept on TO another lake, gathering wild
cranberrics as their only resource against
starvation. All day they padded along the
lake in search Of an outlet, but found none.
Another awful showering, dreary night,
and gray, hazy. comior,less morning.
They were dying, starving, perishing by
inches Weak and exhausted as they were,
their only hope was in keeping on in search
OF the stream into which the lake cmptied /;
but they mistook n small stream for il, and
had to turn back 10 the lake heavy hearted
, enough.
Mr. Haddoek was about to give up in
despair, and LA Mountain WAS trying 10
cheer him up, when they heard gun