Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-10-20
THE LOST BALLOON.

No Tidings of the ACCOMPLISHMENT
Theories Which Don't Prove Anything
The Signal officer Hashagan Recently
| Located at st. Paul.
The balloon in which Prof. King and Sigma
Service Officer Hashagan left Chicago ont
week ago to-day is still unheard Of and there
seems no reasonable hope that its occupants
will ever be found alive. Mr.. Holden, the Bos
| ton Journal correspondent who was with King
during his Minnesota trip, and has made sew
eral other ascensons with him, builds some
very cheerful theories of his safety and ex
presses the utmost confidence in the success
of the voyage. The Chicago Times OF Tues
| day thus theories:
| Two theories have been built to cover The
whereabouts of the lost adventurers. Ii they
should turn up east of a north and south line
running through st. Paul, one set OF theories
| win be right. If, on the other hand, they
should have come down west OF that line, the
other set will be right. All possible contin'
gencies have been covered.
ACCORDING TO ONE THEORY
King kept his balloon in the surface
current and drifted across the
state of Minnesota. According to
the other he climbed into the higher regions,
struck an easterly current, and drifted to the
east northeast, descending finally in the woods
of northern Wisconsin or Michigan, or into
Lake Superior, which spreads like mighty
inland sea over many millions of acres of land.
The course of the upper current is not
watched closely, but it is thought that
the general drift of the upper atmosphere for
the past week has been to the northeast. The
higher clouds were moving that way over this
point the day the start was made, and the day
following, as well as the day preceding, but
since then no very close observations seem to
have been taken. On Wednesday. Thursday,
Friday and Saturday of last week,
and Sunday of this week, the surface
winds were blowing from the east toward the
region OF low barometer, which extended
from Pueblo, Col, directly north, taking in
Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, as far as
the weather reports were given. The region
of high barometer extended over all this Sec
ton of country, and although it might be
that there was an
EXTREMELY HIGH CURRENT
moving toward the east, the facts tend to
prove that great surface wave was sweeping
the other way. Indeed, it would appear, from
an examination Of the weather-ta table published
on Saturday morning, that the wind was
centerlng towards the very region In which
the balloon was seen. At Chicago the
wind was east of south, at Milwaukee it was
southeast, at Grand Haven it was east, at Du-
luth it was due east, and at st. Paul 1t was
east At points west of Chicago for two or
three hundred miles the wind was from the
southeast, and it was not until Nebraska was
reached that q change was noticeable.
At Omaha and Yankton the wind was from
the northwest, q current which was maintained
as far west as Denver and Cheyenne. Ii The
balloon had kept on at height OF not more
than mile and a half, it would
have struck the easterly current south of
st. Paul, and been carried over Minnesota at
its narrowest point, somewhere near the for
ty-ffth parallel. Then Dakota would have
been crossed not later than 2 or O'Clock In
the afternoon, and night ought to have found
them at no great distance from the James
river.
THE COUNTRY
through there is not we'll settled ,and it would
be an easy matter for the balloonists to lose
their bearings. There are no distinguishing
marks, and one prairie town Is the exact
counterpart of dozens OF Others scattered
over the landscape. Under the belief that tn ey
were still in Iowa or Minnesota, the aeronauts
might have determined. when night came on,
to proceed few hours longer, and it would
not take many hours to watt them into the
wilderness The wind veering, as the wealth
er bulletin shows it to have done, some
where between Yankton and Brule City
or Fort Pierre, the balloon might have
drifted across the Missouri over into the Mo-
brara ranges beyond, remote from telegraph or
postal stations. There is certainly better rea-
son for believing that the balloon is in west
ern Minnesota, Dakota, or northern Nebraska
than there can be for supposing it
to be lost in the Wisconsin wilder.
ness. Prof. King is not addicted to lofty
flights. The surface current was taking him
in a good direction, and he would not be apt
TO go 70 great elevation in search of a cur
rent THAI would carry him over the dreaded
wilderness of Wisconsin or Lake Superior.
He has horror of woods and of Lake Su-
perior, and it would be absurd and improba-
BILE to suppose that he would go open-eyed in
to the very danger he endured the pangs of
failure and disappointment to avoid less than
month before. When in the Min
nesota COW pasture he refused to listen 10
the opportunities of the correspondents, who
wanted him to take passage In a wind that
would have carried him either into or across
the wilderness. Before going far
TOWARD THE WOODS
he would certainly have landed. He had al day
before him, and could have made good land
ing without trouble.
1t Is urged that the ball on could not have
crossed Minnesota without being seen and
the passage reported, but that objection will
not hold water. 1t was cloudy in that section
on Friday, and as the barometer was high,
the clouds in all likelihood hung low upon
the earth. Three or four thousand feet would
have taken the balloon into or through the
clouds, where it could not be seen.
J. G. HAsHAaAN,
the signal-service officer who is with Prof.
King, has only been stationed in Chicago a
short time. He is a native of Wilmington,
N. c., and has been In the main office at
Washington, in the Office at New York and has
seen hard service on the Atlantic coast.
When the King balloon left Minneapolis he
was in temporary charge of the st. Paul office,
and at that time he said to Mr.. Upton, the
signal service officer detailed to 60 with the
expedition, that he would like very much
to go along. Mr.. Upton could not 60 this
time, but he remembered Hashagan, and
when Gen. Hazen telegraphed that he was de-
sirous that some one from the station 60 with
King, he received the commission. The
choice lay between himself and Sergt. Mitch
ell, and as the latter could not 60 Hashagan
was elected for the sacrifice. He is only
"a years old, but is well up in meteorological
service.
High Toned Tietc of H.