Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-10-30

among the clouds of the lower stratum,
and had before our eyes the magnifi.
cent spectacle OF their formation.
The forces of nature moved them to
and fro liz a kind of sullec majesty.
now piling them into mountain Just
above our heads, and, then. as the
mass toppled to its fall, dispensing it
suddenly, as by blow from the ham
mer of some invisible Titan. making
riffs through which wasaw the fair.
green lands, and quickly closing
them, as the vaporous monsters ROLL
ed into fresh combinations 1t was
the inner temple Of creative power.
perhaps the grandest sight revealed
TO human eyes, and we stood entranc-
ed in silent admiration
Suddenly we felt a breath of cold
ana biting air, as though the world
had revolved beneath us and brought
us over the pole. AT the same mo-
ment the needle upon verticlc scale
(from which l had been reading indi
cations of leveD began to travel with
startling speed. A sound like the
roar of surf filled our ears for an in
slant and then gave place to the noise
of the fete, which had now swelled
into a cry, asst seemed, from every
living thing below. Tissandier threw
out sand, and the sand flew up in our
faces. Our breath came short and
hard and we felt the rushing air as
on a steamer against the wind We
were falling, and suddenly, as though
the great globe above our heads had
given awayl Yet nothing visible had
happened, save that the under surface
of the envelope had all at once grown
hollow and wiiukled like the face of
Fan aged man The clouds we're gone,
as by magic, and the earth was rush
ing at us, with its thousand voices in
full cry. Tissandier stood cool and
firm. dealing out ballast with steady
hand and counting the bags chat re-
manned,
Stand by the anchor he said.
quietly as if at his study table, and
be ready 90 cut away when | tell
you.
Down we went; the dragro
touched the earth trailed across the
fields. with scarcely perceptible differ
ence in our fall The ground seemed
alive with men hurrying from every
side. with here and there horseman
among them. A meadow was Just
beneath, and a quick glance beyond
showed the edge of forest. The bal
loon trembled as from blow, and our
speed across the field was suddenly
doubled. We had fallen into a
squat.
Cut away, said the steady voice
of the aeronaut, and the anchor fell.
Over went a bag of ballast, too, and,
thus suddenly lightened by Thirty
pounds, the balloon regained its poise
at fifty feet above the ground, and
our fall of mile through the air was
safely ended.
Never was sound pIecept more
quickly followed by practical illustra-
ton. Less than an hour before lis
sander had been dwelling on'the need
of reserving ballast as precaution.
There are in the air, said he, 'oc-
casional rarefactions into which q
balloon can fall without the slightest
warning. When you are near the
ground it does not much matter. But
no prudent aeronaut At height of q
thousand meters or more will allow
| his ballast to become nearly exhaust
ed And this was precisely what our
own case showed so shortly afterward,
We encountered partial vacuum, a
veritable pit in the air, where The lift.
ing power of gas suddenly fell TO al
most nothing. Air was, of course, on
the way from some area of a greater
density to restore tue normal pressure,
and of this we had ample evidence
upon reaching the ground. The
anchor struck the soft earth in the
most favorable position, buried half
its 1ukes in the soil, and was snatch
ed out with scarcely an effort by the
flying car. Again and again the
heavy iron bounded fifty feety into the
air. and it was only when score of
stout laborers had laid hold of the
drag rope (at cost of few tumbles),
that the gambols of our playful mon.
ster were brought to an end. And
then Tissandier, while obliging hands
folded and packed the balloon, pro
duced a notebook and his map, and
calmly completed his record OF the
excursion.