St. Paul daily globe., 1890-05-18
They Spend Two Days and Two
Nights Without Making
a Landing.
Several Arabs AmuSe Them
selves by Firing at the
Balloon.
Thrilling Fight Between Two
Lions Witnessed by the
AepOnauts.

successful ascension, and each day
thereafter for the next ten days the
papers recorded the fact that ''uD to
this time nothing has yet been heard of
the two men who made the ascent on the
Bd inst"
] turned up in Bombay in May of the
year recorded. after year and half in
other portions of India, and very soon
thereafter it was announced in the
papers that "PrOf Mazam, the cele-
brated French aeronaut, would soon
make an ascension from the public gar
dens." Three or four days later l ran
across the professor, and [ was
gratified and surprised to find him to
be none other than an old friend whom
had travelled with in China. He was
an English-speaking Frenchman who
had seen the whole world and taken in
all sorts of adventures, and had pur-
chased the balloon of a genuine aero
naut who had reached Bombay with the
idea of giving ascenSions in all the
larger towns in the country. The aer O.
naut had fallen sick. been deSpOled of
his cash. and he sold his balloon to
MaZam and quit the country in disgust.
MaZam was now going into ballOOning
for the adventures it might bring, and
when he invited me to make the first
trip with him | was not five seconds in
giving him my promise.
The Sd of June was a fete day, and
the city was filled with an immense
crowd. The balloon was new, very
strong, and Mazam had plans beyond
mere ascension. We packed the car
with provisions enough TO last week,
fOOI- alODU rif1pS ppVOlVpTc and amOlu-
milton, and made all preparations for a
long journey. The prevailing winds in
Bombay from May to July are from the
south. or up the Arabian sea, and SO we
privately counted on being waited in
land perhaps to
THE TURKISH BOUNDARY.
The people in general had the idea
that we would descend within q few
miles of the town, and more than a
score of men came forward and vOun-
teered to make the trip with US. With
out her burden of baggage the balloon
could easily have carried five or six
men. AS it was she shot up like bird
when all was ready to let go, and in a
few seconds the city and its harbOr were
far below US. We at once started on
our inland journey, taking a pace of
about fifteen miles an hour, and for
three hours everything worked smoothly
and well. We made the ascent at sharp
2. At O'Clock we met coun-
ter current of air from the north,
and in five minutes the bal
loon had begun to drive back to the
south Ballast was thrown out, and we
leaped up, 10 find the current still
stronger above. We then settled down
as near the earth as it was safe to go,
but still we drove back over our course.
Seeing that we had to go, ballast was
flung out to give us higher altitude,
and we moved to the northwest at the
rate of ten miles an hour. In an hour
we could discern the sea and its coast
line. and as evening came we left the
land and lowered over the Gulf of Cam
bay. This was the last seen of the
balloon Oh shore.
While MaZam had never made an as
cension before. to say nothing of the
management of balloon, he had no
difficulty in handling it, and neither of
us were at all timid. 1t was a serious
matter to find the balloon safling out to
sea, but we ate our supper at an alti-
tude of half mile, and hoped for a
change of wind. At 10 o'clock, Our
progress then not being over ten miles
an hour and sort Of a fog shutting
out the sight of everything below us,
went to sleep. MaZam was to arouse me
at 12 or to go on watch, but at sunrise
both of us opened our eyes and
turned out at the same moment. He
had fallen asleep soon after | did, and
the balloon had been left to take car e
of itself. The compass showed her to
be heading due west at a gentle pace,
but in another half hour we might
have been in the sea, everything being
saturated and heavy with dew. We
were down where we could plainly
make out several steamers and sailing
craft, and the balloon was evidently an
object of great curiosity to the people
on board of some of them. Ballast was
thrown out until we reached an altitude
Of 1000 feet above the sea, and the sun
soon dried the dew and rendered the
balloon very buoyant.
A STIFF BREEZE
also got up from the east, and by 7
O'Clock we were making railroad speed
through the air, bound for the coast of
Arabia. During the entire day. which
was very pleasant one, our craft took
care of herself, never varying over fifty
feet in her altitude and driving so stead
lily that one had but to shut his eyes to
imagine that she was standing still.
From our perch we looked down on
many craft during the day, and were
conSoled by the thought that in case of
accident we were pretty sure to be
picked up. When night came we added
500 feet to our altitude as an offset to
the dew, and as the weather was fine we
both lay down to sleep. | awoke twice
during the night, but to find all quiet,
and when | turned out just at sunrise it
was to find the Arabian coast almost
under our feet. Had the wind held
steadily during the night we should
have reached the coast at or near Mir
bat, but it had changed two OF three
points and drifted US higher up. AS
soon as the sun had dried the dew we
descended until not more than 1000 feet
above the land, and then we made out a
very bleak and sterile country under
our feet. We were on the northeastern
edge of the Arabian desert, and it was
good hour before we saw any signs of
civilization. Meanwhile, both of us
knowing what sort of people we had to
deal with, we had loaded all the fire.
arms and made pile of such baggage
Ds could be thrown away IN case we
wanted higher altitude.
If our air ship had lost any great
amount of gas up to this time we could
not perceive it. Here and there was a
wrinkle in the silk to prove that the
Bafety-valve had been opened to give us
drop, but it did not seem as If all
ounce had escaped by any other means.
We had do sooner left the water than
the breeze began to subside, and our
pace was reduced to five or six miles an
hour. We knew that counter current
would soon be met with, and both were
looking over the edge of the basket at
the moving panorama below, when we
suddenly espied native village. 1t
was, rather, the camp of some wander
ing tribe, all the shelters being of can
vas or skin. We saw camels, asses,
goats and horses, with many people
moving about, and we had only got
sight of them when they saw us. Some
fell down and others ran away, and we
were laughing at their fright when we
heard the sing of bullet and
REPORT OF A GUN.
"Over with the ballast !" shouted
M zam, and the next instant we were
so far above them that their horses ap-