The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-08

dashed against the mountain by a
powerful wind current Grand at Il:4l
our doubts were settled as we scared
above the highest peak of the noun
tain 10.616 feet), reaching height OF
1882 feet above sea level. Our course
did not diverge a moment from
straight line When we were $500 feet
over the valley we travelled horizon
tally ten feet a second; when we were
$4,000 feet high we moved horizontally
| thirty-three feet a second, but now we
went first at eighty-two feet, then at
eighty weight feet a second, over mile
minute.
"The currents of air in the valley
give not the least intimation of the
direction or force of the upper currents.
Our course. so long as we were in the
upper current of air, was astonishingly
straight, for we diverged from the di-
rect route in our course hardly half a
mile to right or left. We were borne
by a mighty current of the air sea.
'At 1856 we were 1883 feet above
sea level. and then we descended slight
ly. At 3:43 we reached the highest point
attained during our voyage, %, 44O feet
Might Have Gone to Paris.
1.-The balloon was in such good con-
dition that we could have stayed ur
in it all night, and we had plenty OF
ballast, so the captain asked us:
Do you want to travel all night?'
"a glance at my map showed me that
we were moving direct for Paris, if the
wind still held, but we were travelling
so fast that we should be in Paris be-
fore midnight, and on the ocean before
daybreak.
This would never do, and as a de-
scent by night is accompanied by many
I n 11ra dn1 no Io,,
now if at all. From 3:43 to 4:23 we de-
seconded from %, 400 feet to 1920 feet, at
a rate of 363 feet a minute Almost
seven feet a second.
Beneath us was a sea of mist.
Its going too fast; drop a sack OF
sand overboard-now another sack the
captain shouted.
THE sun was hidden behind clouds
We were passing through a shower of
sand, for the balloon was actually fall
ing faster than the sand we had thrown
out. 1T was the most intensely thrill
ing and dangerous moment of the voy-
age. Could we stop her tremendous de-
| scent? If not our contact with the earth
would Well nigh annihilate u.s. Imag-
inc falling a mill and a half.
But over went more ballast, an6
more-and yet more. We had dropped
almost a mile when we slackened as we
passed into the clouds of mist. 1t was
depressingly gloomy and gray about us
We looked down. Spelterini was the
| first to see the straight white lines OF
l.streets shining in village. All was al
last we'll. The mist did not reach sc
far as the earth. We could now see
how to land. but there was strong
east wind. We sailed over the red roofs
of village; it was Riviere.
80 Half a Sack 0f sand overheard rr
we shall land among the hop-poles-
ouick.'
'sAnd as we floated to the east we
reached an open, treeless plateau, with
woods behind.
Here it was or nowhere!
Let &c. the anchori"
THE anchor caught, the vents were
opened, and hardly twenty seconds
later the balloon lay half empty on the
ground. 1T was 4:37 p. m.
142 Miles IL 314 Minutes.
! "The balloon had passed over 14s
miles in 344 minutes, or five hours and
forty-four minutes. In the upper cur
rent it had Travelled lis miles in 2S5
i minutes. This is forty and one-hali
feet a second. We had been travelling
at railway speed
/ .sBut you do not feel the speed in the
balloon You seem to hover stationary
in that wondrous silence. There. was
not the least jolting, we did not know
that we were moving unless we looked
infently ait the. earth beneath and saw
iii slipping BIZ. We felt the motion as
little as we feel the motion of the earth
faround the sun.
III Our balloon journey had beer
neither the highest nor the furtherest
/ ever taken, but it was the first thai
/ had been taken over a specified noun
tain, and the first in which a balloon