The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-11
From the Baltimore Herald.

From the Baltimore Herald
 ~ ETAII,S of a rascinating ballon Vt)b trip by moonlight from London to
 6 Brighton, which was successfully comnIeted in the early hours of the morn- ing, were given to London Express rep resentative.
 The travellers were MT. Frank Hedges Butler. MT. c. F. Pollock and MT. Martin Dale. They ascended from Wandsworth gas works at 9 oclock at night, an hour and a half after the full moon had risen' in MT. Buffers new balloon, the Dolce Far Niente, of 45,oOo feet capacity.
 The journey was made amid the cease- less singing of nightingales sweirng up in one great chorus from 0OO feet pelow' All night. too, the peewits called, and the cuckoos only rested for two short nouns
 Through the glorious light of the moon' so clear and shining that the travellers could see to read the evening papers, summer lightning played continually with
 ,,a,rd sn,endor. It was night of rare delight for the naturalist.
 Brighton was their intended destination' They wished to escape from the sweiter of London and see some new phases or the earth. particularly to see the sunrise rom height of several thousand feet. They took their supper aboard and kept a log of the journey.
 "Tba first thing that struck us as we sailed away over Surrey" said MT. But Ter. was the marvellous effect of the lights of London. It was most impress siye sight. Imagine millions on millions of lights, like a vast starry Armament only upon the earth itself, with the lights
 of the great wheel at Earls court stand ing out for many miles Into the heart or
 Surrey.
 And then our own electric lights were the couse of a most interesting state
 of things, for at an altitude of somthing like POGO feet they attracted a most or
 midgets or gnats. We could not think 1t
 possible they could fly so high. .Right through the night blue light nines yied with the silver moonlight in lighting our way; but when we lost the last of Iondons lights we lost all clues
 to our whereabouts, for we know no ia-
 m,liar landmarks in the sleeping country underneath us.
 aIs we had been able to sail straight course we should have kept our bearings all right. but the electric storm caused
 tha wind to vary so much that 1t was
 only bv descending now and then, and once by making inquiries, that we quite knew where we were. We oio not "ah' to find ourselves at sea.
 .It was delightfully."- cool, the air so sort and genial that we needed no overcoats. The dead quiet (and no one can realize what stiffness means till he has been up in A balloon at nighD was only broken
 hv the songs of birds. There must have
 hoo, hundreds of nightingales singing the whole night through"
 At the great height at which the bal- loon travelled the voices of all the night ingales in many square miles of country below would be heard, as MT. Butler went on to describe, as one constant chorus. It was just after midnight that the cuckoos started calling, and these were heard about half dozen together. Also
 the loe-book contains the following en- try: "2 a. m. Lark again. The peewits never ceased their piaintive notes. sOnce we heard a mournful moaning like the cry of wounded dog con tinued Mir Butler We concluded that 1t was a fox caught in gin.
 Half dozen times we descended to rest. for we did not want to reach Brigh- ton hefore dawn. The wind was never strong. however so our journey was as
 nlacid as we could have desired Some-
 times we dropped in gentlemen's parks the car resting lightly on the ground ana the inhabitants of the mansions close by sleeping. all unconscious of our presence. we never left the car. If one of us had done so the balloon would quickly have risen to an altitude of something like 15.0Oo feet. We could not smoke either. but we could always read, though we much preferred watching and listen- l ing.
 At about ? a. m, just as the first lark scared singing to us, we dropped, thor oughly mystified as to our whereabouts. | in a rookery close to a house. The rooks.