The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-03-29
RE,ADI To ASCEND

lance. The toot of a motor-horn and
church bells are other sounds that
carry very far, and constantly bring
back to ones memory the existence OF
life on earth. Personally I do not
care for the middle course in balloon
ing and my tastes are divided be-
tween trailing" and getting above
the clouds. In the second case,
there, indeed, the magic charm Of
ballooning grips you in full, and you
feel in another world and another
life. The sun shines holly in blue
sky, while beneath your little car and
all around it is a wonderland of
clouds, over and through which you
gently sail, the shadow of the balloon
distinctly outlined on the white mass
of vapor. Some of the effects are
marvellous; every cloud has a differ
ent color and a different shape. I
have seen some purply-blue ones ly-
ing perfectly horizontally across the
sky, and great, spiked, craggy, white
ones coming down on the top of them,
for all the world like the glaciers of
Spitzbergen descending to the sea.
Then little detached white clouds,
like small icebergs, would float across
the darker mist, completing the il.
fusion perfectly. The balloon would
sail round the edge of some huge,
solid-looking mass, that offered such
delightful peeps of smooth stretches,
mysterious caverns, and untrodden
heights that one longed to anchor
in one of its many little bays, and
land in this wonderful new country
to explore its beauties.
If you have once been in cloud.
land you can never forget its charm,
and even from solid earth and
amongst life's prosy occupations you
look at the clouds with new eyes, for
they are all old friends. You have
been amongst them and know what
they look like from the other side.
feel quite a sadness when it is
necessary to leave cloud-land, and
sink through the mist to see the
world, with its white roads and
clumps of trees, becoming visible
once more.
1 am often asked what trailing"
means. The trail-rope, or guide-rope,
that hangs from the balloon is gen.
orally $50 feet long, so that when you
are 200 feet from the ground you
have so feet of rope trailing over the
country behind you. AS soon as the
end of the rope touches the ground
you are trailing" 1t slackens your
speed, but steadies sFe balloon enor-
mously, keeping her always at the
same height and enabling you to
travel for quite long time with very
little expenditure of ballast. Trail
ing is grand fun, but it has. it's draw
backs. To begin with, people you
meet imagine that, having descended
so low, you wish to alight altogether,
and chase the trail-rope in hopes of
capturing the balloon. A good deal
of shouting Is necessary to explain
that is not your intention, and some
individuals get quite huffy at the idea
that you do not wish to alight in
their field. The long, wriggling line
of rope does not damage in the open
country, but over houses and flower
beds it is a different matter, and it
is often wiser to sacrifice little bal
last and rise above other peoples
chimney-pots. ON a calm day it is
very pleasant to be abba to descend
gently to the ground by simply open
ing the valve; and after you have
stayed there long enough and wish
to go on, by discharging small
quantity of ballast you can easily rise
again to quite good height. Mr.. f.
H. Butler told me that in one of hts
recent ascents he came down no few.
er than eight times during the trip.