The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-22
/. LOST IN WOODS.
Pilot Isle de France Tells Thrill
ing Story.
They Wandered in the Canadian
Wilderness for Hours.
A SENSATIONAL DROP.
4 SENSATIONAL DROP.
SchmOlk Relates Experience
Over Lake Michigan.
Falling 10000 Feet He Was
Prepared for Death.

New York, Oct. 22.-Remarkable stor-
les of the thrilling adventures of those
who seek supremacy in the sport of
long distance ballooning are told by
four distinguished Frenchmen who have
just arrived in New York after flights
for the international cup. The four ae-
ronauts are jacques Faure and Ernest
Schmolck, who left ST. Louis in the Con-
dor and Alfred LIE Blanc and w. De
Mumm, who started in the Isle de
France.
The story of the Isle de Frances
flight, as told by De Mumm, is as fol-
lows:
Leaving st. Louis on Monday we
headed straight for Michigan. We sail
ed over Lake Michigan for six and a
half hours and then over Lake Huron
into Canada. We found ourselves soon
above a wilderness of Canadian forest.
The wind became stronger and in an in
slant we were being swept on and on
at 60 miles an hour over an un1nVlt-
ing country with no signs of habitatlon.
Saw Deer, Moose and Elk.
Below US packs of wolves raced
growing and swapping and looking all
too anxious for prey. For two hours
we were lost in that great wilderness.
At o'clock Wednesday morning we
sighted a railroad track and knew we
were on the highway to civilization.
We lost not then an instant in descend
ing.
as we started our ride downward moose,
elk deer and many other animals rails
ed their heads and scampered off as our
monster-looking craft appeared to de-
scend on them.
Once on the ground after a perllous
descent we started out to find some
human beings. We walked and ran and
rested and after tramping five and
half hours came to farm house where
we got food and drink.
I'VE asked for aid In getting our ball
loon and the next day the farmers ac-
companied us into the woods, where we
packed the parts together. The task OF
getting them out of the forest looked
Impossible and we came away after
offering $500 to anyone who would get
the balloon to railroad.
The failure of the Condor to make
longer flight is ascribed by NJ. Faure
to the condition of his balloon, which
was weakened, he says by exposure to
wind and weather on the deck of the
steamship which brought it from Eur
ope.
Dropped Nearly Two Miles.
The most thrilling feature of the
Condor's flight was a sensational drop
from a height of nearly two miles to a
point less than fifty feet above the
surface of Lake Michigan. M.
Schmolck told of this experience as
1T was late on Monday night. We
were at a height of something over
10000 feet, when suddenly we struck
a zone of air where the temperature
was close to zero. The gas in the
balloon began to condense rapidly and
we started falling. We shot down
and down and down. We strove tran
tically to check our descent. AFTER
sheer drop of 5000 feet there came a
brief halt and we thought we were
safe, but the relief was only for a
moment. Again the balloon began to
drop. Bags of ballast We're hurled
overheard and splashed IN the black
and ominouS waters beneath. linen
we sacrificed the oxygen tanks and
everything that we could land on,
but still we dropped
Thought Their Time Had Come.
I'VE we're within a hundred feet
of the surface of the great lake Whep
we discarded our shoes and coats and
les. believing that in an instant we
would be plunged into the water.
Then. lust when we thought ourselves
lost, the balloon was halted on its
downward flight We were only forty
five feet above the surface of the
water. We breathed a sigh of relief
as the wind carried US over the water
and we sighted land.
"Our attempt to descend was fraught
with new perils. The balloon sailed
miles over the rough country at ex-
press train speed, dragging the basket
! in. its wake, which was dashed against
fences, farmhouses and three chin
news during the onslaught. Fences
We're bowIed over and small trees
knocked down. Finally stout barbed
wire fence caught US and held long
enough to throw NJ. Faure and myself
! headlong into a marsh filled with mud
| DIV water. We half swan and hall
| waded to terra firma and found we
were in Two Rivers, Wis.,