Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1916-07-13
Over the Desert
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

/ found myself in Bombay in May of
the year 1862, after year and half
in other parts of India, and very soon
thereafter it was announced in the
local papers that Professor MazaM,
the celebrated French aeronaut, would
soon make an ascension from the pub.
lie gardens" Three or four days later
l ran across the professor and was sur
prised and gratiiied to find him to be
none other than an old friend whom
had Travelled with in China.
Mazam was now going into balloon
ing just for the fun ana adventure it
might bring him, and when he invited
me to accompany him on his first trip
l was not five seconds in accepting the
invitation. We packed the car with
provisions enough to last week, took
rifles, revolyerS and ammunition along
and made all preparations for long
journey.
Without her burden Of baggage the
balloon could 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 it's har-
Dor were far below us. We at once
started on our journey, making pace
of about fifteen miles an hour.
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. I awoke twice dur
ing the night, but to find all quiet, and
when l turned out first at sunrise it
was to find the Arabian coast almost
under our feet, and soon we were sail
ing over land.
We had no sooner left the water than
the breeze began to subside, and our
pace was reduced to five or six miles
per hour. We knew that countercur-
rent would soon be met with, and both
of us We're looking over the edge of
the basket at the morning panorama
below when we suddenly espied ma
tive village. 1t was, rather, the camp
of some wandering tribe, all the shell
tiers being of canvas 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 report
of gun and the sing of bullet.
cover with the ballastv' shouted Ma
zam and the next instant we were so
far above them that their horses APP
peared to be mere specks.
Along in the afternoon, while sailing
about thousand feet above the earth
at slow rate, we came to an open
country which seemed to be destitute
of human life. and the professor an
| nounced that we would descend and
replenish our stock of water and see
what was to be seen. After the anchor
had. trailed along the ground for about
a hundred yards 1t caught in the limbs
OF fallen tree, and we soon hauled
our craft down and secured her. We
were within ten rods of small water
| course, and while I was filing our wa
ter keg Mazam shot few birds, and
we cooked and ate them on the spot
and decided to make a night of it
where we were. judge it was about
| midnight when Mazam shook me and
whispered:
Come; here is a~sight worth seeing
Be careful not to make any unneces-
sary noise.'
AS | looked over the basket saw
two immense lions, standing about
twenty feet apart and facing each
other.
The animals approached each other
slowly with growls of defiance, each
carefully lifting his paws, but they did
not diminish the distance over rod
before both stopped and stood as if
cut from stone. Suddenly one of the
beasts made rush so swift that we
could not follow him with our eyes.
! and they grappled and rolled over and
over on the ground. Just as we
thought that both would be killed in
the fray one Of them turned tail and
ran, being holly pursued by the victor.
The remainder Of the night passed
| without incident, and as daylight came
! breeze from the north came with it.
After cold bite we lifted our anchor
and We're of, but we had scarcely be-
gun to move before we found ourselves
above a long, drawn out caravan, which
had just taken up its line of march
Perhaps all knew our craft to be bal
loon; perhaps they believed it to be
some great bird. At any rate they be-
gan firing at us, and the very first bull
let struck the basket. 1t was an open
country, and such men as were mount
ed on horses could keep up with us.
snow, then" said Mazam as the bull
| let's continued to sing about us, cover
board with that lSeg Of water, all extra
clothing, everything to give us a lift
out of range
Inside of an hour the balloon began
to approach the earth again, and as We
were driving toward Murbat we threw
| over all the rest of the ballast, even in
Guiding the spyglass and the box of
bread. In short time we began to de-
Scend again however finally landing