The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-02-01
Chapter V Continued

plane.
Chapter V Continued
In the city we picked up a case
OF Scotch for medicinal purposes
the purifying of water and snake
bites. We joked about the recipes
on the way back. I recommended
one cup of Scotch to a jigger of wa
ter-it works.
A real night take-off from Trini-
dad-we were airborne in the dark
ness at $40 a. m. As the wheels
left the ground realized very quick
ly how great load we were lifting.
This was the first time we had TAX
en- off with full load of fuel, and it
seemed to me that ! almost had TO
break my arms to keep the tail
from going all the way back to the
jungle-for all practical purposes
the Fortress tried a loop. Ut must
have been that case of Scotch, add
ed suddenly to the other sixty thou
sand pounds.) Finally we got the
ship rigged properly and climbed
on top of the clouds at eight thou
sand feet. Later we had to 90 high
er to keep from going through the
heavy tropical thunderheads: with
our overload, neither Doug nor I
wanted to risk the turbulence that
we knew was there.
AS the sun came up We could look
down through holes at intervals and
see the dark Atlantic near the Gui-
anas. There was a thick tropical
haze from the base of the clouds
down to the water, giving it all an
eery appearance. Later on, through
the breaks saw the mouth of a big
river emptying Northeast into the
sea. It was the Rio Maroni, which
divides French and Dutch Guiana,
and 1t reminded me that In 1887
had made a flight up this same
jungle stream, looking in vain for
the lost pilot, Paul Redfern.
Over DEVILS Island at 9:20, saw
by our chart that we were only five
degrees North of the equator. Com
ing down lower to look at the French
penal colony, we found that although
the temperature was comfortable on
top of the haze at six thousand feet,
down in the soup near the water
we had difficulty breathing. Pass
ing on over another river identified
as the Rio Oyapok, we went out
over the Guianas into Brazil at 9:55
a. m. Cruising low at eight hundred
feet, we got some unforgetable
views of the steaming Brazilian jun
gle.
Looking out to sea, we noticed
that the blue color already was
changing to the murkiness of the
Amazon, though we were about
hundred miles from its mouth. Fly
ing low, I noted that the hump of
Brazil near the coast was fiat and
green and hot as hell-temperature
ninety-six and humidity about nine
ty-nine per cent at 1855 a. m. We
reached the mouth of the greatest
river in the world at 1875 E.W.T.
Here the width of the Amazon is
about one hundred and fifty miles.
Boys will have their fun too, no
matter if you are flying low over
the greatest of rivers. AS we crossed
the equator-old Zero Degrees Lat.
at 1855 a. m, at West Longitude
49 degrees 80 minutes-I saw those
of my crew who had been in the
South latitudes before take paper
cups of water and drop them on
the heads of those who were unini-
tiated, thus making them subjects of
the sacred realm of Jupiter Rex as
identified from the realm of Neptune
Rex on the sea. We crossed the ANA
zon, from just West of Point Grossa
over Bahia Santa Rosa to Mixiana Is
land, thence to Isla da Marajo. This
last island in the mouth of the
river is one hundred miles wide and
reputedly has more cattle on the
single ranch than any other ranch
in the world. Soon we came to Rio
Para, crossed it in a thunderstorm,
and were over Belem, where we
landed in the b)ackness of tropical
rain at 12:40 E.W.T.
On April 4, we left Belem for Ma
tai at 6:55 a. m, and climbed to
ten thousand feet in order to top as
much of the cumulus as possible. We
had to skirt one great anvil-head
reaching up into the sub-strato-
sphere near Bahia San Luiz. This
storm covered about fifty miles, but
we got around it without going into
its turbulence. As we went on
South of the equator the haze di-
minished gradually and the country
became dry, making us think we
were over western Texas. We land
ed at Natal, our jump-off point for
the South Atlantic crossing, at 1925
E.W.T.
This was to be a real days flight.
For We were not to be able to spend
the night at Natal Our run from
Belem to Natal of nine hundred