Year: 1872

small basket of provisions, kindly fur
nished by Mr.. Morse, landlord of the
Pemigewasset House. The supply was
ample for our supper in case we were un-
able to reach habitation the same night,
but it would have been made much lar
ger had Mr.. Morse or ourselves enter
tained even the most distant idea that we
were to take night ride over the inter
minable wilds of Maine and Canada,
with chance of dropping into their in
nermost and most inaccessible recesses.
Our next important item of personal bag
gage was a gallon can filled with water
An Aneroid barometer, dry and wet bulb
thermometers manufactured by Huddle-
stone of Boston, Colton's Railroad, Town
ship and Distance Map of New England,
relief map of the White Mountains,
two pocket compasses, two pairs Of opera
glasses, note book, small flask of bran
dy and an umbrella made up the rest.
The people who had gathered to see us
off doubtless marveled at our selection
of the latter article, but they would have
deemed our choice wise one could they
have seen what good service it rendered
few hours later. All the rain which
fell upon the top of the balloon soon
found its way down the sides of the globe
into the basket, and the umbrella spread
in the hoop above our heads gave us shell
ter, at least to some extent.


We were enabled to take three bags of
sand ballast, which, in its moist condi-
tion, probably weighed about two hun
dred and twenty five pounds. Strange
as it may seem, fully one half this amount
was left in the bags when we descended


showing that the balloon had expended
considerably less of its buoyancy than
two thousand feet of hydrogen gas would
furnish, Notwithstanding the lapse of
nearly thirteen hours, while the actual
weight the balloon had to carry was from
time to time increased by the rain. A
thousand cubic feet of pure hydrogen is
supposed to be capable of lifting sixty
pounds, and this estimate would give the
whole machine a lifting power of from
960 to to 1920 pounds. Allowing three
hundred pounds for the weight of the
balloon itself (gas envelope, netting and
basket and two hundred and twenty five
pounds for the ballast. the remaining
weight was divided about as follows
Passengers, three hundred and twenty


five pounds; anchor, thirty five pounds
anchor rope and guide rope, fifty pounds


barometer &C., twenty five pounds.


At eighteen minutes past four O'Clock


we bade Plymouth adieu and assembled


not swiftly but moderately, toward the


murky locking clouds. The surface cur


rent was apparently from the north, OIL


northwest, but some of the clouds haG


been drifting northeasterly in the direc


tion of the mountains Precisely wha


direction we should take in the uppe


currents, it was difficult to determine a


the time of our departure, since the low


er stratum of clouds were drifting will
the light surface wind. As we rose iron


the earth a shout went up from the grea


crowd of people who had braved the rail


to witness the spectacle, while the bant


played the highly appropriate air, u


in a balloon which they afterward


changed to the cheering notes of ." Yam


kee Doodle" We acknowledged tn


cheers of our friends below as best W


might, and meanwhile passed littl


south or southeast of our starting point


soon, however, gaining a northeastern
course as we rose into the clouds at tn


hight of about a thousand feet Ply
mouth and the surrounding country wit


the winding streams-the Pemigewasse
) and Bakers Rivers-were beneath Gu
feet. The track upon the Fair Ground
appeared like an elongated circus ring


and Floral Hail. the sheds, cattle pen
and band stand were reduced to mer
blocks or curiously fashioned toys :
The white houses and the great hotel i
the village seemed smaller still, or me1
dots in the great field of dark green
The people below appeared like swari
of flies upon a green carpet. There wa
no sunlight to brighten the scene and til
e valleys looked sombre and f1rbldding.-
The mountains seemed piled up to tl
north and northeast like the dark wave
: OF tempestuous sea, but no sooner ha
:. we turned our eyes in those direction
than we began to enter the clouds an
. the mountains were obscured from viey
: AMID THE CLOUDS.


: The balloon probably remained in sigl
of the people upon the Fair Grounds Fl
: teen or twenty minutes, or at least v
I thought they might catch occasions
It glimpses of us through the interstices
T the clouds for that length of time, sim
: Plymouth itself was plainly in our sigl
u for the most part until after half pa
n four o'clock. The lower stratum
t clouds was made up of feecy mass
which obscured the earth only in spot
/ and some of the vapor we could see thrC
o though dimly. Campton was thus