LIVELY BALLOONING.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1904, Page 13

LIVELY BALLOONING.

For tho first mile, while slowly rising, tho bnlloon zig-zagged between tho lower currents, until nt approximately 3000 ft it encountered a main sweep of air, which at that height was following tho course of tho valloy below. Tho horizon hai\ been clear at starting, and tho impression was as wo sailed along in tho current that wo should have a fair passage, unless soino cloud, not yet apparent, in our wako could rido after us and overtako us at a higher level, whoro wind volocity is generally greater. Perhaps, thoreforc, we paid insufficient heed to n murky veil ahead of us, which began gathorinc and deoponing and blotten out Iho view. Wo wero soon envolopotl 111 this groy curtain, and thus its true appoaranco was lost to us ; but at Nowbnry, our starting ground, -a largo crowd wns watching us ontoring a vast nnd most menacing thunder-pack, and wns wondering why we did not como down. Tho first real warning which we had of our pedicamont was a flash of lightning close on our qtmrtor. answorea by I another on our other side, and almost before wo could reasliso it wo found we wero in tho very focus of a furious storm which wns being borno on an upper wind, and a wild conflict was already raging around us. Thoro was our own fast curront carrying us westward ; thoro wns tho storm cloud slightly above us hurrying to tho cast; and added to theso Ihero now doscendod a pitiless down-draught of ice-cold air and hail. Wo woro doubtless in a cloud which was discharging lightning over a wide area, each flash, however, issuing from tho immediate vicinity of tho balloon, nnd tho idea formed on Iho writer's mind was that many flashes were lovol— that is, ns if from ono part of tho cloud to another. Any that roached the ground must from our known position havo been at least a mile long. Thoro wns another idea forced upon tho party, which wns that they would be nioro comfortnblo and far siuor olsowhoro; and when suit able opportunity occurred a descent was made to earth. — John M. Bacou, in Longman's Magazine