A MARVELLOUS BALLOON VOYAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1162, 7 March 1874, Page 8

A MARVELLOUS BALLOON VOYAGE.

( The Graphic.)

It is said — we are obliged to begin in this cautions manner, pending more authentic information — that a packet of letters has been picked up at Natal, and forwarded by the Colonial Government to the General Post Office, Paris. How came this Parisian post-bag in the Colony of .Natal, which is between fivo and six thousand miles distant from the capital of France ? Well, it would appear that of all the balloons which left Paris, freighted with news for the outer world, during the German siege of 1870, there are only two unaccounted for. One of those, the Jacquard, manned by a sailor, named Prince, was seen sailing westwards over the P>ritish seas towards Newfoundland. Despairing, perhaps, of his personal safety, but mindful of Nelson's Trafalgar motto, the gallant follow dropped a lettei'-baj, which was picked up and delivered by some fishermen. He then vauished into space, never probably to re-appear in this world. The fate of the other aeronaut, M. Lacaze, couimav.der of the Richai'd Wallace, which k'fb Paris on the 27th January, 1871, just before the capitulation, is shrouded in even darker mystery. Near Rochefort, being then close to the sea, ho was spoken to by some peasants, and advised to stop. But wishing to got nearer to Bordeaux, he disregarded tlioir prudent recommendation, and when Ja^t seoa was drifting in a south-westerly direction. This course would naturally take him into the middle of tho Atlantic ; but M. de Fonvielle, the well-known aeronaut, thinks that some lateral current may have diverted his vessel from her coursu, and projected Mm upon the continent of Africa The dis- j tance botweon Eochefort and Natal seems , enormous, compared with ordinary baL ( loon voyages j but it is known thas one of

[the Paris balloons did actually reach Norway, and M. de Fonvielle holds that a skilfully-managed balloon, well supplied with ballast, might make a very long journey. We shall shortly learn, nd doubt, whether the whole story is of thd ! canard order. If it is not, and a bundld !of letters, evidently despatched froni Paris in the autumn of 1870, has really been found, the next thing will be td search for traces of the balloon itself, and of its unfortunate commander. Should it be proved beyond donbt that this jjrolonged aerial voyage has actually been performed, the feat of crossing the Atlantic by balloon, recently announced by some American projectors, may emerge from the shadowy cloud land of theory into the solid region of fact.