TERRIFIC DESCENT OF AN AERONAUT.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 688, 23 July 1870, Page 2

TERRIFIC DESCENT OF AN AERONAUT.

The Saginaw (Michigan) Enterprise says:—On the occasion of Professor La Mountain's recent balloon ascension from Bay City, he met with a terrible adventure, and very narrowly escaped death. The balloon was filled before starting to its utmost tension, but owing to recent repairs, looked badly, so that after one or two unsuccessful attempts Mr Hudley, who was to have accompanied Professor La Mountain, was obliged to get out of the car. Nr Hedley had the eatables, instruments of observation, and the tissue paper used to ascertain the ascending and descending force of the balloon, and as he stepped out of the car, before he could transfer the articles named, those who had hold of the car let go, and the balloon shot up with a rapidity that carried it to an altitude of two miles within a few minutes. A perfect gale of wind was blowing at the time, and a moment after rain and sleet commenced falling. The balloon was still ascending when lost to sight in cloud. Professor La Mountain says that it became all at once intensely cold. The clou! he entered was one swimming mass of snow-flakes, interspersed with raiu, which formed a frosty-work on the netting of the balloon. The earth was lost to view. By tearing up his handkerchief and throwing out shreds he became conscious that he was passing upward with wonderful rapidity, and along with the current of air eastward towards the lake. Fearing that he might be carried into the lake, and without a pound of ballast to regulate his descent, he reached for the valve rope, with the intention of lowering himself gradually. To his surprise the valve would not open. The rain and sleet had frozen the valve so tight as to resist the pressure from below. Putting his whole strength to the task he gave a strong pull on the rope, pullingout the ironstaples attachingthe rope to the valve, the rope falling down in the car. The balloon was mounting up faster than ever. It had passed the storm cloud, which was a mile below, and the heavens above were as clear, and the sun shining as bright as at midday in June. But little time was lost in speculation. He had attained a height of over three miles. The balloon could not burst, for when the expansion became too great the gas would escape from the flue or valve below, which was open; but he was fearful of being carried into or over the lake without having made preparations for such an event. Mounting the hoop overhead he reached for his knife, only to find he had left it on the ground. Clinging to the ropes with one hand, with the other and his teeth, after some exertion, he succeeded in tearing a rent in the balloon, from the bottom ten or fifteen feet upwards. Then serving the opposite side the same way, he descended to the car, to watch the pro. gress. For a few minutes the balloon kept ascending, and then, as the gas escaped, it reached an equipoise, and a moment after commeuced gradually to descend to the earth. Every instant increased its downward speed. The professor says that he heard the cloth tearing, the rents enlarging, until, with a crash that sounded like a death knell, the cloth gave way to the pressure, opening a seam on both sides from the bottom to the top. The gas escaped instantly, leaving not a thousand cubic i feet, while the air rushed in, filling up the vacum, the balloon acting as a parachute. The cloth, bellying out, formed a strong resistance to the atmosphere, and retarded the descent. He remembered distinctly passing through a cloud, and the sensation on regaining the sight of the earth He has an almost indistinct recollection of approaching the earth's surface. A dull moaning like the surging of the waves greeted his ears, the flapping of the cloth became louder, and a moment after he became unconscious. On regaining his senses, he found himself lying in the woods, and his balloon was some yards distant. Several persons who had seen the balloon descend had come to the scene, and were standing near. They afterwards assisted him. His arms and legs were badly bruised, and himself stunned, but no bones were broken or internal injury sustained. The spot where he fell is seven miles from Bay City. He stopped over * night at a farmhouse near by, and returned to Bay City. The time that to was in the air was less than thirty minute?, and the reason, that he was not carried further on, was on account of passing through different currents of air.