Page:The Independent (1905-06-01).pdf/63

 1227 ing tremendously, and it was only by throwing out a quantity of ballast that we were able to get ourselves loose. The lightened balloon immediately made a terrifying leap upward, piercing some low clouds like a cannon ball. That was a sensation. We were still shooting up, up; and it was time to have recourse to effective means, to open the maneuver valve and let out a portion of our gas. It was done in a moment. The balloon began descending again, until its guide rope again dragged on the ground. There was nothing but to bring the trip to an end, because only a little sand remained in the ballast bags.

I watched my captain’s maneuvers. He who would navigate an airship should first practice landing in a spherical balloon, take my word for it. The wind being strong enough, it was necessary to seek shelter for this last crowning act of air-captainship. A corner of the forest of Fontainebleau was coming toward us. We turned the extremity of the wood, sacrificing our last ounce of ballast. Here the trees protected us from the violence of the wind, and we cast anchor, at the same time opening wide the emergency valve for the wholesale escape of the gas. And so we landed—plump !—without dragging, and stood watching the balloon die. It was almost a pitiful sight. Sprawling in the field, it was losing the remains of its gas in convulsiye movements, like a great bird that dies beating its wings. Then we packed the silk envelope, anchor, rope and utensils in the basket and hired a man to haul it to the nearest railway station.

After two more such personally conducted trips, in which I sought to do all the maneuvering with my own hands under M. Machuron’s kind instruction, I ventured in a spherical balloon, and during this early period I made very many trips, landing in all parts of France. Often they were prolonged into the night; and no sporting sensations are more diversified and agreeable than those of night ballooning. One is alone in the black void—yes, in a murky limbo; but one seems to float there without weight, without dimensions, without a surround-