A Perilous Balloon Adventure.

Manawatu Herald, 21 September 1895, Page 2

A Perilous Balloon Adventure.

w ■ The Paris correspondent of a London paper gives an account of an exciting balloon adventure. M. Chesnay, a well-known asronaut, went up in the car of a largef bajlofm ■ on a recent Stfnday and came to the ground the same evening at Fallon. On the following Monday morning he filled bis balloon with the gas ha had brought with him in a small balloon, and ascended once mor«. He passed successfully over Pont de Buide and Delle, and saw claariy the little corner of Switzerland which separates France from Alaaoe Lorraine. Suddenly when just above the frontier of Alsace, he heard the report of firearms, and then th« hissing of a bullet. The shots were, he says, fired at his balloon by the German Customhouse men. Being anxious to get beyond the range of their rifles as quickly as . possible, M. Chesnay threw a sack of ballast out of the car, and in a few moments found himself at a,n altitude of about four thousand metres. His balloon, however, descended again, and he saw Mulhouse, Basle, and the Rhine. Id a short time the balloon was floating over the territory of the Grand Ducby of Badan? Wishing fco ascertain exactly where he was, M. Chesnay descended rajfcher too close to the earth, for the?- car of his balloon struck a hill. Fortunately he was not hurt, but a sack of ballast and the barometer being je; ked out of the car, the balloon onoe more shot up high, ; The wind was very strong and soon it beoaijje impossible to maintain the ballooqv any e i"^tif^K^Tk^la|MKn» of the gale ' prfiventel t^anrodPS' from fixing itaelf from the ground. The persons, iwhp tried to hejp rOguld not keep up with the' balloon^ wfiwm was dragging the car on the ground and bounding tip into the *air at a furious rate. Telegraph wires ;W«r& ; broken like ..thread, telegraph potts knocked down like ninepins, and canals wer.e^crc»ssed jyithjl, Cheinay at the bofc^mftfthV^ar.Kjkt lenmh after the car "had" been IraggecMn the water of a canal the teronaut clambered but and fell on the^tf&fiHS^f senseless. When he. recovered con^ sciousness he found hirasl^&rTß rounded by a grow^pf people, but none of them could speaif'a "Word of French, and he knew no German. After endless trouble he succeeded ifa reaching the nearest town, which was Singen, and took train for Basle and France. He returned tor Dijon, 4 on Tuesday evening. As for nisi : balloon it naturally shot up into fhe ' air when M. Chesnay threw himself out of the car, and it has not aincfi. been beard of.