Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 263, 29 December 1880, Page 4

A London correspondent writes to a contemporary : — The Londou fog season has set in again. September was an unusually fine month in the country, but even in September there were four dreary days in which Londoners had to breathe an atmosphere which can only bo compared to pea soup. Appalling statistics show that the death rate is terribly increased during the continuance of foggy weather, death in many cases being sudden, as if caused by suffocation. At the Social Science Congress the other day, one speaker affirmed thatjlLondoners are only saved by the wind from being suffocated and poisoned, and that if for a few days the air were absolutely still this great city would be in a worse plight than Egypt, when " there was not a house without its dead ;" that the people would as surely perish, as if they were all shut up in a box. It is said that this could be in a large measure remedied if all the chimneys were constructed so as to consume their own smoke, and many are urging this to be made compulsory, by the infliction of a line upon every householder from whose chimney smoke is seen to issue. How the railway traffic is managed in such weather puzzles me, especially at such junctions as Dalston aud Clapham, through which as many as 1000 trains per day are said to pass. Signals are fired from the trains, and every precaution is adopted to insure safety, but the risk is terrible to think of. Something like 600,000 people hrve to be got in and out of London every day to business, so that, risk or no risk, the traffic must go on ; the politicans aud scientists are left to solve the problem as best they can. The recent marriage of Mdlle. Leferriere, the daughter of the well-known French comedian, with M, Paul Roiler, brings back to one's mind the singular adventure which befel the bridegroom ten years ngo, during the seige of Paris. M. Holier was an engineer, but during the war turned aeronaut, and in November, 1870, departed from the beseiged city in a baloon, taking with him a number of despatches for Tours. He quitted the Northern Railway terminus in the car of the Ville d'Orleans, with one companion, and 250 kilogrammes of precious paper destined for the delegation at Tours. The wind was blowing strong, and the ship of the air was carried along with amazing rapidity towards the sea. They heard the distant sound of the waves beneath them, and to add to their difficulties an impenetrable fog enveloped tlie baloon, which prevented them from distinguishing anything. After a time the fog cleared off and they discerned below them a sea and ships. But what sea ? The situation was critical in the extreme; the wind rose again, the baloon was whirled through space at a frightful rate. At this juncture a carrier pigeon was sent off hoaring the despatch "Lost, but Vive la France." Suddenly the Ville d'Orleans began to descend, till it all but touched the water. Death seemed waiting for them, when hope was again revived by the sight of a strip of limd. A sack of letters and journals was thrown out, and the baloon, thus lightened, rose again, going towards ttrra fir ma. Soon trees were beneath it, and by the aid of a rope M. Rolier and his friend reached the ground, bruised, exhausted, and half-insen-sible. When they came to themselves they looked around, to r.cc nothing but snow. Something moved in the distance over the spotless plain, and on approaching this "something" they found it to be three wolves. After walking many hours in silence and solitude they reached a hut,