The appearance in the heavens of this strange sight,
to a watcher at some _rancho_, or in the not distant city of San
Francisco, if such there were, must have afforded a more vivid
illustration of the fall of a blazing star or meteoric wonder than
astronomer has ever put on record.
But I delay the catastrophe. Land and water soon became distinguishable
from each other beneath us, and hills from valleys, and forests from
bare plains. There was little wind, except the fierce currents rushing
upward, produced by the heat of our own conflagration. This, for the
time, subdued everything to itself, and, as we approached the ground,
served by its direction to modify the fury of our descent. The denser
lower atmosphere also contributed to the same end; and, most
fortunately, when we reached the earth, and the collision came, we
struck in water instead of on the land.
Still, the collision was a fierce one. With the mass of fire between
us and the ground directly below, blinded by the smoke and half
suffocated by the heat, we were not conscious of the good fortune that
awaited us, until, with a swoop and a plunge, we found ourselves
submerged, and, with an equal velocity, immediately thrown back again
by the buoyant force of the balloon into the open air.
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