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"It was too late then to land, and with only one hundred and forty pounds of ballast left out of one thousand pounds with which we had started I did not dare attempt to make the four hundred and fifty miles across the Adriatic.  Our only hope was to drop into the sea near enough to the shore to be rescued.  I pulled hard on the escape valve cord, and we fell rapidly through the mist until we struck the water.

"At the instant our basket struck the billows it was snapped off from the balloon, which was whirled away over our heads.  Captain Nazari and Signor Minoletti, who, by the way, were taking their first aerial voyage, were hurled out of the basket, and I never saw them again.  I managed to cling to the wicker work, and for seven hours I was buffeted about by the waves, until finally a torpedo boat rescued me twenty-five miles from the point where we came down.  Many persons had seen us drop, but every attempt to launch a small boat failed until at last the torpedo boat managed to reach me.

"But terrible as was this experience, the trip which I shall remember the longest was the one when Signor Crispi and I crossed The Alps.  Ascending from Milan, we found a favorable wind, and as we rose rapidly we were carried at first directly towards Mont Blanc.  But when we were up 16,000 feet we struck a cross current and we were  being swept rapidly toward Mount Rosa.  Fearful that we would be thrown against the mountain's summit and wrecked, I threw 140 pounds of ballast overboard at once and we shot up until we reached a height of 28,930 feet.

"At that height the temperature dropped to twenty-nine degrees below zero, and our pulses pounded at a rate of 122 beats a minute.  The pressure on our ears was tremendous, and Signor Crispi had to resort to oxygen to keep up.

"We had left Milan at eleven o'clock in the morning, and at twenty minutes after one we were poised over the very crest of the Alps. Descending on the other side we landed at Aix-les-Baines at five minutes of two o'clock, having made the crossing in five minutes less than four hours."

"Signor Usueill explained to the Aero Club men the disadvantages under which aeronauts have to labor in Italy, with the Alps barring the way on the north and only the narrow peninsula to the south.  From Milan he has made seven trips to the sea, landing close to the shore each time, sometimes within one hundred yards of the surf.  He expects soon to try for a new world's record for height of ascension, but more than anything else he hopes that he will be given an opportunity to try to wrest the International Challenge Cup from America and carry it away with him to Italy. 

WELLMAN TO TALK TO AERO CLUB

Will Tell of His Flan to Reach North Pole by Balloon-Plan an Ascension This Week.

In honor of Walter Wellman and Major Henry B. Hersey, a reception will be given at the Aero Club of America next Tuesday evening. Mr. Wellman will outline his latest plans to reach the pole by balloon. He will leave soon for the winter quarters of his expedition, in Spitzbergen.

Members of the Aero Club are looking forward with keen interest to the first club ascension of the season from Pittsfield, which will be made next Saturday if weather conditions are favorable. Alan R. Hawley will be the pilot.

Work is progressing satisfactorily on the aeronautic building at the Jamestown Exposition, where aero nautical aeronautical exhibits will be housed. A large balloon shed and a hydrogen generating plant will also be erected, and it is the hope of Augustus Post, secretary of the Aero Club and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jamestown Aeronautical Con-