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The remarkable part of the preparation was that the gas was made from crude oil whick gave the balloon almost the lift hydrogen would have given.
    
During the engagement at San Mateo, Mr. Obear wanted to do some extra advertising and arranged for a balloon ascension from the old Mechanic's Pavilion. When the time arrived the basket was loaded with printed matter, in addition to twenty-five sacks of sand. I had as passengers George Harrison and Arthur Pillsbury, a photographer of considerable ability. He had made photographs of Lake Tahoe, Yosemite Park, Yellowstone National Park and other places of interest for the railroads. Arthur, having confidence in his pilot, busied himself taking photographs and gave no thought to the balloon.
    
We had quite a ground breeze at the start but on reaching 1,500 feet elevation the wind shifted towards the ocean which we could not see because of the clouds we were in. All this time I was throwing overboard the printed matter and pulling on the valve rope to release gas through the valve on top of the balloon. Through a hole in the clouds I saw the ocean beneath us. I then valved more gas until we came down to the ground current again. We drifted back over the city and threw out all of the rest of the printed matter. This lightened the load and we shot through the clouds and into bright sunshine. I knew we would be blown out to sea if we stayed in the strata so I valved again and came down close to the ground and passed, once more, over the city but further south. We crossed the bay passing over Alameda and on towards the mountains. We went over their tops at a fast pace. Immediately, I valved gas and settled down in the valley behind the first range.

Transcription Notes:
reopened for editing: -changed one instance of 'which' to incorrectly spelled 'whick' -added missing word 'down' -removed erroneously added ','