190 
THE BALLOON. 
around to the westward. With a strong northwester, 
there might still be a hope for us. 
" This afternoon, at 6h. 20m., a large spheroidal mass 
was seen floating in the air at an unknowai distance 
to the north. It undulated for a while over the ice- 
lined horizon of Wellington Channel ; and after a lit- 
tle while, another, smaller than the first, became vis- 
ible a short distance below it. They receded with 
the wind from the southward and eastward, but did 
not disappear for some time. Captain De Haven at 
first thought it a kite ; bat, independently of the dif- 
ficulty of imagining a kite flying without a master, 
and where no master could be, its outline and move- 
ment convinced me it was a balloon. The Resolute 
dispatched a courier balloon on the 2d ; but that could 
never have survived the storms of the past week. I 
therefore suppose it must have been sent up by some 
English vessel to the west of us. 
"I make a formal note of this circumstance, trivial 
as it may be ; for at first Franklin rose to my mind, 
as possibly signalizing up Wellington Channel." 
Cape Hotham was at this time nearly in range, from 
our position, with the first headland to the west of it ; 
and our captain estimated that we were about thirty 
miles from the eastern side of the strait. The balloon 
was to leeward, nearly due north of us, more so than 
could be referred to the course of the wind as we ob- 
served it, supposing it to have set out from any vessel 
of whose place we were aware. It appeared to me, 
the principal one, about two feet long by eighteen 
inches broad ; its appendage larger than an ordinary 
dinner-plate. The incident interested us much at the 
time, and I have not seen any thing in the published 
journals of the English searchers that explains it. 
