ds what he had undertaken, Donaldson
quickly cast overboard all loose objects in the basket--ropes, anchors,
provisions, even down to his boots and coat. Thus relieved of weight,
he was able to make a voyage of about eighteen miles.

There are two essentials to safe ballooning: first, the easy working of
the cord which controls the safety valve at the top of the netting, by
which descent may be effected when the balloon is going too high; and
surplus ballast, which may be thrown out to lighten the balloon when
approaching the ground, to avoid striking the earth at dangerously
rapid speed. Hence it followed that, his car having been stripped of
every bit of weight to obtain the ascent, Donaldson's descent was so
violent that he was not a little bruised before he got his balloon
safety [Transcriber's note: safely?] anchored again upon the earth.

The difficulties and risks of this first trip, arising from the poor
appliances he had, were enough to discourage, if not deter, a heart
less bold than his, but to him a new difficulty only meant the letting
out of another reef in his resolution to conquer it. Thus it was that
immediately upon his return from this, his first trip, he not only
announced that he would make another ascent the ensuing week, but that
he would undertake something never previously undertaken in aerial
navigation, namely, that he would dispense with the basket or car swung
beneath the concentrating ring of every normal balloon, and in its
place would have nothing but a simple trapeze bar suspended beneath the
ring, upon which in mid-air, at high altitude, he proposed to perform
all feats done by then most highly trained gymnasts in trapeze
performances.

His experience on this first trip, to quote his own phraseology, was
"so glorious that I decided to abandon the tight-rope forever."

The second ascent was made in a light breeze. When approximately a
mile in height, to quote a chronicler:

"Suddenly the aeronaut threw himself backward and fell, catching with
his feet on the bar, thus sending a thrill through the crowd; but with
another spring he was upstanding on the bar, and then followed one feat
after another--hanging by one hand, one foot, by the back of his head,
etc., until the blood ceased to curdle in the veins of the awe-stricken
crowd, and they gave vent to their feelings in cheer after cheer. His
glittering dress sparkled in the sun long after his outline was lost to
the naked eye