The Daily Cincinnati Republican, And Commercial Register

From the Baltimore American.

GREAT AERONAUTIC EXPEDITION.—The circumstances attending the second splendid balloon ascension of Mr. Mills, on Thursday afternoon, render it one of the most lengthened and interesting aeronautic expeditions ever made. We mentioned in yesterday's paper the particulars of his departure from Fairmount, and the apparent course he had taken; and are now enabled to supply some interesting details of his long and rapid flight through the upper regions. His first course, after ascending, was about south east, but in a short time a counter current of air wafted him in an opposite or westerly direction, immediately over the city. His flight westward was only as far as a point above the long bridge over the Patapsco when he encountered an adverse current which carried him back again in an easterly course.

During all this time Mr. Mills continued to rise, by occasionally throwing out ballast. His compass now proved of service to him, from the constant rotary motion which the balloon assumed, first swinging round in one direction and then revolving in a contrary one. The course of the balloon was eastward.—At forty minutes after five, Mr. M. encountered a violent snow storm, with the thermometer down to 34 deg. Besides being obliged to endure its peltings, he was subjected to a thorough drenching from the melted snow, which thawed as it fell on the balloon, and ran down from its neck into the car immediately under it. At the same time, also, a body of clouds passed beneath him, and he lost sight of the earth altogether. The storm, however, soon passed off, and, except the drenching left him unharmed.

At six o'clock he had attained his greatest elevation, which according to estimate and the indications of the barometer, was upwards of two miles! The thermometer was now down to 33 deg, or only one degree above freezing point. Mr. M. all the while was going eastwardly, passing over the light houses at North Point, and across the expanse of the Chesapeake Bay towards Kent County, on the Eastern Shore. He had now recourse to his valves, and was gradually descending. After having passed into Kent County about half a mile, he made preparations to land, and had descended within about five hundred feet of the earth, when the balloon was taken by a sudden and violent gust or current of wind from the east. This was at 35 minutes after six.

In an instant after the wind struck the balloon, it was driven with the swiftness of an arrow, and in the short space of seventeen minutes, he was carried back to North Point, a distance of fourteen miles across the Chesapeake Bay!

Now, as heretofore, Mr. M. preserved an undaunted coolness and self-possession, and as he was careering across the waters with the fleetness of the wind itself, he discharged gas enough to bring him within two hundred feet of the surface. As the anchors struck the water, they rebounded with a force that gave him a pretty distinct notion of the rate at which he was travelling. As soon as he came over the land at North Point, the wind greatly abated, and at ten minutes before seven he effected a safe landing on the farm of Mr. Lynde.

Thus terminated this most extraordinary aerial voyage, prosecuted for three hours to the distance of about fifty miles, and for the greater part at an elevation of one to two and a quarter miles. After his feat, Mr. Mills (who is a young mechanic of Baltimore—self taught and dependent alone on his own unaided efforts) may fairly take rank with the most successful aeronauts of the age.