It having been asserted that the balloon in which Professor Wise and Mr. Burr left here last Sunday [September 28] was old, unsound and perhaps rotten, and that in consequence it is likely some serious mishap may have occurred to the aeronauts, James F. Downey, son-in-law of Mr. Wise, who is a resident of Louisiana, Mo., the home of the professor, publishes a card here denying these assertions, and stating that the "Pathfinder" was an entirely new balloon, and had never been used before, and was one of the best ever made. Mr. Downey advances no theory as to what has become of the voyagers, but says if they were lost it was not because the balloon was old or rotten, or the netting weak, or because there was not enough gas in the globe.
A Globe-Democrat correspondent at Bunker Hill, Ills., about thirty-two miles northeast from here, writes that he saw Wise's balloon pass there about half-past 6 o'clock Sunday evening. From this point the balloon took a course almost directly north and was seen late in the evening about ten miles away between Bunker Hill and Carlinville. There is a very wild and rugged region fifteen to twenty miles in extent, known as McCoupin Creek Bottom, heavily timbered and almost uninhabited. There appears to be a bare possibility that the balloon descended in this dense wilderness and that the aeronauts have not been able to get out of it. An expedition to explore this wild section of country may be organized.