was, luckily for me, of no very long duration. In good time came to my
rescue the spirit of despair, and, with frantic cries and struggles, I
jerked my way bodily upwards, till at length, clutching with a vise-like
grip the long-desired rim, I writhed my person over it, and fell
headlong and shuddering within the car.
“It was not until some time afterward that I recovered myself
sufficiently to attend to the ordinary cares of the balloon. I then,
however, examined it with attention, and found it, to my great relief,
uninjured. My implements were all safe, and, fortunately, I had lost
neither ballast nor provisions. Indeed, I had so well secured them in
their places, that such an accident was entirely out of the question.
Looking at my watch, I found it six o’clock. I was still rapidly
ascending, and my barometer gave a present altitude of three and
three-quarter miles. Immediately beneath me in the ocean, lay a small
black object, slightly oblong in shape, seemingly about the size, and
in every way bearing a great resemblance to one of those childish
toys called a domino. Bringing my telescope to bear upon it, I plainly
discerned it to be a British ninety four-gun ship, close-hauled, and
pitching heavily in the sea with her head to the W.S.W. Besides this
ship, I saw nothing but the ocean and the sky, and the sun, which had
long arisen.
“It is now high time that I should explain to your Excellencies the
object of my perilous voyage. Your Excellencies will bear in mind that
distressed circumstances in Rotterdam had at length driven me to the
resolution of committing suicide. It was not, however, that to life
itself I had any, positive disgust, but that I was harassed beyond
endurance by the adventitious miseries attending my situation. In this
state of mind, wishing to live, yet wearied with life, the treatise at
the stall of the bookseller opened a resource to my imagination. I then
finally made up my mind. I determined to depart, yet live--to leave the
world, yet continue to exist--in short, to drop enigmas, I resolved, let
what would ensue, to force a passage, if I could, to the moon. Now, lest
I should be supposed more of a madman than I actually am, I will detail,
as well as I am able, the considerations which led me to believe that
an achievement of this nature, although without doubt difficult, and
incontestably full of danger, was not absolutely, to a bold spirit,
beyond the confines of the possible.
“The moon’s actual distance from the earth was the first thing to be
attended to. Now, the mean or average interval between the centres of
the two planets is 59.9643 of the earth’s equatorial radii, or only
about 237,000 miles. I say the mean or average interval. But it must
be borne in mind that the form of the moon’s orbit being an ellipse of
eccentricity amounting to no less than 0.05484 of the major semi-axis of
the ellipse itself, and the earth’s centre being situated in its focus,
if I could, in any manner, contrive to meet the moon, as it were, in its
perigee, the above mentioned distance would be materially diminished.
But, to say nothing at present of this possibility, it was very certain
that, at all events, from the 237,000 miles I would have to deduct the
radius of the earth, say 4,000, and the radius of the moon, say 1080,
in all 5,080, leaving an actual interval to be traversed, under average
circumstances, of 231,920 miles. Now this, I reflected, was no
very extraordinary distance. Travelling on land has been repeatedly
accomplished at the rate of thirty miles per hour, and indeed a much
greater speed may be anticipated. But even at this velocity, it would
take me no more than 322 days to reach the surface of the moon. There
were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe that my average
rate of travelling might possibly very much exceed that of thirty miles
per hour, and, as these considerations did not fail to make a deep
impression upon my mind, I will mention them more fully hereafter.
“The next point to be regarded was a matter of far greater importance.
From indications afforded by the barometer, we find that, in ascensions
from the surface of the earth we have, at the height of 1,000 feet, left
below us about one-thirtieth of the entire mass of atmospheric air, that
at 10,600 we have ascended through nearly one-third; and that at 18,000,
which is not far from the elevation of Cotopaxi, we have surmounted
one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the ponderable,
body of air incumbent upon our globe. It is also calculated that at an
altitude not exceeding the hundredth part of the earth’s diameter--that
is, not exceeding eighty miles--the rarefaction would be so excessive
that animal life could in no manner be sustained, and, moreover, that
the most delicate means we possess of ascertaining the presence of the
atmosphere would be inadequate to assure us of its existence. But I
did not fail to perceive that these latter calculations are founded
altogether on our experimental knowledge of the properties of air, and
the mechanical laws regulating its dilation and compression, in what may
be called, comparatively speaking, the immediate vicinity of the earth
itself; and, at the same time, it is taken for granted that animal
life is and must be essentially incapable of modification at any given
unattainable distance from the surface. Now, all such reasoning and from
such data must, of course, be simply analogical. The greatest height
ever reached by man was that of 25,000 feet, attained in the aeronautic
expedition of Messieurs Gay-Lussac and Biot. This is a moderate
altitude, even when compared with the eighty miles in question; and I
could not help thinking that the subject admitted room for doubt and
great latitude for speculation.
“But, in point of fact, an ascension being made to any given altitude,
the ponderable quantity of air surmounted in any farther ascension is
by no means in proportion to the additional height ascended (as may
be plainly seen from what has been stated before), but in a ratio
constantly decreasing. It is therefore evident that, ascend as high as
we may, we cannot, literally speaking, arrive at a limit beyond which
no atmosphere is to be found. It must exist, I argued; although it may
exist in a state of infinite rarefaction.
“On the other hand, I was aware that arguments have not been wanting
to prove the existence of a real and definite limit to the atmosphere,
beyond which there is absolutely no air whatsoever. But a circumstance
which has been left out of view by those who contend for such a limit
seemed to me, although no positive refutation of their creed, still
a point worthy very serious investigation. On comparing the intervals
between the successive arrivals of Encke’s comet at its perihelion,
after giving credit, in the most exact manner, for all the disturbances
due to the attractions of the planets, it appears that the periods are
gradually diminishing; that is to say, the major axis of the comet’s
ellipse is growing shorter, in a slow but perfectly regular decrease.
Now, this is precisely what ought to be the case, if we suppose a
resistance experienced from the comet from an extremely rare ethereal
medium pervading the regions of its orbit. For it is evident that such
a medium must, in retarding the comet’s velocity, increase its
centripetal, by weakening its centrifugal force. In other words, the
sun’s attraction would be constantly attaining greater power, and the
comet would be drawn nearer at every revolution. Indeed, there is no
other way of accounting for the variation in question. But again. The
real diameter of the same comet’s nebulosity is observed to contract
rapidly as it approaches the sun, and dilate with equal rapidity in its
departure towards its aphelion. Was I not justifiable in supposing with
M. Valz, that this apparent condensation of volume has its origin in
the compression of the same ethereal medium I have spoken of before,
and which is only denser in proportion to its solar vicinity? The
lenticular-shaped phenomenon, also called the zodiacal light, was a
matter worthy of attention. This radiance, so apparent in the tropics,
and which cannot be mistaken for any meteoric lustre, extends from the
horizon obliquely upward, and follows generally the direction of the
sun’s equator. It appeared to me evidently in the nature of a rare
atmosphere extending from the sun outward, beyond the orbit of Venus at
least, and I believed indefinitely farther.(*2) Indeed, this medium I
could not suppose confined to the path of the comet’s ellipse, or to
the immediate neighborhood of the sun. It was easy, on the contrary,
to imagine it pervading the entire regions of our planetary system,
condensed into what we call atmosphere at the planets themselves, and
perhaps at some of them modified by considerations, so to speak, purely
geological.
“Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little further
hesitation. Granting that on my passage I should meet with atmosphere
essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, I conceived that,
by means of the very ingenious apparatus of M. Grimm, I should readily
be enabled to condense it in sufficient quantity for the purposes of
respiration. This would remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the
moon. I had indeed spent some money and great labor in adapting the
apparatus to the object intended, and confidently looked forward to its
successful application, if I could manage to complete the voyage within
any reasonable period. This brings me back to the rate at which it might
be possible to travel.
“It is true that balloons, in the first stage of their ascensions from
the earth, are known to rise with a velocity comparatively moderate.
Now, the power of elevation lies altogether in the superior lightness of
the gas in the balloon compared with the atmospheric air; and, at
first sight, it does not appear probable that, as the balloon acquires
altitude, and consequently arrives successively in atmospheric strata
of densities rapidly diminishing--I say, it does not appear at all
reasonable that, in this its progress upwards, the original velocity
should be accelerated. On the other hand, I was not aware that, in any
recorded ascension, a diminution was apparent in the absolute rate
of ascent; although such should have been the case, if on account
of nothing else, on account of the escape of gas through balloons
ill-constructed, and varnished with no better material than the ordinary
varnish. It seemed, therefore, that the effect of such escape was only
sufficient to counterbalance the effect of some accelerating power. I
now considered that, provided in my passage I found the medium I
had imagined, and provided that it should prove to be actually
and essentially what we denominate atmospheric air, it could make
comparatively little difference at what extreme state of rarefaction
I should discover it--that is to say, in regard to my power of
ascending--for the gas in the balloon would not only be itself subject
to rarefaction partially similar (in proportion to the occurrence of
which, I could suffer an escape of so much as would be requisite to
prevent explosion), but, being what it was, would, at all events,
continue specifically lighter than any compound whatever of mere
nitrogen and oxygen. In the meantime, the force of gravitation would be
constantly diminishing, in proportion to the squares of the distances,
and thus, with a velocity prodigiously accelerating, I should at
length arrive in those distant regions where the force of the earth’s
attraction would be superseded by that of the moon. In accordance with
these ideas, I did not think it worth while to encumber myself with more
provisions than would be sufficient for a period of forty days.
“There was still, however, another difficulty, which occasioned me some
little disquietude. It has been observed, that, in balloon ascensions to
any considerable height, besides the pain attending respiration, great
uneasiness is experienced about the head and body, often accompanied
with bleeding at the nose, and other symptoms of an alarming kind,
and growing more and more inconvenient in proportion to the altitude
attained.(*3) This was a reflection of a nature somewhat startling. Was
it not probable that these symptoms would increase indefinitely, or at
least until terminated by death itself? I finally thought not. Their
origin was to be looked for in the progressive removal of the customary
atmospheric pressure upon the surface of the body, and consequent
distention of the superficial blood-vessels--not in any positive
disorganization of the animal system, as in the case of difficulty in
breathing, where the atmospheric density is chemically insufficient
for the due renovation of blood in a ventricle of the heart. Unless for
default of this renovation, I could see no reason, therefore, why
life could not be sustained even in a vacuum; for the expansion and
compression of chest, commonly called breathing, is action purely
muscular, and the cause, not the effect, of respiration. In a word,
I conceived that, as the body should become habituated to the want
of atmospheric pressure, the sensations of pain would gradually
diminish--and to endure them while they continued, I relied with
confidence upon the iron hardihood of my constitution.
“Thus, may it please your Excellencies, I have detailed some, though by
no means all, the considerations which led me to form the project of
a lunar voyage. I shall now proceed to lay before you the result of an
attempt so apparently audacious in conception, and, at all events, so
utterly unparalleled in the annals of mankind.
“Having attained the altitude before mentioned, that is to say three
miles and three-quarters, I threw out from the car a quantity of
feathers, and found that I still ascended with sufficient rapidity;
there was, therefore, no necessity for discharging any ballast. I was
glad of this, for I wished to retain with me as much weight as I could
carry, for reasons which will be explained in the sequel. I as yet
suffered no bodily inconvenience, breathing with great freedom, and
feeling no pain whatever in the head. The cat was lying very demurely
upon my coat, which I had taken off, and eyeing the pigeons with an air
of nonchalance. These latter being tied by the leg, to prevent their
escape, were busily employed in picking up some grains of rice scattered
for them in the bottom of the car.
“At twenty minutes past six o’clock, the barometer showed an elevation
of 26,400 feet, or five miles to a fraction. The prospect seemed
unbounded. Indeed, it is very easily calculated by means of spherical
geometry, what a great extent of the earth’s area I beheld. The convex
surface of any segment of a sphere is, to the entire surface of the
sphere itself, as the versed sine of the segment to the diameter of the
sphere. Now, in my case, the versed sine--that is to say, the thickness
of the segment beneath me--was about equal to my elevation, or the
elevation of the point of sight above the surface. ‘As five miles, then,
to eight thousand,’ would express the proportion of the earth’s area
seen by me. In other words, I beheld as much as a sixteen-hundredth
part of the whole surface of the globe. The sea appeared unruffled as a
mirror, although, by means of the spy-glass, I could perceive it to be
in a state of violent agitation. The ship was no longer visible, having
drifted away, apparently to the eastward. I now began to experience, at
intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about the ears--still,
however, breathing with tolerable freedom. The cat and pigeons seemed to
suffer no inconvenience whatsoever.
“At twenty minutes before seven, the balloon entered a long series of
dense cloud, which put me to great trouble, by damaging my condensing
apparatus and wetting me to the skin. This was, to be sure, a singular
recontre, for I had not believed it possible that a cloud of this nature
could be sustained at so great an elevation. I thought it best, however,
to throw out two five-pound pieces of ballast, reserving still a weight
of one hundred and sixty-five pounds. Upon so doing, I soon rose above
the difficulty, and perceived immediately, that I had obtained a great
increase in my rate of ascent. In a few seconds after my leaving the
cloud, a flash of vivid lightning shot from one end of it to the other,
and caused it to kindle up, throughout its vast extent, like a mass of
ignited and glowing charcoal. This, it must be remembered, was in the
broad light of day. No fancy may picture the sublimity which might have
been exhibited by a similar phenomenon taking place amid the darkness of
the night. Hell itself might have been found a fitting image. Even as
it was, my hair stood on end, while I gazed afar down within the yawning
abysses, letting imagination descend, as it were, and stalk about in the
strange vaulted halls, and ruddy gulfs, and red ghastly chasms of the
hideous and unfathomable fire. I had indeed made a narrow escape. Had
the balloon remained a very short while longer within the cloud--that
is to say--had not the inconvenience of getting wet, determined me to
discharge the ballast, inevitable ruin would have been the consequence.
Such perils, although little considered, are perhaps the greatest which
must be encountered in balloons. I had by this time, however, attained
too great an elevation to be any longer uneasy on this head.
“I was now rising rapidly, and by seven o’clock the barometer indicated
an altitude of no less than nine miles and a half. I began to find great
difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too, was excessively painful;
and, having felt for some time a moisture about my cheeks, I at length
discovered it to be blood, which was oozing quite fast from the drums of
my ears. My eyes, also, gave me great uneasiness. Upon passing the
hand over them they seemed to have protruded from their sockets in no
inconsiderable degree; and all objects in the car, and even the balloon
itself, appeared distorted to my vision. These symptoms were more than
I had expected, and occasioned me some alarm. At this juncture, very
imprudently, and without consideration, I threw out from the car three
five-pound pieces of ballast. The accelerated rate of ascent thus
obtained, carried me too rapidly, and without sufficient gradation, into
a highly rarefied stratum of the atmosphere, and the result had nearly
proved fatal to my expedition and to myself. I was suddenly seized with
a spasm which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when this, in
a measure, ceased, I could catch my breath only at long intervals, and
in a gasping manner--bleeding all the while copiously at the nose and
ears, and even slightly at the eyes. The pigeons appeared distressed
in the extreme, and struggled to escape; while the cat mewed piteously,
and, with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, staggered to and fro in
the car as if under the influence of poison. I now too late discovered
the great rashness of which I had been guilty in discharging the
ballast, and my agitation was excessive. I anticipated nothing less than
death, and death in a few minutes. The physical suffering I underwent
contributed also to render me nearly incapable of making any exertion
for the preservation of my life. I had, indeed, little power of
reflection left, and the violence of the pain in my head seemed to be
greatly on the increase. Thus I found that my senses would shortly give
way altogether, and I had already clutched one of the valve ropes with
the view of attempting a descent, when the recollection of the trick I
had played the three creditors, and the possible consequences to myself,
should I return, operated to deter me for the moment. I lay down in the
bottom of the car, and endeavored to collect my faculties. In this I
so far succeeded as to determine upon the experiment of losing blood.
Having no lancet, however, I was constrained to perform the operation in
the best manner I was able, and finally succeeded in opening a vein
in my right arm, with the blade of my penknife. The blood had hardly
commenced flowing when I experienced a sensible relief, and by the time
I had lost about half a moderate basin full, most of the worst symptoms
had abandoned me entirely. I nevertheless did not think it expedient to
attempt getting on my feet immediately; but, having tied up my arm as
well as I could, I lay still for about a quarter of an hour. At the end
of this time I arose, and found myself freer from absolute pain of any
kind than I had been during the last hour and a quarter of my ascension.
The difficulty of breathing, however, was diminished in a very slight
degree, and I found that it would soon be positively necessary to make
use of my condenser. In the meantime, looking toward the cat, who was
again snugly stowed away upon my coat, I discovered to my infinite
surprise, that she had taken the opportunity of my indisposition to
bring into light a litter of three little kittens. This was an addition
to the number of passengers on my part altogether unexpected; but I was
pleased at the occurrence. It would afford me a chance of bringing to a
kind of test the truth of a surmise, which, more than anything else,
had influenced me in attempting this ascension. I had imagined that the
habitual endurance of the atmospheric pressure at the surface of
the earth was the cause, or nearly so, of the pain attending animal
existence at a distance above the surface. Should the kittens be found
to suffer uneasiness in an equal degree with their mother, I must
consider my theory in fault, but a failure to do so I should look upon
as a strong confirmation of my idea.
“By eight o’clock I had actually attained an elevation of seventeen
miles above the surface of the earth. Thus it seemed to me evident that
my rate of ascent was not only on the increase, but that the progression
would have been apparent in a slight degree even had I not discharged
the ballast which I did. The pains in my head and ears returned, at
intervals, with violence, and I still continued to bleed occasionally at
the nose; but, upon the whole, I suffered much less than might have
been expected. I breathed, however, at every moment, with more and
more difficulty, and each inhalation was attended with a troublesome
spasmodic action of the chest. I now unpacked the condensing apparatus,
and got it ready for immediate use.
“The view of the earth, at this period of my ascension, was beautiful
indeed. To the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I
could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which
every moment gained a deeper and a deeper tint of blue and began already
to assume a slight appearance of convexity. At a vast distance to the
eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of Great
Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a small
portion of the northern part of the continent of Africa. Of individual
edifices not a trace could be discovered, and the proudest cities of
mankind had utterly faded away from the face of the earth. From the rock
of Gibraltar, now dwindled into a dim speck, the dark Mediterranean sea,
dotted with shining islands as the heaven is dotted with stars, spread
itself out to the eastward as far as my vision extended, until its
entire mass of waters seemed at length to tumble headlong over the abyss
of the horizon, and I found myself listening on tiptoe for the echoes
of the mighty cataract. Overhead, the sky was of a jetty black, and the
stars were brilliantly visible.
“The pigeons about this time seeming to undergo much suffering, I
determined upon giving them their liberty. I first untied one of them,
a beautiful gray-mottled pigeon, and placed him upon the rim of the
wicker-work. He appeared extremely uneasy, looking anxiously around him,
fluttering his wings, and making a loud cooing noise, but could not be
persuaded to trust himself from off the car. I took him up at last,
and threw him to about half a dozen yards from the balloon. He made,
however, no attempt to descend as I had expected, but struggled with
great vehemence to get back, uttering at the same time very shrill and
piercing cries. He at length succeeded in regaining his former station
on the rim, but had hardly done so when his head dropped upon his
breast, and he fell dead within the car. The other one did not prove so
unfortunate. To prevent his following the example of his companion, and
accomplishing a return, I threw him downward with all my force, and was
pleased to find him continue his descent, with great velocity, making
use of his wings with ease, and in a perfectly natural manner. In a very
short time he was out of sight, and I have no doubt he reached home in
safety. Puss, who seemed in a great measure recovered from her illness,
now made a hearty meal of the dead bird and then went to sleep with much
apparent satisfaction. Her kittens were quite lively, and so far evinced
not the slightest sign of any uneasiness whatever.
“At a quarter-past eight, being no longer able to draw breath without
the most intolerable pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around
the car the apparatus belonging to the condenser. This apparatus will
require some little explanation, and your Excellencies will please to
bear in mind that my object, in the first place, was to surround myself
and cat entirely with a barricade against the highly rarefied atmosphere
in which I was existing, with the intention of introducing within this
barricade, by means of my condenser, a quantity of this same atmosphere
sufficiently condensed for the purposes of respiration. With this object
in view I had prepared a very strong perfectly air-tight, but flexible
gum-elastic bag. In this bag, which was of sufficient dimensions, the
entire car was in a manner placed. That is to say, it (the bag) was
drawn over the whole bottom of the car, up its sides, and so on, along
the outside of the ropes, to the upper rim or hoop where the net-work
is attached. Having pulled the bag up in this way, and formed a complete
enclosure on all sides, and at bottom, it was now necessary to fasten
up its top or mouth, by passing its material over the hoop of the
net-work--in other words, between the net-work and the hoop. But if the
net-work were separated from the hoop to admit this passage, what was
to sustain the car in the meantime? Now the net-work was not permanently
fastened to the hoop, but attached by a series of running loops or
nooses. I therefore undid only a few of these loops at one time, leaving
the car suspended by the remainder. Having thus inserted a portion of
the cloth forming the upper part of the bag, I refastened the loops--not
to the hoop, for that would have been impossible, since the cloth
now intervened--but to a series of large buttons, affixed to the cloth
itself, about three feet below the mouth of the bag, the intervals
between the buttons having been made to correspond to the intervals
between the loops. This done, a few more of the loops were unfastened
from the rim, a farther portion of the cloth introduced, and the
disengaged loops then connected with their proper buttons. In this way
it was possible to insert the whole upper part of the bag between the
net-work and the hoop. It is evident that the hoop would now drop down
within the car, while the whole weight of the car itself, with all its
contents, would be held up merely by the strength of the buttons. This,
at first sight, would seem an inadequate dependence; but it was by no
means so, for the buttons were not only very strong in themselves, but
so close together that a very slight portion of the whole weight was
supported by any one of them. Indeed, had the car and contents been
three times heavier than they were, I should not have been at
all uneasy. I now raised up the hoop again within the covering of
gum-elastic, and propped it at nearly its former height by means of
three light poles prepared for the occasion. This was done, of course,
to keep the bag distended at the top, and to preserve the lower part
of the net-work in its proper situation. All that now remained was to
fasten up the mouth of the enclosure; and this was readily accomplished
by gathering the folds of the material together, and twisting them up
very tightly on the inside by means of a kind of stationary tourniquet.
“In the sides of the covering thus adjusted round the car, had been
inserted three circular panes of thick but clear glass, through which I
could see without difficulty around me in every horizontal direction.
In that portion of the cloth forming the bottom, was likewise, a fourth
window, of the same kind, and corresponding with a small aperture in the
floor of the car itself. This enabled me to see perpendicularly
down, but having found it impossible to place any similar contrivance
overhead, on account of the peculiar manner of closing up the opening
there, and the consequent wrinkles in the cloth, I could expect to see
no objects situated directly in my zenith. This, of course, was a matter
of little consequence; for had I even been able to place a window at
top, the balloon itself would have prevented my making any use of it.
“About a foot below one of the side windows was a circular opening,
eight inches in diameter, and fitted with a brass rim adapted in its
inner edge to the windings of a screw. In this rim was screwed the large
tube of the condenser, the body of the machine being, of course, within
the chamber of gum-elastic. Through this tube a quantity of the rare
atmosphere circumjacent being drawn by means of a vacuum created in the
body of the machine, was thence discharged, in a state of condensation,
to mingle with the thin air already in the chamber. This operation being
repeated several times, at length filled the chamber with atmosphere
proper for all the purposes of respiration. But in so confined a space
it would, in a short time, necessarily become foul, and unfit for use
from frequent contact with the lungs. It was then ejected by a small
valve at the bottom of the car--the dense air readily sinking into the
thinner atmosphere below. To avoid the inconvenience of making a total
vacuum at any moment within the chamber, this purification was never
accomplished all at once, but in a gradual manner--the valve being
opened only for a few seconds, then closed again, until one or two
strokes from the pump of the condenser had supplied the place of the
atmosphere ejected. For the sake of experiment I had put the cat and
kittens in a small basket, and suspended it outside the car to a button
at the bottom, close by the valve, through which I could feed them at
any moment when necessary. I did this at some little risk, and before
closing the mouth of the chamber, by reaching under the car with one of
the poles before mentioned to which a hook had been attached.
“By the time I had fully completed these arrangements and filled the
chamber as explained, it wanted only ten minutes of nine o’clock. During
the whole period of my being thus employed, I endured the most terrible
distress from difficulty of respiration, and bitterly did I repent the
negligence or rather fool-hardiness, of which I had been guilty, of
putting off to the last moment a matter of so much importance. But
having at length accomplished it, I soon began to reap the benefit of
my invention. Once again I breathed with perfect freedom and ease--and
indeed why should I not? I was also agreeably surprised to find myself,
in a great measure, relieved from the violent pains which had hitherto
tormented me. A slight headache, accompanied with a sensation of fulness
or distention about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat, was nearly
all of which I had now to complain. Thus it seemed evident that a
greater part of the uneasiness attending the removal of atmospheric
pressure had actually worn off, as I had expected, and that much of
the pain endured for the last two hours should have been attributed
altogether to the effects of a deficient respiration.
“At twenty minutes before nine o’clock--that is to say, a short time
prior to my closing up the mouth of the chamber, the mercury attained
its limit, or ran down, in the barometer, which, as I mentioned before,
was one of an extended construction. It then indicated an altitude on
my part of 132,000 feet, or five-and-twenty miles, and I consequently
surveyed at that time an extent of the earth’s area amounting to no less
than the three hundred-and-twentieth part of its entire superficies.
At nine o’clock I had again lost sight of land to the eastward, but not
before I became aware that the balloon was drifting rapidly to the N.
N. W. The convexity of the ocean beneath me was very evident indeed,
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