The balloon at first collapsed, then
      furiously expanded, then whirled round and round with horrible
      velocity, and finally, reeling and staggering like a drunken man,
      hurled me with great force over the rim of the car, and left me
      dangling, at a terrific height, with my head downward, and my
      face outwards, by a piece of slender cord about three feet in
      length, which hung accidentally through a crevice near the bottom
      of the wicker-work, and in which, as I fell, my left foot became
      most providentially entangled. It is impossible—utterly
      impossible—to form any adequate idea of the horror of my
      situation. I gasped convulsively for breath—a shudder resembling
      a fit of the ague agitated every nerve and muscle of my frame—I
      felt my eyes starting from their sockets—a horrible nausea
      overwhelmed me—and at length I fainted away. “How long I remained in this state it is impossible to say. It
      must, however, have been no inconsiderable time, for when I
      partially recovered the sense of existence, I found the day
      breaking, the balloon at a prodigious height over a wilderness of
      ocean, and not a trace of land to be discovered far and wide
      within the limits of the vast horizon. My sensations, however,
      upon thus recovering, were by no means so rife with agony as
      might have been anticipated. Indeed, there was much of incipient
      madness in the calm survey which I began to take of my situation. I drew up to my eyes each of my hands, one after the other, and
      wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling of
      the veins, and the horrible blackness of the fingernails. I
      afterward carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly, and
      feeling it with minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying
      myself that it was not, as I had more than half suspected, larger
      than my balloon. Then, in a knowing manner, I felt in both my
      breeches pockets, and, missing therefrom a set of tablets and a
      toothpick case, endeavored to account for their disappearance,
      and not being able to do so, felt inexpressibly chagrined. It now
      occurred to me that I suffered great uneasiness in the joint of
      my left ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began to
      glimmer through my mind. But, strange to say! I was neither
      astonished nor horror-stricken. If I felt any emotion at all, it
      was a kind of chuckling satisfaction at the cleverness I was
      about to display in extricating myself from this dilemma; and I
      never, for a moment, looked upon my ultimate safety as a question
      susceptible of doubt. For a few minutes I remained wrapped in the
      profoundest meditation. I have a distinct recollection of
      frequently compressing my lips, putting my forefinger to the side
      of my nose, and making use of other gesticulations and grimaces
      common to men who, at ease in their arm-chairs, meditate upon
      matters of intricacy or importance. Having, as I thought,
      sufficiently collected my ideas, I now, with great caution and
      deliberation, put my hands behind my back, and unfastened the
      large iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my
      inexpressibles. This buckle had three teeth, which, being
      somewhat rusty, turned with great difficulty on their axis. I
      brought them, however, after some trouble, at right angles to the
      body of the buckle, and was glad to find them remain firm in that
      position. Holding the instrument thus obtained within my teeth, I
      now proceeded to untie the knot of my cravat. I had to rest
      several times before I could accomplish this manoeuvre, but it
      was at length accomplished. To one end of the cravat I then made
      fast the buckle, and the other end I tied, for greater security,
      tightly around my wrist. Drawing now my body upwards, with a
      prodigious exertion of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very
      first trial, in throwing the buckle over the car, and entangling
      it, as I had anticipated, in the circular rim of the wicker-work. “My body was now inclined towards the side of the car, at an
      angle of about forty-five degrees; but it must not be understood
      that I was therefore only forty-five degrees below the
      perpendicular. So far from it, I still lay nearly level with the
      plane of the horizon; for the change of situation which I had
      acquired, had forced the bottom of the car considerably outwards
      from my position, which was accordingly one of the most imminent
      and deadly peril. It should be remembered, however, that when I
      fell in the first instance, from the car, if I had fallen with my
      face turned toward the balloon, instead of turned outwardly from
      it, as it actually was; or if, in the second place, the cord by
      which I was suspended had chanced to hang over the upper edge,
      instead of through a crevice near the bottom of the car,—I say it
      may be readily conceived that, in either of these supposed cases,
      I should have been unable to accomplish even as much as I had now
      accomplished, and the wonderful adventures of Hans Pfaall would
      have been utterly lost to posterity, I had therefore every reason
      to be grateful; although, in point of fact, I was still too
      stupid to be anything at all, and hung for, perhaps, a quarter of
      an hour in that extraordinary manner, without making the
      slightest farther exertion whatsoever, and in a singularly
      tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment. But this feeling did not
      fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto succeeded horror, and
      dismay, and a chilling sense of utter helplessness and ruin. In
      fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels of my head
      and throat, and which had hitherto buoyed up my spirits with
      madness and delirium, had now begun to retire within their proper
      channels, and the distinctness which was thus added to my
      perception of the danger, merely served to deprive me of the
      self-possession and courage to encounter it. But this weakness
      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.