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.