Chapter III: Part 3

“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, although my view was often interrupted by the
masses of cloud which floated to and fro. I observed now that
even the lightest vapors never rose to more than ten miles above
the level of the sea.

“At half past nine I tried the experiment of throwing out a
handful of feathers through the valve. They did not float as I
had expected; but dropped down perpendicularly, like a bullet, en
masse, and with the greatest velocity—being out of sight in a
very few seconds. I did not at first know what to make of this
extraordinary phenomenon; not being able to believe that my rate
of ascent had, of a sudden, met with so prodigious an
acceleration. But it soon occurred to me that the atmosphere was
now far too rare to sustain even the feathers; that they actually
fell, as they appeared to do, with great rapidity; and that I had
been surprised by the united velocities of their descent and my
own elevation.

“By ten o’clock I found that I had very little to occupy my
immediate attention. Affairs went swimmingly, and I believed the
balloon to be going upward with a speed increasing momently
although I had no longer any means of ascertaining the
progression of the increase. I suffered no pain or uneasiness of
any kind, and enjoyed better spirits than I had at any period
since my departure from Rotterdam, busying myself now in
examining the state of my various apparatus, and now in
regenerating the atmosphere within the chamber. This latter point
I determined to attend to at regular intervals of forty minutes,
more on account of the preservation of my health, than from so
frequent a renovation being absolutely necessary. In the
meanwhile I could not help making anticipations. Fancy revelled
in the wild and dreamy regions of the moon. Imagination, feeling
herself for once unshackled, roamed at will among the
ever-changing wonders of a shadowy and unstable land. Now there
were hoary and time-honored forests, and craggy precipices, and
waterfalls tumbling with a loud noise into abysses without a
bottom. Then I came suddenly into still noonday solitudes, where
no wind of heaven ever intruded, and where vast meadows of
poppies, and slender, lily-looking flowers spread themselves out
a weary distance, all silent and motionless forever. Then again I
journeyed far down away into another country where it was all one
dim and vague lake, with a boundary line of clouds. And out of
this melancholy water arose a forest of tall eastern trees, like
a wilderness of dreams. And I have in mind that the shadows of
the trees which fell upon the lake remained not on the surface
where they fell, but sunk slowly and steadily down, and
commingled with the waves, while from the trunks of the trees
other shadows were continually coming out, and taking the place
of their brothers thus entombed. “This then,” I said
thoughtfully, “is the very reason why the waters of this lake
grow blacker with age, and more melancholy as the hours run on.”
But fancies such as these were not the sole possessors of my
brain. Horrors of a nature most stern and most appalling would
too frequently obtrude themselves upon my mind, and shake the
innermost depths of my soul with the bare supposition of their
possibility. Yet I would not suffer my thoughts for any length of
time to dwell upon these latter speculations, rightly judging the
real and palpable dangers of the voyage sufficient for my
undivided attention.

“At five o’clock, p.m., being engaged in regenerating the
atmosphere within the chamber, I took that opportunity of
observing the cat and kittens through the valve. The cat herself
appeared to suffer again very much, and I had no hesitation in
attributing her uneasiness chiefly to a difficulty in breathing;
but my experiment with the kittens had resulted very strangely. I
had expected, of course, to see them betray a sense of pain,
although in a less degree than their mother, and this would have
been sufficient to confirm my opinion concerning the habitual
endurance of atmospheric pressure. But I was not prepared to find
them, upon close examination, evidently enjoying a high degree of
health, breathing with the greatest ease and perfect regularity,
and evincing not the slightest sign of any uneasiness whatever. I
could only account for all this by extending my theory, and
supposing that the highly rarefied atmosphere around might
perhaps not be, as I had taken for granted, chemically
insufficient for the purposes of life, and that a person born in
such a medium might, possibly, be unaware of any inconvenience
attending its inhalation, while, upon removal to the denser
strata near the earth, he might endure tortures of a similar
nature to those I had so lately experienced. It has since been to
me a matter of deep regret that an awkward accident, at this
time, occasioned me the loss of my little family of cats, and
deprived me of the insight into this matter which a continued
experiment might have afforded. In passing my hand through the
valve, with a cup of water for the old puss, the sleeves of my
shirt became entangled in the loop which sustained the basket,
and thus, in a moment, loosened it from the bottom. Had the whole
actually vanished into air, it could not have shot from my sight
in a more abrupt and instantaneous manner. Positively, there
could not have intervened the tenth part of a second between the
disengagement of the basket and its absolute and total
disappearance with all that it contained. My good wishes followed
it to the earth, but of course, I had no hope that either cat or
kittens would ever live to tell the tale of their misfortune.

“At six o’clock, I perceived a great portion of the earth’s
visible area to the eastward involved in thick shadow, which
continued to advance with great rapidity, until, at five minutes
before seven, the whole surface in view was enveloped in the
darkness of night. It was not, however, until long after this
time that the rays of the setting sun ceased to illumine the
balloon; and this circumstance, although of course fully
anticipated, did not fail to give me an infinite deal of
pleasure. It was evident that, in the morning, I should behold
the rising luminary many hours at least before the citizens of
Rotterdam, in spite of their situation so much farther to the
eastward, and thus, day after day, in proportion to the height
ascended, would I enjoy the light of the sun for a longer and a
longer period. I now determined to keep a journal of my passage,
reckoning the days from one to twenty-four hours continuously,
without taking into consideration the intervals of darkness.

“At ten o’clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie down for the
rest of the night; but here a difficulty presented itself, which,
obvious as it may appear, had escaped my attention up to the very
moment of which I am now speaking. If I went to sleep as I
proposed, how could the atmosphere in the chamber be regenerated
in the interim? To breathe it for more than an hour, at the
farthest, would be a matter of impossibility, or, if even this
term could be extended to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous
consequences might ensue. The consideration of this dilemma gave
me no little disquietude; and it will hardly be believed, that,
after the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon this
business in so serious a light, as to give up all hope of
accomplishing my ultimate design, and finally make up my mind to
the necessity of a descent. But this hesitation was only
momentary. I reflected that man is the veriest slave of custom,
and that many points in the routine of his existence are deemed
essentially important, which are only so at all by his having
rendered them habitual. It was very certain that I could not do
without sleep; but I might easily bring myself to feel no
inconvenience from being awakened at intervals of an hour during
the whole period of my repose. It would require but five minutes
at most to regenerate the atmosphere in the fullest manner, and
the only real difficulty was to contrive a method of arousing
myself at the proper moment for so doing. But this was a question
which, I am willing to confess, occasioned me no little trouble
in its solution. To be sure, I had heard of the student who, to
prevent his falling asleep over his books, held in one hand a
ball of copper, the din of whose descent into a basin of the same
metal on the floor beside his chair, served effectually to
startle him up, if, at any moment, he should be overcome with
drowsiness. My own case, however, was very different indeed, and
left me no room for any similar idea; for I did not wish to keep
awake, but to be aroused from slumber at regular intervals of
time. I at length hit upon the following expedient, which, simple
as it may seem, was hailed by me, at the moment of discovery, as
an invention fully equal to that of the telescope, the
steam-engine, or the art of printing itself.

“It is necessary to premise, that the balloon, at the elevation
now attained, continued its course upward with an even and
undeviating ascent, and the car consequently followed with a
steadiness so perfect that it would have been impossible to
detect in it the slightest vacillation whatever. This
circumstance favored me greatly in the project I now determined
to adopt. My supply of water had been put on board in kegs
containing five gallons each, and ranged very securely around the
interior of the car. I unfastened one of these, and taking two
ropes tied them tightly across the rim of the wicker-work from
one side to the other; placing them about a foot apart and
parallel so as to form a kind of shelf, upon which I placed the
keg, and steadied it in a horizontal position. About eight inches
immediately below these ropes, and four feet from the bottom of
the car I fastened another shelf—but made of thin plank, being
the only similar piece of wood I had. Upon this latter shelf, and
exactly beneath one of the rims of the keg, a small earthern
pitcher was deposited. I now bored a hole in the end of the keg
over the pitcher, and fitted in a plug of soft wood, cut in a
tapering or conical shape. This plug I pushed in or pulled out,
as might happen, until, after a few experiments, it arrived at
that exact degree of tightness, at which the water, oozing from
the hole, and falling into the pitcher below, would fill the
latter to the brim in the period of sixty minutes. This, of
course, was a matter briefly and easily ascertained, by noticing
the proportion of the pitcher filled in any given time. Having
arranged all this, the rest of the plan is obvious. My bed was so
contrived upon the floor of the car, as to bring my head, in
lying down, immediately below the mouth of the pitcher. It was
evident, that, at the expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting
full, would be forced to run over, and to run over at the mouth,
which was somewhat lower than the rim. It was also evident, that
the water thus falling from a height of more than four feet,
could not do otherwise than fall upon my face, and that the sure
consequences would be, to waken me up instantaneously, even from
the soundest slumber in the world.

“It was fully eleven by the time I had completed these
arrangements, and I immediately betook myself to bed, with full
confidence in the efficiency of my invention. Nor in this matter
was I disappointed. Punctually every sixty minutes was I aroused
by my trusty chronometer, when, having emptied the pitcher into
the bung-hole of the keg, and performed the duties of the
condenser, I retired again to bed. These regular interruptions to
my slumber caused me even less discomfort than I had anticipated;
and when I finally arose for the day, it was seven o’clock, and
the sun had attained many degrees above the line of my horizon.

“April 3d. I found the balloon at an immense height indeed, and
the earth’s apparent convexity increased in a material degree.
Below me in the ocean lay a cluster of black specks, which
undoubtedly were islands. Far away to the northward I perceived a
thin, white, and exceedingly brilliant line, or streak, on the
edge of the horizon, and I had no hesitation in supposing it to
be the southern disk of the ices of the Polar Sea. My curiosity
was greatly excited, for I had hopes of passing on much farther
to the north, and might possibly, at some period, find myself
placed directly above the Pole itself. I now lamented that my
great elevation would, in this case, prevent my taking as
accurate a survey as I could wish. Much, however, might be
ascertained. Nothing else of an extraordinary nature occurred
during the day. My apparatus all continued in good order, and the
balloon still ascended without any perceptible vacillation. The
cold was intense, and obliged me to wrap up closely in an
overcoat. When darkness came over the earth, I betook myself to
bed, although it was for many hours afterward broad daylight all
around my immediate situation. The water-clock was punctual in
its duty, and I slept until next morning soundly, with the
exception of the periodical interruption.

“April 4th. Arose in good health and spirits, and was astonished
at the singular change which had taken place in the appearance of
the sea. It had lost, in a great measure, the deep tint of blue
it had hitherto worn, being now of a grayish-white, and of a
lustre dazzling to the eye. The islands were no longer visible;
whether they had passed down the horizon to the southeast, or
whether my increasing elevation had left them out of sight, it is
impossible to say. I was inclined, however, to the latter
opinion. The rim of ice to the northward was growing more and
more apparent. Cold by no means so intense. Nothing of importance
occurred, and I passed the day in reading, having taken care to
supply myself with books.

“April 5th. Beheld the singular phenomenon of the sun rising
while nearly the whole visible surface of the earth continued to
be involved in darkness. In time, however, the light spread
itself over all, and I again saw the line of ice to the
northward. It was now very distinct, and appeared of a much
darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I was evidently
approaching it, and with great rapidity. Fancied I could again
distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the
westward, but could not be certain. Weather moderate. Nothing of
any consequence happened during the day. Went early to bed.

“April 6th. Was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very
moderate distance, and an immense field of the same material
stretching away off to the horizon in the north. It was evident
that if the balloon held its present course, it would soon arrive
above the Frozen Ocean, and I had now little doubt of ultimately
seeing the Pole. During the whole of the day I continued to near
the ice. Toward night the limits of my horizon very suddenly and
materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth’s form being
that of an oblate spheroid, and my arriving above the flattened
regions in the vicinity of the Arctic circle. When darkness at
length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to
pass over the object of so much curiosity when I should have no
opportunity of observing it.

“April 7th. Arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld
what there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern Pole
itself. It was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my
feet; but, alas! I had now ascended to so vast a distance, that
nothing could with accuracy be discerned. Indeed, to judge from
the progression of the numbers indicating my various altitudes,
respectively, at different periods, between six A.M. on the
second of April, and twenty minutes before nine A.M. of the same
day (at which time the barometer ran down), it might be fairly
inferred that the balloon had now, at four o’clock in the morning
of April the seventh, reached a height of not less, certainly,
than 7,254 miles above the surface of the sea. This elevation may
appear immense, but the estimate upon which it is calculated gave
a result in all probability far inferior to the truth. At all
events I undoubtedly beheld the whole of the earth’s major
diameter; the entire northern hemisphere lay beneath me like a
chart orthographically projected: and the great circle of the
equator itself formed the boundary line of my horizon. Your
Excellencies may, however, readily imagine that the confined
regions hitherto unexplored within the limits of the Arctic
circle, although situated directly beneath me, and therefore seen
without any appearance of being foreshortened, were still, in
themselves, comparatively too diminutive, and at too great a
distance from the point of sight, to admit of any very accurate
examination. Nevertheless, what could be seen was of a nature
singular and exciting. Northwardly from that huge rim before
mentioned, and which, with slight qualification, may be called
the limit of human discovery in these regions, one unbroken, or
nearly unbroken, sheet of ice continues to extend. In the first
few degrees of this its progress, its surface is very sensibly
flattened, farther on depressed into a plane, and finally,
becoming not a little concave, it terminates, at the Pole itself,
in a circular centre, sharply defined, whose apparent diameter
subtended at the balloon an angle of about sixty-five seconds,
and whose dusky hue, varying in intensity, was, at all times,
darker than any other spot upon the visible hemisphere, and
occasionally deepened into the most absolute and impenetrable
blackness. Farther than this, little could be ascertained. By
twelve o’clock the circular centre had materially decreased in
circumference, and by seven P.M. I lost sight of it entirely; the
balloon passing over the western limb of the ice, and floating
away rapidly in the direction of the equator.

“April 8th. Found a sensible diminution in the earth’s apparent
diameter, besides a material alteration in its general color and
appearance. The whole visible area partook in different degrees
of a tint of pale yellow, and in some portions had acquired a
brilliancy even painful to the eye. My view downward was also
considerably impeded by the dense atmosphere in the vicinity of
the surface being loaded with clouds, between whose masses I
could only now and then obtain a glimpse of the earth itself.
This difficulty of direct vision had troubled me more or less for
the last forty-eight hours; but my present enormous elevation
brought closer together, as it were, the floating bodies of
vapor, and the inconvenience became, of course, more and more
palpable in proportion to my ascent. Nevertheless, I could easily
perceive that the balloon now hovered above the range of great
lakes in the continent of North America, and was holding a
course, due south, which would bring me to the tropics. This
circumstance did not fail to give me the most heartful
satisfaction, and I hailed it as a happy omen of ultimate
success. Indeed, the direction I had hitherto taken, had filled
me with uneasiness; for it was evident that, had I continued it
much longer, there would have been no possibility of my arriving
at the moon at all, whose orbit is inclined to the ecliptic at
only the small angle of 5° 8′ 48″.

“April 9th. To-day the earth’s diameter was greatly diminished,
and the color of the surface assumed hourly a deeper tint of
yellow. The balloon kept steadily on her course to the southward,
and arrived, at nine P.M., over the northern edge of the Mexican
Gulf.

“April 10th. I was suddenly aroused from slumber, about five
o’clock this morning, by a loud, crackling, and terrific sound,
for which I could in no manner account. It was of very brief
duration, but, while it lasted resembled nothing in the world of
which I had any previous experience. It is needless to say that I
became excessively alarmed, having, in the first instance,
attributed the noise to the bursting of the balloon. I examined
all my apparatus, however, with great attention, and could
discover nothing out of order. Spent a great part of the day in
meditating upon an occurrence so extraordinary, but could find no
means whatever of accounting for it. Went to bed dissatisfied,
and in a state of great anxiety and agitation.

“April 11th. Found a startling diminution in the apparent
diameter of the earth, and a considerable increase, now
observable for the first time, in that of the moon itself, which
wanted only a few days of being full. It now required long and
excessive labor to condense within the chamber sufficient
atmospheric air for the sustenance of life.

“April 12th. A singular alteration took place in regard to the
direction of the balloon, and although fully anticipated,
afforded me the most unequivocal delight. Having reached, in its
former course, about the twentieth parallel of southern latitude,
it turned off suddenly, at an acute angle, to the eastward, and
thus proceeded throughout the day, keeping nearly, if not
altogether, in the exact plane of the lunar ellipse. What was
worthy of remark, a very perceptible vacillation in the car was a
consequence of this change of route—a vacillation which
prevailed, in a more or less degree, for a period of many hours.

“April 13th. Was again very much alarmed by a repetition of the
loud, crackling noise which terrified me on the tenth. Thought
long upon the subject, but was unable to form any satisfactory
conclusion. Great decrease in the earth’s apparent diameter,
which now subtended from the balloon an angle of very little more
than twenty-five degrees. The moon could not be seen at all,
being nearly in my zenith. I still continued in the plane of the
ellipse, but made little progress to the eastward.

“April 14th. Extremely rapid decrease in the diameter of the
earth. To-day I became strongly impressed with the idea, that the
balloon was now actually running up the line of apsides to the
point of perigee—in other words, holding the direct course which
would bring it immediately to the moon in that part of its orbit
the nearest to the earth. The moon itself was directly overhead,
and consequently hidden from my view. Great and long-continued
labor necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere.

“April 15th. Not even the outlines of continents and seas could
now be traced upon the earth with anything approaching
distinctness. About twelve o’clock I became aware, for the third
time, of that appalling sound which had so astonished me before.
It now, however, continued for some moments, and gathered
intensity as it continued. At length, while, stupefied and
terror-stricken, I stood in expectation of I knew not what
hideous destruction, the car vibrated with excessive violence,
and a gigantic and flaming mass of some material which I could
not distinguish, came with a voice of a thousand thunders,
roaring and booming by the balloon. When my fears and
astonishment had in some degree subsided, I had little difficulty
in supposing it to be some mighty volcanic fragment ejected from
that world to which I was so rapidly approaching, and, in all
probability, one of that singular class of substances
occasionally picked up on the earth, and termed meteoric stones
for want of a better appellation.

“April 16th. To-day, looking upward as well as I could, through
each of the side windows alternately, I beheld, to my great
delight, a very small portion of the moon’s disk protruding, as
it were, on all sides beyond the huge circumference of the
balloon. My agitation was extreme; for I had now little doubt of
soon reaching the end of my perilous voyage. Indeed, the labor
now required by the condenser had increased to a most oppressive
degree, and allowed me scarcely any respite from exertion. Sleep
was a matter nearly out of the question. I became quite ill, and
my frame trembled with exhaustion. It was impossible that human
nature could endure this state of intense suffering much longer.
During the now brief interval of darkness a meteoric stone again
passed in my vicinity, and the frequency of these phenomena began
to occasion me much apprehension.

“April 17th. This morning proved an epoch in my voyage. It will
be remembered that, on the thirteenth, the earth subtended an
angular breadth of twenty-five degrees. On the fourteenth this
had greatly diminished; on the fifteenth a still more remarkable
decrease was observable; and, on retiring on the night of the
sixteenth, I had noticed an angle of no more than about seven
degrees and fifteen minutes. What, therefore, must have been my
amazement, on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber, on
the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding the surface
beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully augmented in volume, as to
subtend no less than thirty-nine degrees in apparent angular
diameter! I was thunderstruck! No words can give any adequate
idea of the extreme, the absolute horror and astonishment, with
which I was seized possessed, and altogether overwhelmed. My
knees tottered beneath me—my teeth chattered—my hair started up
on end. ‘The balloon, then, had actually burst!’ These were the
first tumultuous ideas that hurried through my mind: ‘The balloon
had positively burst!—I was falling—falling with the most
impetuous, the most unparalleled velocity! To judge by the
immense distance already so quickly passed over, it could not be
more than ten minutes, at the farthest, before I should meet the
surface of the earth, and be hurled into annihilation!’ But at
length reflection came to my relief. I paused; I considered; and
I began to doubt. The matter was impossible. I could not in any
reason have so rapidly come down. Besides, although I was
evidently approaching the surface below me, it was with a speed
by no means commensurate with the velocity I had at first so
horribly conceived. This consideration served to calm the
perturbation of my mind, and I finally succeeded in regarding the
phenomenon in its proper point of view. In fact, amazement must
have fairly deprived me of my senses, when I could not see the
vast difference, in appearance, between the surface below me, and
the surface of my mother earth. The latter was indeed over my
head, and completely hidden by the balloon, while the moon—the
moon itself in all its glory—lay beneath me, and at my feet.

“The stupor and surprise produced in my mind by this
extraordinary change in the posture of affairs was perhaps, after
all, that part of the adventure least susceptible of explanation.
For the bouleversement in itself was not only natural and
inevitable, but had been long actually anticipated as a
circumstance to be expected whenever I should arrive at that
exact point of my voyage where the attraction of the planet
should be superseded by the attraction of the satellite—or, more
precisely, where the gravitation of the balloon toward the earth
should be less powerful than its gravitation toward the moon. To
be sure I arose from a sound slumber, with all my senses in
confusion, to the contemplation of a very startling phenomenon,
and one which, although expected, was not expected at the moment.
The revolution itself must, of course, have taken place in an
easy and gradual manner, and it is by no means clear that, had I
even been awake at the time of the occurrence, I should have been
made aware of it by any internal evidence of an inversion—that is
to say, by any inconvenience or disarrangement, either about my
person or about my apparatus.

“It is almost needless to say that, upon coming to a due sense of
my situation, and emerging from the terror which had absorbed
every faculty of my soul, my attention was, in the first place,
wholly directed to the contemplation of the general physical
appearance of the moon. It lay beneath me like a chart—and
although I judged it to be still at no inconsiderable distance,
the indentures of its surface were defined to my vision with a
most striking and altogether unaccountable distinctness. The
entire absence of ocean or sea, and indeed of any lake or river,
or body of water whatsoever, struck me, at first glance, as the
most extraordinary feature in its geological condition. Yet,
strange to say, I beheld vast level regions of a character
decidedly alluvial, although by far the greater portion of the
hemisphere in sight was covered with innumerable volcanic
mountains, conical in shape, and having more the appearance of
artificial than of natural protuberance. The highest among them
does not exceed three and three-quarter miles in perpendicular
elevation; but a map of the volcanic districts of the Campi
Phlegraei would afford to your Excellencies a better idea of
their general surface than any unworthy description I might think
proper to attempt. The greater part of them were in a state of
evident eruption, and gave me fearfully to understand their fury
and their power, by the repeated thunders of the miscalled
meteoric stones, which now rushed upward by the balloon with a
frequency more and more appalling.

“April 18th. To-day I found an enormous increase in the moon’s
apparent bulk—and the evidently accelerated velocity of my
descent began to fill me with alarm. It will be remembered, that,
in the earliest stage of my speculations upon the possibility of
a passage to the moon, the existence, in its vicinity, of an
atmosphere, dense in proportion to the bulk of the planet, had
entered largely into my calculations; this too in spite of many
theories to the contrary, and, it may be added, in spite of a
general disbelief in the existence of any lunar atmosphere at
all. But, in addition to what I have already urged in regard to
Encke’s comet and the zodiacal light, I had been strengthened in
my opinion by certain observations of Mr. Schroeter, of
Lilienthal. He observed the moon when two days and a half old, in
the evening soon after sunset, before the dark part was visible,
and continued to watch it until it became visible. The two cusps
appeared tapering in a very sharp faint prolongation, each
exhibiting its farthest extremity faintly illuminated by the
solar rays, before any part of the dark hemisphere was visible.
Soon afterward, the whole dark limb became illuminated. This
prolongation of the cusps beyond the semicircle, I thought, must
have arisen from the refraction of the sun’s rays by the moon’s
atmosphere. I computed, also, the height of the atmosphere (which
could refract light enough into its dark hemisphere to produce a
twilight more luminous than the light reflected from the earth
when the moon is about 32° from the new) to be 1,356 Paris feet;
in this view, I supposed the greatest height capable of
refracting the solar ray, to be 5,376 feet. My ideas on this
topic had also received confirmation by a passage in the
eighty-second volume of the Philosophical Transactions, in which
it is stated that at an occultation of Jupiter’s satellites, the
third disappeared after having been about 1″ or 2″ of time
indistinct, and the fourth became indiscernible near the
limb.(*4)

“Upon the resistance or, more properly, upon the support of an
atmosphere, existing in the state of density imagined, I had, of
course, entirely depended for the safety of my ultimate descent.
Should I then, after all, prove to have been mistaken, I had in
consequence nothing better to expect, as a finale to my
adventure, than being dashed into atoms against the rugged
surface of the satellite. And, indeed, I had now every reason to
be terrified. My distance from the moon was comparatively
trifling, while the labor required by the condenser was
diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication
whatever of a decreasing rarity in the air.

“April 19th. This morning, to my great joy, about nine o’clock,
the surface of the moon being frightfully near, and my
apprehensions excited to the utmost, the pump of my condenser at
length gave evident tokens of an alteration in the atmosphere. By
ten, I had reason to believe its density considerably increased.
By eleven, very little labor was necessary at the apparatus; and
at twelve o’clock, with some hesitation, I ventured to unscrew
the tourniquet, when, finding no inconvenience from having done
so, I finally threw open the gum-elastic chamber, and unrigged it
from around the car. As might have been expected, spasms and
violent headache were the immediate consequences of an experiment
so precipitate and full of danger. But these and other
difficulties attending respiration, as they were by no means so
great as to put me in peril of my life, I determined to endure as
I best could, in consideration of my leaving them behind me
momently in my approach to the denser strata near the moon. This
approach, however, was still impetuous in the extreme; and it
soon became alarmingly certain that, although I had probably not
been deceived in the expectation of an atmosphere dense in
proportion to the mass of the satellite, still I had been wrong
in supposing this density, even at the surface, at all adequate
to the support of the great weight contained in the car of my
balloon. Yet this should have been the case, and in an equal
degree as at the surface of the earth, the actual gravity of
bodies at either planet supposed in the ratio of the atmospheric
condensation. That it was not the case, however, my precipitous
downfall gave testimony enough; why it was not so, can only be
explained by a reference to those possible geological
disturbances to which I have formerly alluded. At all events I
was now close upon the planet, and coming down with the most
terrible impetuosity. I lost not a moment, accordingly, in
throwing overboard first my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my
condensing apparatus and gum-elastic chamber, and finally every
article within the car. But it was all to no purpose. I still
fell with horrible rapidity, and was now not more than half a
mile from the surface. As a last resource, therefore, having got
rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from the balloon the
car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and thus,
clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to
observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach,
was thickly interspersed with diminutive habitations, ere I
tumbled headlong into the very heart of a fantastical-looking
city, and into the middle of a vast crowd of ugly little people,
who none of them uttered a single syllable, or gave themselves
the least trouble to render me assistance, but stood, like a
parcel of idiots, grinning in a ludicrous manner, and eyeing me
and my balloon askant, with their arms set a-kimbo. I turned from
them in contempt, and, gazing upward at the earth so lately left,
and left perhaps for ever, beheld it like a huge, dull, copper
shield, about two degrees in diameter, fixed immovably in the
heavens overhead, and tipped on one of its edges with a crescent
border of the most brilliant gold. No traces of land or water
could be discovered, and the whole was clouded with variable
spots, and belted with tropical and equatorial zones.

“Thus, may it please your Excellencies, after a series of great
anxieties, unheard of dangers, and unparalleled escapes, I had,
at length, on the nineteenth day of my departure from Rotterdam,
arrived in safety at the conclusion of a voyage undoubtedly the
most extraordinary, and the most momentous, ever accomplished,
undertaken, or conceived by any denizen of earth. But my
adventures yet remain to be related. And indeed your Excellencies
may well imagine that, after a residence of five years upon a
planet not only deeply interesting in its own peculiar character,
but rendered doubly so by its intimate connection, in capacity of
satellite, with the world inhabited by man, I may have
intelligence for the private ear of the States’ College of
Astronomers of far more importance than the details, however
wonderful, of the mere voyage which so happily concluded. This
is, in fact, the case. I have much—very much which it would give
me the greatest pleasure to communicate. I have much to say of
the climate of the planet; of its wonderful alternations of heat
and cold, of unmitigated and burning sunshine for one fortnight,
and more than polar frigidity for the next; of a constant
transfer of moisture, by distillation like that in vacuo, from
the point beneath the sun to the point the farthest from it; of a
variable zone of running water; of the people themselves; of
their manners, customs, and political institutions; of their
peculiar physical construction; of their ugliness; of their want
of ears, those useless appendages in an atmosphere so peculiarly
modified; of their consequent ignorance of the use and properties
of speech; of their substitute for speech in a singular method of
inter-communication; of the incomprehensible connection between
each particular individual in the moon with some particular
individual on the earth—a connection analogous with, and
depending upon, that of the orbs of the planet and the
satellites, and by means of which the lives and destinies of the
inhabitants of the one are interwoven with the lives and
destinies of the inhabitants of the other; and above all, if it
so please your Excellencies—above all, of those dark and hideous
mysteries which lie in the outer regions of the moon—regions
which, owing to the almost miraculous accordance of the
satellite’s rotation on its own axis with its sidereal revolution
about the earth, have never yet been turned, and, by God’s mercy,
never shall be turned, to the scrutiny of the telescopes of man.
All this, and more—much more—would I most willingly detail. But,
to be brief, I must have my reward. I am pining for a return to
my family and to my home; and as the price of any farther
communication on my part—in consideration of the light which I
have it in my power to throw upon many very important branches of
physical and metaphysical science—I must solicit, through the
influence of your honorable body, a pardon for the crime of which
I have been guilty in the death of the creditors upon my
departure from Rotterdam. This, then, is the object of the
present paper. Its bearer, an inhabitant of the moon, whom I have
prevailed upon, and properly instructed, to be my messenger to
the earth, will await your Excellencies’ pleasure, and return to
me with the pardon in question, if it can, in any manner, be
obtained.

“I have the honor to be, etc., your Excellencies’ very humble
servant,

“HANS PFAALL.”

Upon finishing the perusal of this very extraordinary document,
Professor Rub-a-dub, it is said, dropped his pipe upon the ground
in the extremity of his surprise, and Mynheer Superbus Von
Underduk having taken off his spectacles, wiped them, and
deposited them in his pocket, so far forgot both himself and his
dignity, as to turn round three times upon his heel in the
quintessence of astonishment and admiration. There was no doubt
about the matter—the pardon should be obtained. So at least
swore, with a round oath, Professor Rub-a-dub, and so finally
thought the illustrious Von Underduk, as he took the arm of his
brother in science, and without saying a word, began to make the
best of his way home to deliberate upon the measures to be
adopted. Having reached the door, however, of the burgomaster’s
dwelling, the professor ventured to suggest that as the messenger
had thought proper to disappear—no doubt frightened to death by
the savage appearance of the burghers of Rotterdam—the pardon
would be of little use, as no one but a man of the moon would
undertake a voyage to so vast a distance. To the truth of this
observation the burgomaster assented, and the matter was
therefore at an end. Not so, however, rumors and speculations.
The letter, having been published, gave rise to a variety of
gossip and opinion. Some of the over-wise even made themselves
ridiculous by decrying the whole business; as nothing better than
a hoax. But hoax, with these sort of people, is, I believe, a
general term for all matters above their comprehension. For my
part, I cannot conceive upon what data they have founded such an
accusation. Let us see what they say:

Imprimus. That certain wags in Rotterdam have certain especial
antipathies to certain burgomasters and astronomers.

Don’t understand at all.

Secondly. That an odd little dwarf and bottle conjurer, both of
whose ears, for some misdemeanor, have been cut off close to his
head, has been missing for several days from the neighboring city
of Bruges.

Well—what of that?

Thirdly. That the newspapers which were stuck all over the little
balloon were newspapers of Holland, and therefore could not have
been made in the moon. They were dirty papers—very dirty—and
Gluck, the printer, would take his Bible oath to their having
been printed in Rotterdam.

He was mistaken—undoubtedly—mistaken.