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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
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