than 161 days to reach the surface of
the moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me to believe
that my average rate of traveling might possibly very much exceed that
of sixty miles an hour.

The next point to be regarded was one of far greater importance. We know
that at 18,000 feet above the surface of the earth we have passed
one-half the material, or, at all events, one-half the [v]ponderable
body of air upon the globe. It is also calculated that at a height of
eighty miles the [v]rarefaction of air is so great that animal life can
be sustained in no manner. But I did not fail to perceive that these
calculations are founded on our experimental knowledge of the air in
the immediate vicinity of the earth, and that it is taken for granted
that animal life is incapable of [v]modification. I thought that no
matter how high we may ascend we cannot 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 [v]infinite rarefaction.

Having adopted this view of the subject, I had little farther
hesitation. Granting that on my passage I should meet with atmosphere
essentially the same as at the surface of the earth, I thought that, by
means of my very ingenious apparatus for that purpose, I should readily
be able to condense it in sufficient quantity for breathing. This would
remove the chief obstacle in a journey to the moon.

I now turned to view the prospect beneath me. At twenty minutes past six
o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation of 26,000 feet, or five miles
to a fraction. The outlook seemed unbounded. I beheld as much as a
sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe. The sea
appeared as unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the telescope,
I could perceive it to be in a state of violent agitation. I now began
to experience, at intervals, severe pain in the head, especially about
the ears, due to the rarefaction of the air. The cat seemed to suffer no
inconvenience whatever.

I was 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. These symptoms were more than I had expected and occasioned me
some alarm. At this