"The balloon,
which was quite flabby and soft when I ascended, was now taut,
and fully distended. Soon the hydrogen gas began to escape in
considerable quantities by the neck of the balloon, and then,
from time to time, I pulled open the valve to give it two issues
at once; and I continued thus to mount upwards, all the time
losing the inflammable air, which, rushing past me from the neck
of the balloon, felt like a warm cloud.
"I passed in ten minutes from the temperature of spring to that
of winter; the cold was keen and dry, but not insupportable. I
examined all my sensations calmly; _I_ COULD HEAR MYSELF LIVE,
so to speak, and I am certain that at first I experienced nothing
disagreeable in this sudden passage from one temperature to
another.
"When the barometer ceased to move I noted very exactly eighteen
inches ten lines. This observation is perfectly accurate The
mercury did not suffer any sensible movement.
"At the end of some minutes the cold caught my fingers; I could
hardly hold the pen, but I no longer had need to do so. I was
stationary, or rather moved only in a horizontal direction.
"I raised myself in the middle of the car, and abandoned myself
to the spectacle before me.
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