when the earth was hidden was that the
balloon was motionless, though our only hope lay in our going forward
with an extreme of speed. From time to time through a rift in the clouds
I caught a glimpse of earth, and was thankful to perceive that we must be
flying forward faster than in an express train; but no sooner was the
rift closed than the old conviction of our being stationary returned in
full force, and was not to be reasoned with: there was another feeling
also which was nearly as bad; for as a child that fears it has gone blind
in a long tunnel if there is no light, so ere the earth had been many
minutes hidden, I became half frightened lest we might not have broken
away from it clean and for ever. Now and again, I ate and gave food to
Arowhena, but by guess-work as regards time. Then came darkness, a
dreadful dreary time, without even the moon to cheer us.

With dawn the scene was changed: the clouds were gone and morning stars
were shining; the rising of the splendid sun remains still impressed upon
me as the most glorious that I have ever seen; beneath us there was an
embossed chain of mountains with snow fresh fallen upon them; but we were
far above them; we both of us felt our breathing seriously affected, but
I would not allow the balloon to descend a single inch, not knowing for
how long we might not need all the buoyancy which we could command;
indeed I was thankful to find that, after nearly four-and-twenty hours,
we were still at so great a height above the earth.

In a couple of hours we had passed the ranges, which must have been some
hundred and fifty miles across, and again I saw a tract of level plain
extending far away to the horizon. I knew not where we were, and dared
not descend, lest I should waste the power of the balloon, but I was half
hopeful that we might be above the country from which I had originally
started. I looked anxiously for any sign by which I could recognise it,
but could see nothing, and feared that we might be above some distant
part of Erewhon, or a country inhabited by savages. While I was still in
doubt, the balloon was again wrapped in clouds, and we were left to blank
space and to conjectures.

The weary time dragged on. How I longed for my unhappy watch! I felt as
though not even time was moving, so dumb and spell-bound were our
surroundings. Sometimes I would feel my pulse, and count its beats for
half-an-hour together; anything to mark the time--to prove