: it was not
possible that I was stationary, for the hole through which I leaped had
vanished in a flash. It then for the first time occurred to me, that
being in the current, and as it were _a part_ of the current, moving in
it and _with_ it without any resistance, it was impossible for me to
tell whether I was advancing or not; and then I remembered how men that
went up in balloons, after they had lost sight of the earth, could not
perceive whether they were in motion or at rest; and how our teacher at
the Roxbury school used to explain the fact that we were not conscious
of the rotation of the globe on which we stood, upon the same principle.
When I thought of all this, I broke into a loud laugh, and for a long
time I could hear the echoes thundering through the cylinder.

I cannot say how glad I felt that my journey through the axis of the
earth occurred at that period of the year when the current set from the
south to the north. The prospect of safety if I were to be discharged
from the south pole, would be slight indeed; but familiarity with the
writings of various explorers in the Arctic regions gave me the very
natural feeling that I should be in a measure at home in that part of
the world.

The absence of any sense of motion, with the quietness and darkness that
surrounded me, began to induce a feeling of weariness; and I thought
that I should like to see how it looked where I was; so I lighted my
lantern, which I had extinguished when I leaped into the axis, when the
most dazzling and marvellous sight burst upon my view. I found that I
was not very far from the side of the cylinder, which was
polished--probably by the constant friction of the swift current passing
through it--so that it glistened like a diamond, only it was of one
uniform vermilion hue. Reflected, as in a fiery mirror, I caught an
occasional glimpse of myself, magnified to a gigantic size by the
concave form of the cylinder, and elongated in the most remarkable
manner by the rapidity with which I shot by the surface; and, after
this, I had no further doubts as to whether I was moving on or standing
still. I next amused myself by making all sorts of uproarious sounds,
which were repeated up and down, and back and forth, from the metallic
walls, until I was somewhat frightened at the cries I made; for it
seemed as if fifty wild demons were shouting and yelling around me.
There are some of my readers who will remember the old chemical chimney
i