A VOYAGE TO THE SUN. 33 



already told you, you will understand that the earth's 

 attraction did not in the least interfere with our pro- 

 gress. But atmospheric resistance was not altogether 

 so imperceptible ; and from time to time, notwith- 

 standing our familiarity with all the astronomical 

 details of our journey, and X.'s special mastery of the 

 laws to which we were to trust, we found considerable 

 inconvenience from the loaded state of the lower 

 atmospheric strata. Although we were no longer 

 subject to any physical inconveniences (indeed, our 

 enterprise would otherwise have been impracticable), 

 and although our powers of perception were greatly 

 enhanced, yet the very circumstances which enabled us 

 to exercise powers corresponding to those of the com- 

 mon senses, rendered the veil of mist and fog which 

 surrounded us on all sides, as impenetrable to our vision 

 (to use this word for want of a better) as to the eye- 

 sight of the Londoner. 



Presently, however, we rose into a purer atmosphere. 

 The sun, the end and aim of our journey, was seen 

 in a clear sky, while below us the vast mass of cloud, 

 and fog which hung over London appeared like a wide 

 sea, shining brilliantly under the sun's rays, and 

 effectually concealing the great city from our view. 



Our flight was now veiy rapid, and each moment 

 becoming more so, as we reached rarer and rarer 

 regions of the upper air. We noticed that the noise 

 and hubbub of London seemed rapidly to subside into 

 what appeared to us at the time as almost perfect still- 

 ness. And in passing I may confirm what Grlaisher has 



D 



