The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

TALES OF PSEUDO-SCIENCE

could not have intervened the tenth part of a second
between the disengagement of the basket and its absolute disappearance with all that it contained. My
good wishes followed it to the earth, but of course I
had no hope that either cat or kittens would ever live
to tell the tale of their misfortune.
At six o'clock I perceived a great portion of the
earth's visible area to the eastward involved in thick
shadow, which continued to advance with great rapidity, until, at five minutes before seven, the whole
surface in view was enveloped in the darkness of
night. It was not, however, until long after this time
that the rays of the setting sun ceased to illumine the
balloon; and this circumstance, although of course
fully anticipated, did not fail to give me an infinite
deal of pleasure. It was evident that, in the morn.
ing, I should behold the rising luminary many hours
at least before the citizens of Rotterdam, in spite of
their situation so much farther to the eastward, and
thus, day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, would I enjoy the light of the sun for a longer
and a longer period. I now determined to keep a journal of my passage, reckoning the days from one to
twenty-four hours continuously, without taking into
consideration the intervals of darkness.
At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to lie
down for the rest of the night; but here a difficulty
presented itself, which, obvious as it may appear,
had escaped my attention up to the very moment
of which I am now speaking. If I went to sleep as
I proposed, how could the atmosphere in the chamber
be regenerated in the interim? To breathe it for more
than an hour, at the farthest, would be a matter of
impossibility; or, if even this term could be extended
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