These symptoms were more than I had expected, and
occasioned me some alarm. At this juncture, very imprudently, and
without consideration, I threw out from the car three five-pound
pieces of ballast. The accelerated rate of ascent thus obtained,
carried me too rapidly, and without sufficient gradation, into a
highly rarefied stratum of the atmosphere, and the result had nearly
proved fatal to my expedition and to myself. I was suddenly seized
with a spasm which lasted for more than five minutes, and even when
this, in a measure, ceased, I could catch my breath only at long
intervals, and in a gasping manner- bleeding all the while copiously
at the nose and ears, and even slightly at the eyes. The pigeons
appeared distressed in the extreme, and struggled to escape; while
the cat mewed piteously, and, with her tongue hanging out of her
mouth, staggered to and fro in the car as if under the influence of
poison. I now too late discovered the great rashness of which I had
been guilty in discharging the ballast, and my agitation was
excessive.
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