All that now remained was to fasten up the mouth
of the enclosure; and this was readily accomplished by gathering the
folds of the material together, and twisting them up very tightly on
the inside by means of a kind of stationary tourniquet.
In the sides of the covering thus adjusted round the car, had been
inserted three circular panes of thick but clear glass, through
which I could see without difficulty around me in every horizontal
direction. In that portion of the cloth forming the bottom, was
likewise, a fourth window, of the same kind, and corresponding with
a small aperture in the floor of the car itself. This enabled me to
see perpendicularly down, but having found it impossible to place
any similar contrivance overhead, on account of the peculiar manner of
closing up the opening there, and the consequent wrinkles in the
cloth, I could expect to see no objects situated directly in my
zenith. This, of course, was a matter of little consequence; for had I
even been able to place a window at top, the balloon itself would have
prevented my making any use of it.
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