Page 293 - erewhon

guess-work as regards time. Then came darkness, a dread-
ful dreary time, without even the moon to cheer us.
With dawn the scene was changed: the clouds were gone
and morning stars were shining; the rising of the splendid
sun remains still impressed upon me as the most glorious
that I have ever seen; beneath us there was an embossed
chain of mountains with snow fresh fallen upon them; but
we were far above them; we both of us felt our breathing
seriously affected, but I would not allow the balloon to de-
scend a single inch, not knowing for how long we might not
need all the buoyancy which we could command; indeed
I was thankful to find that, after nearly four-and-twenty
hours, we were still at so great a height above the earth.
In a couple of hours we had passed the ranges, which
must have been some hundred and fifty miles across, and
again I saw a tract of level plain extending far away to the
horizon. I knew not where we were, and dared not descend,
lest I should waste the power of the balloon, but I was half
hopeful that we might be above the country from which I
had originally started. I looked anxiously for any sign by
which I could recognise it, but could see nothing, and feared
that we might be above some distant part of Erewhon, or a
country inhabited by savages. While I was still in doubt, the
balloon was again wrapped in clouds, and we were left to
blank space and to conjectures.
The weary time dragged on. How I longed for my un-
happy watch! I felt as though not even time was moving, so
dumb and spell-bound were our surroundings. Sometimes
I would feel my pulse, and count its beats for half-an-hour

Erewhon