Atlas Nightshade

Day 111

I lost not a moment, accordingly, in

throwing overboard first my ballast, then my water-kegs, then my

condensing apparatus and gum-elastic chamber, and finally every

article within the car. But it was all to no purpose. I still

fell with horrible rapidity, and was now not more than half a

mile from the surface. As a last resource, therefore, having got

rid of my coat, hat, and boots, I cut loose from the balloon the

car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and thus,

clinging with both hands to the net-work, I had barely time to

observe that the whole country, as far as the eye could reach,

was thickly interspersed with diminutive habitations, ere I

tumbled headlong into the very heart of a fantastical-looking

city, and into the middle of a vast crowd of ugly little pe