“April 5th.  Beheld the singular phenomenon of the sun rising while nearly the whole visible surface of the earth continued to be involved in darkness.  In time, however, the light spread itself over all, and I again saw the line of ice to the northward.  It was now very distinct, and appeared of a much darker hue than the waters of the ocean.  I was evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity.  Fancied I could again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward, and one also to the westward, but could not be certain.  Weather moderate.  Nothing of any consequence happened during the day.  Went early to bed.

“April 6th.  Was surprised at finding the rim of ice at a very moderate distance, and an immense field of the same material stretching away off to the horizon in the north.  It was evident that if the balloon held its present course, it would soon arrive above the Frozen Ocean, and I had now little doubt of ultimately seeing the Pole.  During the whole of the day I continued to near the ice.  Toward night the limits of my horizon very suddenly and materially increased, owing undoubtedly to the earth’s form being that of an oblate spheroid, and my arriving above the flattened regions in the vicinity of the Arctic circle.  When darkness at length overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing to pass over the object of so much curiosity when I should have no opportunity of observing it.

“April 7th.  Arose early, and, to my great joy, at length beheld what there could be no hesitation in supposing the northern Pole itself.  It was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately beneath my feet; but, alas!  I had now ascended to so vast a distance, that nothing could with accuracy be discerned.  Indeed, to judge from the progression of the numbers indicating my various altitudes, respectively, at different periods, between six A.M. on the second of April, and twenty minutes before nine A.M. of the same day (at which time the barometer ran down), it might be fairly inferred that the balloon had now, at four o’clock in the morning of April the seventh, reached a height of not less, certainly, than 7,254 miles above the surface of the sea.  This elevation may appear immense, but the estimate upon which it is calculated gave a result in all probability far inferior to the truth.  At all events I undoubtedly beheld the whole of the earth’s major diameter; the entire northern hemisphere lay beneath me like a chart orthographically projected:  and the great circle of the equator itself formed the boundary line of my horizon.  Your Excellencies may, however, readily imagine that the confined regions hitherto unexplored within the limits of the Arctic circle, although situated directly beneath me, and therefore seen without any appearance of being foreshortened, were still, in themselves, comparatively too diminutive, and at too great a distance from the point of sight, to admit of any very accurate examination.  Nevertheless,