midnight
But I kept at it till I got to the Jacob 's Ladder ; and they may well call it so , for it took me almost into the clouds ; and at last , to my own amazement , I found myself hanging on the skysail-yard , holding on might and main to the mast ; and curling my feet round the rigging , as if they were another pair of hands . For a few moments I stood awe-stricken and mute . I could not see far out upon the ocean , owing to the darkness of the night ; and from my lofty perch , the sea looked like a great , black gulf , hemmed in , all round , by beetling black cliffs . I seemed all alone ; treading the midnight clouds ; and every second , expected to find myself falling -- falling -- falling , as I have felt when the nightmare has been on me . I could but just perceive the ship below me , like a long narrow plank in the water ; and it did not seem to belong at all to the yard , over which I was hanging . A gull , or some sort of sea-fowl , was flying round the truck over my head , within a few yards of my face ; and it almost frightened me to hear it ; it seemed so much like a spirit , at such a lofty and solitary height . Though there was a pretty smooth sea , and little wind ; yet , at this extreme elevation , the ship 's motion was very great ; so that when the ship rolled one way , I felt something as a fly must feel , walking the ceiling ; and when it rolled the other way , I felt as if I was hanging along a slanting pine-tree .