About 11 o'clock
It is impossible to describe my sensations of mingled awe and admiration at the splendid spectacle beneath me , so long as the different portions of the earth 's surface were plainly distinguishable . The novelty of the situation in which I found myself , as well as its danger , prevented me indeed at first from giving more than a passing attention to the magnificent scene ; but after a while , encouraged by the Brahmin 's exhortation , and yet more by the example of his calm and assured air , I was able to take a more leisurely view of it . At first , as we partook of the diurnal motion of the earth , and our course was consequently oblique , the same portion of the globe from which we had set out , continued directly under us ; and as the eye stretched in every direction over Asia and its seas , continents and islands , they appeared like pieces of green velvet , the surrounding ocean like a mirror , and the Ganges , the Hoogley , and the great rivers of China , like threads of silver . About 11 o'clock it was necessary to get a fresh supply of air , when my companion cautiously turned one of the two stop-cocks to let out that which was no longer fit for respiration , requesting me , at the same time , to turn the other , to let in a fresh supply of condensed air ; but being awkward in the first attempt to follow his directions , I was so affected by the exhaustion of the air through the vent now made for it , that I fainted ; and having , at the same time , given freer passage to the condensed air than I ought , we must in a few seconds have lost our supply , and thus have inevitably perished , had not the watchful Hermit seen the mischief , and repaired it almost as soon as it occurred . This accident , and the various agitations my mind had undergone in the course of the day , so overpowered me , that at an early hour in the afternoon I fell into a profound sleep , and did not awake again for eight hours . While I slept , the good Brahmin had contrived to manage both stop-cocks himself . The time of my waking would have been about 11 o'clock at night , if we had continued on the earth ; but we were now in a region where there was no alternation of day and night , but one unvarying cloudless sun .