About
twelve o’clock
Great and long-continued labor necessary for the condensation of the atmosphere . `` April 15th . Not even the outlines of continents and seas could now be traced upon the earth with anything approaching distinctness . About twelve o'clock I became aware , for the third time , of that appalling sound which had so astonished me before . It now , however , continued for some moments , and gathered intensity as it continued . At length , while , stupefied and terror-stricken , I stood in expectation of I knew not what hideous destruction , the car vibrated with excessive violence , and a gigantic and flaming mass of some material which I could not distinguish , came with a voice of a thousand thunders , roaring and booming by the balloon . When my fears and astonishment had in some degree subsided , I had little difficulty in supposing it to be some mighty volcanic fragment ejected from that world to which I was so rapidly approaching , and , in all probability , one of that singular class of substances occasionally picked up on the earth , and termed meteoric stones for want of a better appellation .