what's the meaning of "mountingly muffled by the noisy current of his blood" here?
Then one peel stopped. There could be no other explanation for the obvious diminuition in sound.
‘You see!’ said Phrynne.
Gerald sat up straight on the side of the bed.
Almost at once further sections of sound subsided, quickly one after the other, until only a single peal was left, that which had begun the ringing. Then the single peal tapered off into a single bell. The single bell tolled on its own, disjointedly, five or six or seven times. Then it stopped, and there was nothing.
Gerald’s head was a cave of echoes, mountingly muffled by the noisy current of his blood.
‘Oh goodness,’ said Phrynne, turning from the window and stretching her arms above her head. ‘Let’s go somewhere else tomorrow.’ She began to take off her dress.
Q: what's the meaning of "mountingly muffled by the noisy current of his blood" here?