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A Descent into the Maelström by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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Speaker 1: work in the public domain, A descent into the Maelstrom
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Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe. The ways of God in nature, as
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Speaker 1: in providence, are not as our ways, nor are the
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Speaker 1: models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity,
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Speaker 1: and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in
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Speaker 1: them greater than the well of Democritus. Joseph Glanville. We
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Speaker 1: had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. For
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Speaker 1: some minutes, the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak.
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Speaker 1: Not long ago, said he at length, and I could
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Speaker 1: have guided you on this route, as well as the
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Speaker 1: youngest of my sons. But about three years past there
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Speaker 1: happened to me in events such as never happened to
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Speaker 1: mortal man, or at least such as no man ever
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Speaker 1: survived to tell of. And the six hours of deadly
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Speaker 1: terror which I then endured have broken me up body
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Speaker 1: and soul. You suppose me a very old man, but
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Speaker 1: I am not. It took less than a single day
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Speaker 1: to change these hairs from a jetty black to white,
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Speaker 1: to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so
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Speaker 1: that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened
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Speaker 1: at a shadow. Do you know I can scarcely look
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Speaker 1: over this little cliff without getting giddy, The little cliff
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Speaker 1: upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down
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Speaker 1: to rest, that the weightier portion of his body hung
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Speaker 1: over it, while he was only kept from falling by
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Speaker 1: the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge.
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Speaker 1: This little cliff arose a sheer, unobstructed precipice of black,
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Speaker 1: shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the
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Speaker 1: world of crags beneath us. Nothing would have tempted me
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Speaker 1: to within half a dozen yards of its brink. In truth,
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Speaker 1: so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of
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Speaker 1: my companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground,
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Speaker 1: clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not even
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Speaker 1: glance upward at the sky. While I struggled in vain
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Speaker 1: to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations
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Speaker 1: of the mountain were in danger from the fury of
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Speaker 1: the winds. It was long before I could reason myself
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Speaker 1: into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into
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Speaker 1: the distance. You must get over these fancies, said the guide,
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Speaker 1: for I have brought you here that you might have
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Speaker 1: the best possible view of the scene of that event
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Speaker 1: I mentioned, and to tell you the whole story with
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Speaker 1: the spot just under your eye. We are now, he continued,
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Speaker 1: in that particularizing manner which distinguished him. We are now
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Speaker 1: close upon the Norwegian coast, in the sixty eighth degree
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Speaker 1: of latitude, in the great province of Nordland, and in
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Speaker 1: the dreary district of Lofoden. The mountain upon whose top
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Speaker 1: we sit is Helsagen, the cloudy. Now raise yourself up
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Speaker 1: a little higher, hold on to the grass if you
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Speaker 1: feel giddy, so and look out beyond the belt of
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Speaker 1: vapor beneath us, into the sea. I looked dizzily and
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Speaker 1: beheld a wide expanse of ocean whose waters were so
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Speaker 1: inky a hue as to bring at once to my
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Speaker 1: mind than Ubian geographer's account of the Mare Tenebrum, a
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Speaker 1: panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can can see.
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Speaker 1: To the right and left, as far as the eye
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Speaker 1: could reach, there lay outstretched like ramparts of the world,
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Speaker 1: lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of
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Speaker 1: gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf
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Speaker 1: which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest,
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Speaker 1: howling and shrieking forever. Just opposite the promontory upon whose
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Speaker 1: apex we were placed, and at a distance of some
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Speaker 1: five or six miles out at sea, there was visible
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Speaker 1: a small, bleak looking island, or more properly, its position
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Speaker 1: was discernible through the wilderness of surge in which it
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Speaker 1: was enveloped. About two miles nearer the land arose another
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Speaker 1: of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed at
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Speaker 1: various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks. The appearance
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Speaker 1: of the ocean in the space between the more distant
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Speaker 1: island and the shore had something very unusual about it.
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Speaker 1: Although at the time so strong a gale was blowing
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Speaker 1: landward that a brig in the remote often lay to
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Speaker 1: under a double reef trisle and constantly plunged her whole
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Speaker 1: hole out of sight, still there was here nothing like
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Speaker 1: a regular swell, but only a short, quick, angry cross
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Speaker 1: dashing of water in every direction. As well, in the
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Speaker 1: teeth of the wind as otherwise a foam. There was
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Speaker 1: little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. The
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Speaker 1: island in the distance resumed the old Man is called
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Speaker 1: by the Norwegians Burg. The one midway is Moscow, that
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Speaker 1: a mile to the northward is Embarren, yonder Our Islesen,
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Speaker 1: hot Home, keeled Helm, Swarven and Buckholm, farther off between
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Speaker 1: Moscow and virg Our otter Home, Flymen, Sandflesen and Stockholm.
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Speaker 1: These are the true names of the places, but why
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Speaker 1: it has been thought necessary to name them at all
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Speaker 1: is more than either you or I can understand. Do
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Speaker 1: you hear anything? Do you see any change in the water?
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Speaker 1: We had now been about ten minutes upon the top
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Speaker 1: of Helsegen, to which we had ascended from the interior
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Speaker 1: of life, so that we had caught no glimpse of
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Speaker 1: the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit.
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Speaker 1: As the old Man spoke, I became aware of a
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Speaker 1: loud and gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a
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Speaker 1: vast herd of buffaloes upon an American prairie. And at
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Speaker 1: the same moment I perceived that what Seamen termed the
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Speaker 1: chopping character of the ocean beneath us was rapidly changing
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Speaker 1: into a current which set to the eastward. Even while
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Speaker 1: I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. Each moment
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Speaker 1: added to its speed to its headlong impetuosity. In five minutes,
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Speaker 1: the whole sea as far as Virgue was lashed into
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Speaker 1: ungovernable fury. But it was between Moscow and the coast
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Speaker 1: that the main uproar held its sway. Here the vast
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Speaker 1: bed of the waters seened and scarred into a thousand
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Speaker 1: conflicting channels, burst suddenly into frenzied convulsion, heaving, boiling, hissing,
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Speaker 1: gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all whirling and
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Speaker 1: plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water
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Speaker 1: never elsewhere assumes except in precipitouss. In a few minutes more,
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Speaker 1: there came over the scene another radical alteration. The general
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Speaker 1: surface grew somewhat more smooth, and the whirlpools one by
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Speaker 1: one disappeared, while prodigious streaks of foam became apparent where
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Speaker 1: none had been seen before. These streaks at length, spreading
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Speaker 1: out to a great distance and entering into combination took
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Speaker 1: unto themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided vortices, and
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Speaker 1: seemed to form the germ of another more vast Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: very suddenly, this assumed a distinct and definite existence in
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Speaker 1: a circle of more than a mile in diameter. The
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Speaker 1: edge of the world was represented by a broad belt
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Speaker 1: of gleaming spray, But no particle of this slipped into
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Speaker 1: the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far
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Speaker 1: as the eye could fathom, it was a smooth, shining
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Speaker 1: and jet black wall of water, inclined to the horizon
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Speaker 1: at an angle of some forty five degrees, speeding dizzily
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Speaker 1: round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and
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Speaker 1: sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek,
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Speaker 1: half roar, such as not even the mighty Cataract of
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Speaker 1: Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to heaven. The
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Speaker 1: mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked.
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Speaker 1: I threw myself upon my face and clung to the
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Speaker 1: scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation. This said
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Speaker 1: I at length to the old man. This can be
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Speaker 1: nothing else than the great whirlpool of the Maelstrom. So
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Speaker 1: it is sometimes termed said he we Norwegians call at
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Speaker 1: the Moscow Strom from the island of Moscow in the midway.
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Speaker 1: The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means
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Speaker 1: prepared me for what I saw. That of Jonas Ramis,
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Speaker 1: which is perhaps the most circumstantial of any cannot impart
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Speaker 1: the faintest conception, either of the magnificence or of the
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Speaker 1: horror of the scene, or of the wild, bewildering sense
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Speaker 1: of the novel which confounds the beholder. I am not
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Speaker 1: sure from what point of view the writer in question
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Speaker 1: surveyed it, nor at what time, but it could neither
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Speaker 1: have been from the summit of Helseggen nor during a storm.
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Speaker 1: There are some passages of his description, nevertheless, which may
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Speaker 1: be quoted for their details, although their effect is exceedingly feeble.
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Speaker 1: In conveying an impression of the spectacle between Lofoden and Moscow,
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Speaker 1: he says the depth of the water is between thirty
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Speaker 1: six and forty fathoms, but on the other side, toward
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Speaker 1: verge Vergue, this depth decreases so as not to afford
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Speaker 1: a convenient passage for a vessel without the risk of
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Speaker 1: splitting on the rocks, which happens even in the calmest weather.
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Speaker 1: When it is flood the stream runs up the country
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Speaker 1: between Lofoden and Moscow with a boisterous rapidity, but the
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Speaker 1: roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea is scarce
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Speaker 1: equaled by the loudest and most dreadful cataracts, the noise
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Speaker 1: being heard several leagues off, and the vortices or pits
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Speaker 1: are of such an extent and depth that if a
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Speaker 1: ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and
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Speaker 1: carried down to the bottom, and their beat to pieces
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Speaker 1: against the rocks, And when the water relaxes, the fragments
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Speaker 1: thereof are thrown up again. But these intervals of tranquility
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Speaker 1: are only at the turn of the ebb and flood,
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Speaker 1: and in calm weather, and last but a quarter of
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Speaker 1: an hour, its violence gradually returning. When the stream is
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Speaker 1: most boisterous and its fury heightened by a storm, it
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Speaker 1: is dangerous to come within a norway mile of it. Boats,
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Speaker 1: yachts and ships have been carried away by not guarding
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Speaker 1: against it before they were within its reach. It likewise
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Speaker 1: happens frequently that whales come too near the stream and
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Speaker 1: are overpowered by its violence, and then it is impossible
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Speaker 1: to describe their howlings and bellowings, and their fruitless struggles
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Speaker 1: to disengage themselves. A bare once attempting to swim from
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Speaker 1: Loafot into Moscow, was caught by the stream and borne down,
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Speaker 1: while he roared terribly so as to be heard on shore.
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Speaker 1: Large stalks of firs and pine trees, after being absorbed
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Speaker 1: by the current, rise again, broken and torn to such
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Speaker 1: a degree as if bristles grew upon them. This plainly
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Speaker 1: shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks among which
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Speaker 1: they are whirled to to and fro. This stream is
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Speaker 1: regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea, it
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Speaker 1: being constantly high and low water every six hours. In
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Speaker 1: the year sixteen forty five, early in the morning of
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Speaker 1: Sexegessema Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that
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Speaker 1: the very stones of the houses on the coast fell
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Speaker 1: to the ground. In regard to the depth of the water,
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Speaker 1: I could not see how this could have been ascertained
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Speaker 1: at all. In the immediate vicinity of the vortex, the
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Speaker 1: forty fathoms must have referenced only to portions of the
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Speaker 1: channel close upon the shore either of Moscow or Lophoden.
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Speaker 1: The depth in the center of the Moscow straw must
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Speaker 1: be immeasurably greater, and no better proof of this fact
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Speaker 1: is necessary than can be obtained from even the sidelong
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Speaker 1: glance into the abyss of the world, which may be
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Speaker 1: had from the highest crag of Helsegen. Looking down from
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Speaker 1: this pinnacle upon the howling flagethon below, I could not
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Speaker 1: help smiling at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas
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Speaker 1: Ramis records as a matter difficult of belief the anecdotes
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Speaker 1: of the whales and the bears. For it appeared to me,
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Speaker 1: in fact a self evident thing that the largest ship
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Speaker 1: of the line in existence, coming within the influence of
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Speaker 1: that deadly attraction, could resist it as little as a
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Speaker 1: feather the hurricane, and must disappear bodily and at once.
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Speaker 1: The attempts to account for the phenomenon, some of which
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Speaker 1: I remember seemed to me sufficiently plausible in perusal, now
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Speaker 1: wore a very different and unsatisfactory aspect. The idea generally
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Speaker 1: received is that this as well as three smaller vortices
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Speaker 1: among the Faroe Islands have no other cause than the
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Speaker 1: collision of waves rising and falling at flux and reflux
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Speaker 1: against a ridge of rocks and shelves, which confines the
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Speaker 1: water so that it precipitates itself like a cataract. And
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Speaker 1: thus the higher the flood rises, the deeper must the
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Speaker 1: fall be. And the natural result of all is a
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Speaker 1: whirlpool or vortex, the prodigious section of which is sufficiently
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Speaker 1: known by lesser experiments. These are the words of the
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Speaker 1: Encyclopedia Britannica. Sure and others imagine that in the center
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Speaker 1: of the channel of the Maelstrom is an abyss, penetrating
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Speaker 1: the globe and issuing in some very remote part, the
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Speaker 1: Gulf of Bothnia being somewhat decidedly named. In one instance,
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Speaker 1: this opinion idle in itself was the one to which,
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Speaker 1: as I gazed my imagination, most readily assented, and mentioning
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Speaker 1: it to the guide, I was rather surprised to hear
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Speaker 1: him say that, although it was the view almost universally
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Speaker 1: entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was
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Speaker 1: not his own. As to the former notion, he confessed
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Speaker 1: his inability to comprehend it, and here I agreed with him,
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Speaker 1: For however conclusive on paper, it becomes altogether unintelligible and
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Speaker 1: even absurd. Amid the thunder of the abyss, you have
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Speaker 1: had a good look at the world, now, said the
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Speaker 1: old man. And if you will creep round this crag
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Speaker 1: so as to get in its lee and deaden the
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Speaker 1: roar of the water, I will tell you a story
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Speaker 1: that will convince you. I ought to know something of
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Speaker 1: the Moscow strong. I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded.
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Speaker 1: Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner rigged
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Speaker 1: smack of about seventy tons burthen, with which we were
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Speaker 1: in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moscow,
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Speaker 1: nearly to Vergue. In all violent eddies at sea, there
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Speaker 1: is good fishing at proper opportunities, if one has only
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Speaker 1: the courage to attempt it. But among the whole of
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Speaker 1: the loafut and coast men, we three were the only
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Speaker 1: ones who made a regular business of going out to
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Speaker 1: the islands. As I tell you, the usual grounds are
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Speaker 1: a great way lower down to the southward. Their fish
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Speaker 1: can be got at all hours without much risk, and
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Speaker 1: therefore these places are preferred. The choice spots over here
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Speaker 1: among the rocks, however, not only yield the finest variety,
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Speaker 1: but in far greater abundance, so that we often got
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Speaker 1: in a single day what the more timid of the
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Speaker 1: craft could not scrape together in a week. In fact,
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Speaker 1: we made it a matter of desperate speculation, the risk
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Speaker 1: of life standing instead of labor and courage answering for capital.
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Speaker 1: We kept the smack in a cove about five miles
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Speaker 1: higher up the coast than this, and it was our
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Speaker 1: practice in fine weather to take advantage of the fifteen
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Speaker 1: minutes slack to push across the main channel of the
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Speaker 1: Moscow Strom, far above the pool, and then drop down
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Speaker 1: upon anchorage somewhere near Otter Home or sand Fleasen, where
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Speaker 1: the eddies are not so violent as elsewhere here. We
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Speaker 1: used to remain until nearly time for slack water again
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Speaker 1: when we weighed and made for home. We never set
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Speaker 1: out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for
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Speaker 1: going and coming, one that we felt sure would not
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Speaker 1: fail us before our return, and we seldom made a
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Speaker 1: miscalculation upon this point. Twice during six years we were
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Speaker 1: forced to stay all night at anchor on account of
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Speaker 1: a dead calm, which is a rare thing indeed just
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Speaker 1: about here. And once we had to remain on the
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Speaker 1: grounds nearly a week, starving to death, owing to a
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Speaker 1: gale which blew up shortly after our arrival and made
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Speaker 1: the channel too boisterous to be thought of. Upon this
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Speaker 1: occasion we should have been driven out to sea in
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Speaker 1: spite of everything, for the whirlpools threw us round and round,
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Speaker 1: so so violently that at length we fouled our anchor
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Speaker 1: and dragged it. If it had not been that we
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Speaker 1: drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents here to
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Speaker 1: day and gone tomorrow, which drove us under the lee
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Speaker 1: of flymen, where by good luck we brought up. I
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Speaker 1: could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties
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Speaker 1: we encountered on the grounds. It is a bad spot
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Speaker 1: to be in, even in good weather. But we made
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Speaker 1: shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moscow straw
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Speaker 1: itself without accident, although at times my heart has been
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Speaker 1: in my mouth when we happened to be a minute
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Speaker 1: or so behind or before the slack. The wind sometimes
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Speaker 1: was not as strong as we thought it at starting,
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Speaker 1: and then we made rather less way than we could wish,
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Speaker 1: while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. My eldest brother
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Speaker 1: had a son eighteen years old, and I had two
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Speaker 1: stout boys of my own. These would have been of
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Speaker 1: great assistance at such times in using the sweeps, as
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Speaker 1: well as afterward in fishing. But somehow, although we ran
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Speaker 1: the risk ourselves, we had not the heart to let
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Speaker 1: the young ones get into the danger. For after all
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Speaker 1: is said and done, it was a horrible danger. And
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Speaker 1: that is the truth. It is now within a few
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Speaker 1: days of three years since what I am going to
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Speaker 1: tell you occurred. It was on the tenth day of
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Speaker 1: July eighteen, a day which the people of this part
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Speaker 1: of the world will never forget, for it was one
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Speaker 1: in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came
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Speaker 1: out of the heavens. And yet all the morning, and
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Speaker 1: indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle
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Speaker 1: and steady breeze from the southwest, while the sun shone brightly,
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Speaker 1: so that the oldest seamen among us could not have
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Speaker 1: foreseen what was to follow. The three of us, my
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Speaker 1: two brothers and myself, had crossed over to the islands
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Speaker 1: about two o'clock p m. And had soon nearly loaded
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Speaker 1: the smack with fine fish, which we all remarked were
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Speaker 1: more plenty that day than we had ever known them.
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Speaker 1: It was just seven by my watch when we waded
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Speaker 1: and started for home, so as to make the worst
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Speaker 1: of the straw at slack water, which we knew would
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Speaker 1: be At eight. We set out with a fresh wind
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Speaker 1: on our starboard quarter, and for some time spanked along
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Speaker 1: at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed
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Speaker 1: we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it. All
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Speaker 1: at once we were taken aback by a breeze from
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Speaker 1: over Helsagen. This was most unusual, something that had never
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Speaker 1: happened to us before, and I began to feel a
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Speaker 1: little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the boat
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Speaker 1: on the wind, but could make no headway at all
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Speaker 1: for the eddies, and I was upon the point of
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Speaker 1: proposing to return to the anchorage when looking astern, we
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Speaker 1: saw the whole horizon covered with a singular, copper colored
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Speaker 1: cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity. In the meantime,
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Speaker 1: the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and
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Speaker 1: we were dead becalmed drifting about in every direction. This
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Speaker 1: state of things, however, did not last long enough to
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Speaker 1: give us time to think about it. In less than
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Speaker 1: a minute, the storm was upon us. In less than
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Speaker 1: too the sky was entirely overcast, and what with this
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Speaker 1: and the driving spray, it became suddenly so dark that
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Speaker 1: we could not see each other in the smack. Such
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Speaker 1: a hurricane, as then blew at his folly to attempt
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Speaker 1: describing the oldest seaman in Norway, never experienced anything like it.
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Speaker 1: We had let our sails go by the run before
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Speaker 1: it cleverly took us. But at the first puff, both
18:20
Speaker 1: our masts went by the board as if they had
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Speaker 1: been sawed off, the main mast, taking with it my
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Speaker 1: youngest brother, who had lashed himself to it for safety.
18:28
Speaker 1: Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that
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Speaker 1: ever sat upon water. It had a complete flush deck,
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Speaker 1: with only a small hatch near the bow, and this
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Speaker 1: hatchet had always been our custom to batten down when
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Speaker 1: about to cross the strom, by way of precaution against
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Speaker 1: the chopping seas. But for this circumstance we should have
18:46
Speaker 1: found it at once, for we lay entirely buried for
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Speaker 1: some moments. How my elder brother escaped destruction, I cannot say,
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Speaker 1: for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining for my part.
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Speaker 1: As soon as I had let the foresail run, I
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Speaker 1: threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the
19:03
Speaker 1: narrow gunwale of the bough, and with my hands grasping
19:06
Speaker 1: a ring bolt near the foot of the foremast. It
19:09
Speaker 1: was mere instinct that prompted me to do this, which
19:12
Speaker 1: was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done,
19:14
Speaker 1: for I was too much flurried to think. For some
19:17
Speaker 1: moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all
19:21
Speaker 1: this time I held my breath and clung to the bolt.
19:24
Speaker 1: When I could stand it no longer, I raised myself
19:27
Speaker 1: upon my knees, still keeping hold with my hands, and
19:30
Speaker 1: thus got my head clear. Presently, our little boat gave
19:34
Speaker 1: herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming
19:36
Speaker 1: out of the water, and thus rid herself in some
19:39
Speaker 1: measure of the seas. I was now trying to get
19:43
Speaker 1: the better of the stupor that had come over me,
19:45
Speaker 1: and to collect my senses so as to see what
19:47
Speaker 1: was to be done. When I felt somebody grasp my arm.
19:51
Speaker 1: It was my elder brother, and my heart leaped for joy,
19:54
Speaker 1: for I had made sure that he was overboard. But
19:56
Speaker 1: the next moment, all this joy was turned into horror,
19:59
Speaker 1: for he put his his mouth close to my ear
20:01
Speaker 1: and screamed out the word Moscow Strom. No one ever
20:05
Speaker 1: will know what my feelings were at that moment. I
20:08
Speaker 1: shook from head to foot, as if I had had
20:10
Speaker 1: the most violent fit of the age. I knew what
20:13
Speaker 1: he meant by that one word, well enough. I knew
20:15
Speaker 1: what he wished to make me understand. With the wind
20:18
Speaker 1: that now drove us on, we were bound for the
20:21
Speaker 1: whirl of the Strom, and nothing could save us. You
20:25
Speaker 1: perceive that in crossing the Strom channel we always went
20:28
Speaker 1: a long way up above the whirl, even in the
20:30
Speaker 1: calmest weather, and then had to wait and watch carefully
20:32
Speaker 1: for the slack. But now we were driving right upon
20:35
Speaker 1: the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as this,
20:39
Speaker 1: To be sure, I thought we shall get there just
20:41
Speaker 1: about the slack. There is some little hope in that.
20:44
Speaker 1: But in the next moment I cursed myself for being
20:47
Speaker 1: so great a fool as to dream of hope at all.
20:50
Speaker 1: I knew very well that we were doomed. Had we
20:52
Speaker 1: been ten times a ninety gun ship. By this time
20:56
Speaker 1: the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or
20:58
Speaker 1: perhaps we did not feel it so much as we
21:01
Speaker 1: scud before it. But at all events, the seas, which
21:04
Speaker 1: at first had been kept down by the wind and
21:06
Speaker 1: lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains.
21:11
Speaker 1: A singular change too, had come over the heavens. Around
21:15
Speaker 1: in every direction it was still as black as pitch,
21:18
Speaker 1: But nearly overhead there burst out all at once a
21:21
Speaker 1: circular rift of clear sky, as clear as I ever saw,
21:25
Speaker 1: and of a deep, bright blue, and threw it there
21:27
Speaker 1: blazed forth the full moon with a luster that I
21:29
Speaker 1: never before knew her to wear. She lit up everything
21:33
Speaker 1: about us with the greatest distinctness. But oh God, what
21:36
Speaker 1: a scene it was to light up. I now made
21:39
Speaker 1: one or two attempts to speak to my brother, but
21:42
Speaker 1: in some manner which I could not understand. The din
21:45
Speaker 1: had so increased that I could not make him hear
21:47
Speaker 1: a single word, although I screamed at the top of
21:49
Speaker 1: my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head,
21:53
Speaker 1: looking as pale as death, and held up one of
21:55
Speaker 1: his fingers as if to say listen. At first I
21:59
Speaker 1: could not make out what he meant, But soon a
22:01
Speaker 1: hideous thought flashed upon me. I dragged my watch from
22:05
Speaker 1: its fog. It was not going I glanced at its
22:10
Speaker 1: face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as
22:12
Speaker 1: I flung it far away into the ocean. It had
22:16
Speaker 1: run down. At seven o'clock. We were behind the time
22:19
Speaker 1: of the slack, and the whirl of the strom was
22:21
Speaker 1: in full fury. When a boat is well built, properly trimmed,
22:26
Speaker 1: and not deep laden, the waves in a strong gale
22:29
Speaker 1: when she is going large seem always to slip from
22:31
Speaker 1: beneath her, which appears very strange to a landsman, and
22:35
Speaker 1: this is what is called riding in sea. Phrase. Well,
22:39
Speaker 1: so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly, but
22:42
Speaker 1: presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under
22:45
Speaker 1: the counter and bore us with it as it rose
22:47
Speaker 1: up up, as if into the sky. I would not
22:51
Speaker 1: have believed that any wave could rise so high. And
22:54
Speaker 1: then down we came, with a sweep, a slide, and
22:57
Speaker 1: a plunge that made me feel sick and dizzy, as
23:00
Speaker 1: if I was falling from some lofty mountain top in
23:02
Speaker 1: a dream. But while we were up. I had thrown
23:05
Speaker 1: a quick glance around, and that one glance was all sufficient.
23:10
Speaker 1: I saw our exact position in an instant. The Moscow
23:13
Speaker 1: Strom whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead,
23:17
Speaker 1: but no more like the every day Moscow Strom than
23:19
Speaker 1: the whirl As you now see, it is like a
23:21
Speaker 1: mill race. If I had not known where we were
23:24
Speaker 1: and what we had to expect, I should not have
23:27
Speaker 1: recognized the place at all. As it was, I involuntarily
23:31
Speaker 1: closed my eyes in horror. The lids clenched themselves together,
23:35
Speaker 1: as if in a spasm. It could not have been
23:38
Speaker 1: more than two minutes afterward, until we suddenly felt the
23:41
Speaker 1: waves subside and were enveloped in foam. The boat made
23:45
Speaker 1: a sharp half turn to larboard, and then shot off
23:48
Speaker 1: in its new direction like a thunderbolt. At the same moment,
23:52
Speaker 1: the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned in
23:54
Speaker 1: a kind of shrill shriek, such a sound as you
23:57
Speaker 1: might imagine given out by the waste pipes of many
23:59
Speaker 1: thousand steam vessels letting off their steam. Altogether. We were
24:03
Speaker 1: now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the
24:06
Speaker 1: whirl and I thought, of course that another moment would
24:09
Speaker 1: plunge us into the abyss, down which we could only
24:11
Speaker 1: see indistinctly. On account of the amazing velocity with which
24:14
Speaker 1: we wore borne along, the boat did not seem to
24:18
Speaker 1: sink into the water at all, but to skim like
24:20
Speaker 1: an air bubble upon the surface of the surge. Her
24:23
Speaker 1: starboard side was next the whirl, and on the larboard
24:26
Speaker 1: arose the world of ocean we had left. It stood
24:30
Speaker 1: like a huge writhing wall between us and the horizon.
24:33
Speaker 1: It may appear strange, but now, when we were in
24:36
Speaker 1: the very jaws of the gulf, I felt more composed
24:39
Speaker 1: than when we were only approaching it. Having made up
24:42
Speaker 1: my mind to hope no more, I got rid of
24:44
Speaker 1: a great deal of that terror which unmanned me At first.
24:48
Speaker 1: I suppose it was despair that strum my nerves. It
24:52
Speaker 1: may look like boasting, but what I tell you is truth.
24:55
Speaker 1: I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was
24:58
Speaker 1: to die in such a manner, and how foolish it
25:00
Speaker 1: was in me to think of so paltry a consideration
25:03
Speaker 1: as my own individual life in view of so wonderful
25:06
Speaker 1: a manifestation of God's power. I do believe that I
25:10
Speaker 1: blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind. After
25:14
Speaker 1: a little while, I became possessed with the keenest curiosity
25:16
Speaker 1: about the world itself. I positively felt a wish to
25:20
Speaker 1: explore its depths, even at the sacrifice I was going
25:23
Speaker 1: to make. And my principal grief was that I should
25:25
Speaker 1: never be able to tell my old companions on shore
25:28
Speaker 1: about the mysteries I should see. These, no doubt, were
25:32
Speaker 1: singular fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity,
25:36
Speaker 1: and I have often thought since that the revolutions of
25:38
Speaker 1: the boat around the pool might have rendered me a
25:40
Speaker 1: little light headed. There was another circumstance which tended to
25:44
Speaker 1: restore my self possession, and this was the cessation of
25:47
Speaker 1: the wind, which could not reach us in our present situation.
25:51
Speaker 1: For as you saw yourself, the belt of surf is
25:53
Speaker 1: considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean, and
25:56
Speaker 1: this latter now towered above us a high, black, mountainous ridge.
26:01
Speaker 1: If you have never been at sea in a heavy gale,
26:04
Speaker 1: you can form no idea of the confusion of mind
26:06
Speaker 1: occasioned by the wind and spray. Together they blind, deafen,
26:11
Speaker 1: and strangle you. And take away all power of action
26:14
Speaker 1: or reflection. But we were now in a great measure
26:18
Speaker 1: rid of these annoyances, just as death condemned felons in
26:21
Speaker 1: prison are allowed petty indulgences forbidden them, while their doom
26:25
Speaker 1: is yet uncertain. How often we made the circuit of
26:28
Speaker 1: the belt, it is impossible to say. We careered round
26:32
Speaker 1: and round for perhaps an hour, flying rather than floating,
26:35
Speaker 1: getting gradually more and more into the middle of the surge,
26:38
Speaker 1: and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge.
26:42
Speaker 1: All this time I had never let go of the
26:44
Speaker 1: ring bolt. My brother was at the stern, holding on
26:48
Speaker 1: to a small empty water cask, which had been securely
26:50
Speaker 1: lashed under the coop of the counter, and was the
26:52
Speaker 1: only thing on deck that had not been swept overboard
26:55
Speaker 1: when the gale first took us. As we approached the
26:58
Speaker 1: brink of the pit, he let go his hold upon
27:00
Speaker 1: this and made for the ring, from which, in the
27:03
Speaker 1: agony of his terror, he endeavored to force my hands,
27:06
Speaker 1: as it was not large enough to afford us both
27:08
Speaker 1: a secure grasp. I never felt deeper grief than when
27:12
Speaker 1: I saw him attempt this act, Although I knew he
27:15
Speaker 1: was a madman when he did it, a raving maniac
27:17
Speaker 1: through sheer fright. I did not care, however, to contest
27:22
Speaker 1: the point with him. I knew it could make no
27:24
Speaker 1: difference whether either of us held on at all, so
27:27
Speaker 1: I let him have the bolt and went astern to
27:29
Speaker 1: the cask. This there was no great difficulty in doing,
27:33
Speaker 1: for the smack flew round steadily enough and upon an
27:36
Speaker 1: even keel, only swaying to and fro with the immense
27:39
Speaker 1: sweeps and swelters of the world. Scarcely had I secured
27:43
Speaker 1: myself in my new position, when we gave a wild
27:46
Speaker 1: lurch to starboard and rushed headlong into the abyss. I
27:50
Speaker 1: muttered a hurried prayer to God and thought all was over.
27:54
Speaker 1: As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I
27:56
Speaker 1: had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel and closed
27:59
Speaker 1: my eyes for some seconds. I dared not open them
28:03
Speaker 1: while I expected instant destruction, and wondered that I was
28:06
Speaker 1: not already in my death struggles with the water. But
28:10
Speaker 1: moment after moment elapsed, I still lived. The sense of
28:15
Speaker 1: falling had ceased, and the motion of the vessel seemed
28:18
Speaker 1: much as it had been before. While in the belt
28:20
Speaker 1: of foam, with the exception that she now lay more along.
28:24
Speaker 1: I took courage and looked once again upon the scene.
28:28
Speaker 1: Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and
28:31
Speaker 1: admiration with which I gazed about me. The boat appeared
28:35
Speaker 1: to be hanging, as if by magic, midway down upon
28:38
Speaker 1: the interior surface of a funnel, vast in circumference, prodigious
28:41
Speaker 1: in depth, and whose perfectly smooth sides might have been
28:44
Speaker 1: mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering rapidity with which
28:48
Speaker 1: they spun around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance
28:51
Speaker 1: they shot forth as the rays of the full moon.
28:54
Speaker 1: From that circular rift amid the clouds which I have
28:57
Speaker 1: already described, streamed in a flood of golden gloorrerry along
29:00
Speaker 1: the black walls, and far away down into the inmost
29:03
Speaker 1: recesses of the abyss. At first I was too much
29:06
Speaker 1: confused to observe anything accurately. The general burst of terrific
29:11
Speaker 1: grandeur was all that I beheld. When I recovered myself
29:15
Speaker 1: a little, however, my gaze fell instinctively downward. In this
29:19
Speaker 1: direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view from
29:22
Speaker 1: the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined
29:25
Speaker 1: surface of the pool. She was quite upon an even keel,
29:29
Speaker 1: that is to say, her deck lay in a plain
29:31
Speaker 1: parallel with that of the water, But this latter sloped
29:34
Speaker 1: at an angle of more than forty five degrees, so
29:36
Speaker 1: that we seemed to be lying upon our beam ends.
29:40
Speaker 1: I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I had scarcely
29:43
Speaker 1: more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this
29:46
Speaker 1: situation than if we had been upon a dead level,
29:48
Speaker 1: And this, I suppose was owing to the speed at
29:51
Speaker 1: which we revolved. The rays of the moon seemed to
29:55
Speaker 1: search the very bottom of the profound gulf. But still
29:57
Speaker 1: I could make out nothing distinctly on a ca count
30:00
Speaker 1: of a thick mist, in which everything there was enveloped,
30:02
Speaker 1: and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that
30:05
Speaker 1: narrow and tottering bridge which Mussulman say is the only
30:08
Speaker 1: pathway between time and eternity. This mist or spray was
30:13
Speaker 1: no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls
30:16
Speaker 1: of the funnel as they all met together at the bottom.
30:18
Speaker 1: But the yell that went up to the heavens from
30:20
Speaker 1: out of that mist, I dare not attempt to describe
30:24
Speaker 1: our first slide into the abyss itself. From the belt
30:26
Speaker 1: of foam above had carried us a great distance down
30:29
Speaker 1: the slope, but our farther descent was by no means proportionate.
30:34
Speaker 1: Round and round we swept, not with any uniform movement,
30:37
Speaker 1: but in dizzying swings and jerks that send us, sometimes
30:40
Speaker 1: only a few hundred yards, sometimes nearly the complete circuit
30:44
Speaker 1: of the whorld. Our progress downward at each revolution was slow,
30:49
Speaker 1: but very perceptible. Looking about me upon the wide waste
30:53
Speaker 1: of liquid ebony on which we were thus born, I
30:55
Speaker 1: perceived that our boat was not the only object in
30:58
Speaker 1: the embrace of the world. Both above and below us
31:01
Speaker 1: were visible fragments of vessels, large masses of building timber,
31:05
Speaker 1: and trunks of trees, with many smaller articles, such as
31:08
Speaker 1: pieces of house furniture, broken boxes, barrels, and staves. I
31:13
Speaker 1: have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the
31:16
Speaker 1: place of my original terrors. It appeared to grow upon
31:20
Speaker 1: me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom.
31:24
Speaker 1: I now began to watch with a strange interest the
31:27
Speaker 1: numerous things that floated in our company. I must have
31:31
Speaker 1: been delirious, for I even sought amusement in speculating upon
31:34
Speaker 1: the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam
31:37
Speaker 1: below this fir tree. I found myself at one time saying,
31:42
Speaker 1: will certainly be the next thing that takes the awful
31:44
Speaker 1: plunge and disappears? And then I was disappointed to find
31:47
Speaker 1: that the wreck of a Dutch merchant ship overtook it
31:49
Speaker 1: and went down before at length, after making several guesses
31:54
Speaker 1: of this nature, and being deceived in all this fact,
31:57
Speaker 1: the fact of my invariable miscalculation set me upon a
32:00
Speaker 1: train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble and
32:03
Speaker 1: my heart beat heavily. Once more, it was not a
32:06
Speaker 1: new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of
32:09
Speaker 1: a more exciting hope. This hope arose partly from memory
32:13
Speaker 1: and partly from present observation. I called to mind the
32:17
Speaker 1: great variety of buoyant matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden,
32:21
Speaker 1: having been absorbed and then thrown forth by the Moscow Strom.
32:25
Speaker 1: By far the greater number of the articles were shattered
32:27
Speaker 1: in the most extraordinary way, so chafed and roughened as
32:30
Speaker 1: to have the appearance of being stuck full of splinters.
32:33
Speaker 1: But then I distinctly recollected that there were some of
32:36
Speaker 1: them which were not disfigured at all. Now I could
32:39
Speaker 1: not account for this difference, except by supposing that the
32:42
Speaker 1: roughened fragments were the only ones which had been completely absorbed,
32:45
Speaker 1: that the others had entered the world at so late
32:47
Speaker 1: a period of the tide, or for some reason, had
32:50
Speaker 1: descended so slowly after entering, that they did not reach
32:53
Speaker 1: the bottom before the turn of the flood came, or
32:57
Speaker 1: of the ebb, as the case might be. I conceived
33:00
Speaker 1: it possible in either instance that they might thus be
33:03
Speaker 1: whirled up again to the level of the ocean, without
33:06
Speaker 1: undergoing the fate of those which have been drawn in
33:08
Speaker 1: more early or absorbed more rapidly. I made also three
33:13
Speaker 1: important observations. The first was that, as a general rule,
33:18
Speaker 1: the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descent.
33:21
Speaker 1: The second that between two masses of equal extent, the
33:25
Speaker 1: one spherical and the other of any other shape, the
33:28
Speaker 1: superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere. The
33:31
Speaker 1: third that between two masses of equal size, the one
33:35
Speaker 1: cylindrical and the other of any other shape. The cylinder
33:39
Speaker 1: was absorbed the more slowly. Since my escape, I have
33:43
Speaker 1: had several conversations on this subject with an old schoolmaster
33:46
Speaker 1: of the district, and it was from him that I
33:48
Speaker 1: learned the use of the words cylinder and sphere. He
33:52
Speaker 1: explained to me, although I have forgotten the explanation, how
33:55
Speaker 1: what I observed was in fact the natural consequence of
33:59
Speaker 1: the forms of the floating fragments, and showed me how
34:02
Speaker 1: it happened at a cylinder swimming in a vortex offered
34:05
Speaker 1: more resistance to its suction, and was drawn in with
34:08
Speaker 1: greater difficulty than an equally bulky body of any form,
34:12
Speaker 1: whatever asterisk one. There was one startling circumstance which went
34:17
Speaker 1: a great way in enforcing these observations and rendering me
34:20
Speaker 1: anxious to turn them to account. And this was that
34:23
Speaker 1: at every revolution we passed something like a barrel, or
34:26
Speaker 1: else the yard or the mast of a vessel. While
34:28
Speaker 1: many of these things which had been on our level
34:32
Speaker 1: when I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of
34:34
Speaker 1: the whirlpool, were now high up above us, and seemed
34:37
Speaker 1: to have moved but little from their original station. I
34:40
Speaker 1: no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash
34:44
Speaker 1: myself securely to the water cask upon which I now held,
34:48
Speaker 1: to cut it loose from the counter, and to throw
34:50
Speaker 1: myself with it into the water. I attracted my brother's
34:54
Speaker 1: attention by signs pointed to the floating barrels that came
34:57
Speaker 1: near us, and did everything in my power to make
34:59
Speaker 1: him under stand what I was about to do. I
35:02
Speaker 1: thought at length that he comprehended my design. But whether
35:05
Speaker 1: this was the case or not, he shook his head
35:08
Speaker 1: despairingly and refused to move from his station. By the
35:10
Speaker 1: ring bolt, it was impossible to reach him. The emergency
35:15
Speaker 1: admitted of no delay, and so with a bitter struggle,
35:18
Speaker 1: I resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the
35:21
Speaker 1: cask by means of the lashings which secured it to
35:23
Speaker 1: the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea
35:27
Speaker 1: without another moment's hesitation. The result was precisely what I
35:31
Speaker 1: had hoped it might be. As it is myself who
35:34
Speaker 1: now tell you this tale, as you see that I
35:36
Speaker 1: did escape, and as you are already in possession of
35:39
Speaker 1: the mode in which this escape was effected, and must
35:42
Speaker 1: therefore anticipate all that I have farther to say, I
35:45
Speaker 1: will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might have
35:48
Speaker 1: been an hour or thereabout after my quitting the smack,
35:52
Speaker 1: when having descended to a vast distance beneath me, it
35:55
Speaker 1: made three or four wild durations in rapid succession, and
35:59
Speaker 1: bearing my I loved brother with it, plunged headlong at
36:02
Speaker 1: once and forever into the chaos of foam below. The
36:06
Speaker 1: barrel to which I was attached sunk very little farther
36:09
Speaker 1: than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf
36:11
Speaker 1: and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a
36:14
Speaker 1: great change took place in the character of the whirlpool.
36:17
Speaker 1: The slope of the sides of the vast funnel became
36:20
Speaker 1: momently less and less steep, The gyrations of the whorld
36:24
Speaker 1: grew gradually less and less violent by degrees, the froth
36:29
Speaker 1: and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf
36:31
Speaker 1: seemed slowly to a prize. The sky was clear, the
36:35
Speaker 1: winds had gone down, and the full moon was setting
36:38
Speaker 1: radiantly in the west. When I found myself on the
36:41
Speaker 1: surface of the ocean in full view of the shores
36:44
Speaker 1: of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of
36:46
Speaker 1: the Moscow Strom had been. It was the hour of
36:49
Speaker 1: the slack, but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves
36:52
Speaker 1: from the effects of the hurricane. I was borne violently
36:56
Speaker 1: into the channel of the strom, and in a few
36:58
Speaker 1: minutes was hurried down the coats into the grounds of
37:01
Speaker 1: the fisherman. A boat picked me up, exhausted from fatigue, and,
37:06
Speaker 1: now that the danger was removed, speechless from the memory
37:09
Speaker 1: of its horror. Those who drew me on board were
37:12
Speaker 1: my old mates and daily companions. But they knew me
37:15
Speaker 1: no more than they would have known a traveler from
37:17
Speaker 1: the spirit land. My hair, which had been raven black
37:21
Speaker 1: the day before, was as white as you see it now.
37:24
Speaker 1: They say, too, that the whole expression of my countenance
37:27
Speaker 1: had changed. I told them my story. They did not
37:31
Speaker 1: believe it. I now tell it to you, and I
37:34
Speaker 1: can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it
37:36
Speaker 1: than did the merry fisherman of Loafeden.