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MS. Found in a Bottle 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 m s Found in a
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Speaker 1: bottle Edgar Allan poe n A plus cheuan moment of
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Speaker 1: viver n a plus reign, a dissimular quinault eighties of
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Speaker 1: my country and of my family, I have little to say.
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Speaker 1: Ill usage and length of years have driven me from
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Speaker 1: the one and estranged me from the other. Hereditary wealth
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Speaker 1: afforded me an education of no common order, and a
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Speaker 1: contemplative turn of mind enabled me to methodize the stores
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Speaker 1: which early study very diligently garnered up. Beyond all things.
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Speaker 1: The study of the German moralists gave me great delight,
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Speaker 1: not from any ill advised admiration of their eloquent madness,
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Speaker 1: but from the ease with which my habits of rigid
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Speaker 1: thought enabled me to detect their falsities. I have often
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Speaker 1: been reproached with the aridity of my genius. A deficiency
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Speaker 1: of imagination has been imputed to me as a crime,
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Speaker 1: and the pyrhism of my opinions has at all times
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Speaker 1: rendered me notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy
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Speaker 1: has I fear tinctured my mind with a very common
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Speaker 1: error of this age, I mean the habit of referring
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Speaker 1: occurrences even the least susceptible of such reference to the
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Speaker 1: principles of that science. Upon the whole. No person could
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Speaker 1: be less liable than myself to be led away from
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Speaker 1: the severe precincts of truth by the ignis fatchery of superstition.
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Speaker 1: I have thought proper to premise thus much, lest the
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Speaker 1: incredible tale I have to tell should be considered rather
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Speaker 1: the raving of a crude imagination than the positive experience
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Speaker 1: of a mind to which the reveries of fancy have
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Speaker 1: been a dead letter and an nullity. After many years
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Speaker 1: spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year eighteen
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Speaker 1: from the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous
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Speaker 1: island of Java, on a voyage to the archipelago of
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Speaker 1: the Sunda Islands. I went as passenger, having no other
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Speaker 1: inducement than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted me
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Speaker 1: as a fiend. Our vessel was a beautiful ship of
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Speaker 1: about four hundred tons copper, fastened and built at Bombay
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Speaker 1: of Malabartiq. She was freighted with cotton, wool and oil
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Speaker 1: from the Lachidive islands. We had also on board coyir, jaggery, ghee,
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Speaker 1: cocoa nuts, and a few cases of opium. The stowage
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Speaker 1: was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank. We got
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Speaker 1: under way with a mere breath of wind, and for
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Speaker 1: many days stood along the eastern coast of Java, without
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Speaker 1: any other incident to beguile the monotony of our course
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Speaker 1: than the occasional meeting with some of the small grabs
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Speaker 1: of the archipelago to which we were bound. One evening,
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Speaker 1: leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular, isolated
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Speaker 1: cloud to the n W. It was remarkable as well
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Speaker 1: for its color as from its being the first we
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Speaker 1: had seen since our departure from Batavia. I watched it
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Speaker 1: attentively until sunset, when it spread all at once to
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Speaker 1: the eastward and westward, girding in the horizon with a
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Speaker 1: narrow strip of vapor and looking like a long line
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Speaker 1: of low beach. My notice was soon afterwards attracted by
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Speaker 1: the dusky rette appearance of the moon and the peculiar
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Speaker 1: character of the sea. The latter was undergoing a rapid change,
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Speaker 1: and the water seemed more than usually transparent. Although I
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Speaker 1: could distinctly see the bottom. Yet heaving the lead, I
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Speaker 1: found the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now became
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Speaker 1: intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral exhalation, similar to
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Speaker 1: those arising from heat iron. As night came on, every
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Speaker 1: breath of wind died away and more entire calm. It
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Speaker 1: is impossible to conceive the flame of a candle burned
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Speaker 1: upon the poop without the least perceptible motion, and a
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Speaker 1: long hair held between the finger and thumb hung without
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Speaker 1: the possibility of detecting a vibration. However, as the captain said,
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Speaker 1: he could perceive no indication of danger, and as we
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Speaker 1: were drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered the sails
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Speaker 1: to be furled and the anchor let go. No watch
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Speaker 1: was set, and the crew, consisting principally of malaise, stretched
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Speaker 1: themselves deliberately upon deck. I went below, not without a
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Speaker 1: full presentiment of evil. Indeed, every appearance warranted me in
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Speaker 1: apprehending a simon. I told the captain my fears, but
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Speaker 1: he paid no attention to what I said, and left
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Speaker 1: me without deigning to give a reply. My uneasiness, however,
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Speaker 1: prevented me from sleeping, and about midnight, I went upon deck.
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Speaker 1: As I placed my foot upon the upper step of
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Speaker 1: the companion ladder, I was startled by a loud, humming noise,
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Speaker 1: like that occasion by the rapid revolution of a mill wheel,
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Speaker 1: And before I could ascertain its meaning, I found the
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Speaker 1: ship quivering to its center. In the next instant, a
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Speaker 1: wilderness of foam hurled us upon our beam ends, and
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Speaker 1: rushing over us fore and aft, swept the entire decks
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Speaker 1: from stem to stern. The extreme fury of the blast
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Speaker 1: proved in a great measure the salvation of the ship,
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Speaker 1: Although completely water logged, yet as her masts had gone
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Speaker 1: by the board, she rose after a minute, heavily from
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Speaker 1: the sea, and staggering a while beneath the immense pressure
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Speaker 1: of the tempest, finally righted, by what miracle, I escaped destruction.
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Speaker 1: It is impossible to say. Stunned by the shock of
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Speaker 1: the water, I found myself, upon recovery, jammed in between
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Speaker 1: the stern post and rudder. With great difficulty, I gained
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Speaker 1: my feet, and, looking dizzily around, was at first struck
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Speaker 1: with the idea of our being among breakers. So terrific
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Speaker 1: beyond the wildest imagination was the whirlpool of mountainous and
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Speaker 1: foaming ocean within which we were engulfed. After a while
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Speaker 1: I heard the voice of an old Swede who had
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Speaker 1: shipped with us at the moment of our leaving port.
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Speaker 1: I hallued to him with all my strength, and presently
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Speaker 1: he came reeling aft. We soon discovered that we were
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Speaker 1: the sole survivors of the accident. All on deck, with
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Speaker 1: the exception of ourselves, had been swept overboard. The captain
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Speaker 1: and mates must have perished as they slept, for the
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Speaker 1: cabins were deluged with water. Without assistance, we could expect
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Speaker 1: to do little for the security of the ship, and
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Speaker 1: our exertions were at first paralyzed by the momentary expectation
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Speaker 1: of going down. Our cable had, of course parted like
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Speaker 1: pack thread at the first breath of the hurricane, or
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Speaker 1: we should have been instantaneously overwhelmed. We scudded with frightful
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Speaker 1: velocity before the sea and the water made clear breeches
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Speaker 1: over us. The framework of our stern was shattered excessively,
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Speaker 1: and in almost every respect we had received considerable injury.
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Speaker 1: But to our extreme joy, we found the pumps unchoked,
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Speaker 1: and that we had made no great shifting of our ballast.
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Speaker 1: The main fury of the blast had already blown over,
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Speaker 1: and we apprehended little danger from the violence of the wind.
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Speaker 1: But we looked forward to its total cessation with dismay, well,
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Speaker 1: believing that in our shattered condition we should inevitably perish
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Speaker 1: in a tremendous swell which would ensue. But this very
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Speaker 1: just apprehension seemed by no means likely to be soon verified.
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Speaker 1: For five entire days and nights, during which our only
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Speaker 1: subsistence was a small quantity of jaggery procured with great
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Speaker 1: difficulty from the forecastle, the hulk flew at a rate
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Speaker 1: defying computation, before rapidly succeeding flaws of wind, which, without
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Speaker 1: equaling the first violence of the Simon, were still more
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Speaker 1: terrific than any tempest I had before encountered. Our course
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Speaker 1: for the first four days was with trifling variations s
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Speaker 1: E and by s, and we must have run down
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Speaker 1: the coast of New Holland. On the fifth day, the
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Speaker 1: cold became extreme. Although the wind had hauled round a
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Speaker 1: point more to the northward, the sun arose with a
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Speaker 1: sickly yellow luster and clambered a very few degrees above
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Speaker 1: the horizon, emitting no decisive light. There were no clouds apparent.
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Speaker 1: Yet the wind was upon the increase and blew with
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Speaker 1: a fitful and unsteady fury. About noon, as nearly as
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Speaker 1: we could guess, our attention was again arrested by the
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Speaker 1: appearance of the sun. It gave out no light properly
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Speaker 1: so called, but a dull and sullen glow without reflection,
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Speaker 1: as if all its rays were polarized. Just before sinking
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Speaker 1: within the turgid sea, its central fires suddenly went out,
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Speaker 1: as if hurriedly extinguished by some unaccountable power. It was
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Speaker 1: a dim, sliver like rim alone as it rushed down
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Speaker 1: the unfathomable ocean. We waited in vain for the arrival
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Speaker 1: of the sixth day. That day, to me, has not
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Speaker 1: yet arrived till the Swede never did arrive. Thenceforward we
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Speaker 1: were enshrouded in patchy darkness, so that we could not
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Speaker 1: have seen an object. At twenty paces from the ship.
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Speaker 1: Eternal night continued to envelop us, all unrelieved by the
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Speaker 1: phosphoric sea brilliancy to which we had been accustomed in
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Speaker 1: the tropics. We observed too, that although the tempest continued
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Speaker 1: to rage, with unabated violence. There was no longer to
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Speaker 1: be discovered the usual appearance of surf or foam which
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Speaker 1: had hitherto attended us. All around were horror and thick
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Speaker 1: gloom and a black, sweltering desert. Superstitious terror crept by
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Speaker 1: degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my
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Speaker 1: own soul was wrapped up in silent wonder. We neglected
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Speaker 1: all care of the ship as worse than useless, and
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Speaker 1: securing ourselves as well as possible to the stump of
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Speaker 1: the mizzen mast looked out bitterly into the world of ocean.
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Speaker 1: We had no means of calculating time, nor could we
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Speaker 1: form any guests of our situation. We were, however, well
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Speaker 1: aware of having made farther to the southward than any
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Speaker 1: previous navigators, and felt great amazement at not meeting with
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Speaker 1: the usual impediments of ice. In the meantime, every moment
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Speaker 1: threatened to be our last, every mountainous billow hurried to
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Speaker 1: overwhelm us. The swell surpassed anything I had imagined possible,
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Speaker 1: and that we were not instantly buried as a miracle.
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Speaker 1: My companion spoke of the lightness of our cargo and
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Speaker 1: reminded me of the excellent qualities of our ship, but
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Speaker 1: I could not help feeling the utter hopelessness of hope itself,
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Speaker 1: and prepared myself gloomily for that death, which I thought
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Speaker 1: nothing could differ beyond an hour. As with every knot
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Speaker 1: of way the ship made, the swelling of the black
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Speaker 1: stupendous seas became more dismally appalling. At times we gasped
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Speaker 1: for breath at an elevation beyond the albatross. At times
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Speaker 1: became dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some
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Speaker 1: watery hell, where the air grew stagnant and no sound
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Speaker 1: disturbed the slumbers of the kraken. We were at the
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Speaker 1: bottom of one of these abysses when a quick scream
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Speaker 1: from my companion broke fearfully upon the night. See See,
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Speaker 1: cried he shrieking in my ears, Almighty God, see See.
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Speaker 1: As he spoke, I became aware of a dull, sullen
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Speaker 1: glare of red light which streamed down the sides of
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Speaker 1: the vast chasm where we lay, and threw a fitful
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Speaker 1: brilliancy upon our deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I beheld
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Speaker 1: a spectacle which froze the current of my blood. At
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Speaker 1: a terrific height. Directly above us, and upon the very
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Speaker 1: verge of the precipitous descent, hovered a gigantic ship of
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Speaker 1: perhaps four thousand tons. Although appeared upon the summit of
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Speaker 1: a wave more than a hundred times her own altitude,
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Speaker 1: her apparent size exceeded that of any ship of the
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Speaker 1: Line or East India man in existence. Her huge hull
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Speaker 1: was of a deep, dingy, black, unrelieved by any of
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Speaker 1: the customary carvings of a ship. A single row of
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Speaker 1: brass cannon protruded from her open ports and dashed from
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Speaker 1: their polished surfaces the fires of innumerable battle lanterns, which
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Speaker 1: swung to and fro about her rigging. But what mainly
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Speaker 1: inspired us with horror and astonishment was that she bore
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Speaker 1: up under a press of sail, in the very teeth
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Speaker 1: of that supernatural sea and of that ungovernable hurricane. When
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Speaker 1: we first discovered her, her bows were alone to be
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Speaker 1: seen as she rose slowly from the dim and horrible
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Speaker 1: gulf beyond her. For a moment of intense terror, she
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Speaker 1: paused upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in contemplation of
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Speaker 1: her own sublimity, then trembled and tottered and came down.
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Speaker 1: At this instant I know not what sudden self possession
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Speaker 1: came over my spirit. Staggering as far aft as I could,
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Speaker 1: I awaited fearlessly the ruin that was to overwhelm our
12:11
Speaker 1: own vessel was at length, ceasing from her struggles and
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Speaker 1: sinking with her head to the sea. The shock of
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Speaker 1: the descending mass struck her consequently in that portion of
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Speaker 1: her frame which was already under water, and the inevitable
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Speaker 1: result was to hurl me with irresistible violence upon the
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Speaker 1: rigging of the stranger. As I fell, the ship hove
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Speaker 1: in stays and went about, and to the confusion ensuing
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Speaker 1: I attributed my escape from the notice of the crew
12:38
Speaker 1: with little difficulty. I made my way unperceived to the
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Speaker 1: main hatchway, which was partially open, and soon found an
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Speaker 1: opportunity of secreting myself in the hold. Why I did
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Speaker 1: so I can hardly tell. An indefinite sense of awe,
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Speaker 1: which at first sight of the navigators of the ship
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Speaker 1: had taken hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle
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Speaker 1: of my concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with
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Speaker 1: a race of people who had offered to the cursory
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Speaker 1: glance I had taken so many points of vague novelty, doubt,
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Speaker 1: and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to contrive a hiding
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Speaker 1: place in the hold. This I did by removing a
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Speaker 1: small portion of the shifting boards, in such a manner
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Speaker 1: as to afford me a convenient retreat between the huge
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Speaker 1: timbers of the ship. I had scarcely completed my work
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Speaker 1: when a footstep in the hold forced me to make
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Speaker 1: use of it. A man passed by my place of
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Speaker 1: concealment with a feeble and unsteady gait. I could not
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Speaker 1: see his face, but had an opportunity of observing his
13:36
Speaker 1: general appearance. There was about it an evidence of great
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Speaker 1: age and infirmity. His knees tottered beneath a load of years,
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Speaker 1: and his entire frame quivered under the burthen. He muttered
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Speaker 1: to himself in a low, broken tone some words of
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Speaker 1: a language which I could not understand, and groped in
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Speaker 1: a corner among a pile of singular looking instruments and
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Speaker 1: decayed charts of navigation. His manner was the wild mixture
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Speaker 1: of the peevishness of second childhood and the solemn dignity
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Speaker 1: of a god. He at length went on deck, and
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Speaker 1: I saw him no more. A feeling for which I
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Speaker 1: have no name has taken possession of my soul, a
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Speaker 1: sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the
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Speaker 1: lessons of by gone times are inadequate, and for which
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Speaker 1: I fear futurity itself will offer me no key to
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Speaker 1: a mind constituted like my own. The latter consideration is
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Speaker 1: an evil I shall never I know that I shall
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Speaker 1: never be satisfied with regard to the nature of my conceptions.
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Speaker 1: Yet it is not wonderful that these conceptions are indefinite,
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Speaker 1: since they have their origin in sources so utterly novel.
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Speaker 1: A new sense, a new entity, is added to my soul.
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Speaker 1: It is long since I first trod the deck of
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Speaker 1: this terrible ship, and the rays of my destiny are,
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Speaker 1: I think, gathering to a focus incomprehensible men wrapped up
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Speaker 1: in meditations of a kind which I cannot divine. They
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Speaker 1: pass me by unnoticed. Concealment is utter folly on my part,
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Speaker 1: for the people will not see. It was but just
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Speaker 1: now that I passed directly before the eyes of the mate.
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Speaker 1: It was no long while ago that I ventured into
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Speaker 1: the captain's own private cabin and took thence the materials
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Speaker 1: with which I write and have written. I shall, from
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Speaker 1: time to time continue this journal. It is true that
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Speaker 1: I may not find an opportunity of transmitting it to
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Speaker 1: the world, but I will not fall to make the endeavor.
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Speaker 1: At the last moment, I will enclose the m s
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Speaker 1: in a bottle and cast it within the sea. An
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Speaker 1: incident has occurred which has given me new room for meditation.
15:38
Speaker 1: Are such things the operation of ungoverned chance. I had
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Speaker 1: ventured upon deck and thrown myself down, without attracting any notice,
15:47
Speaker 1: among a pile of ratland stuff and old sails in
15:49
Speaker 1: the bottom of the yawl. While musing upon the singularity
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Speaker 1: of my fate, I unwittingly daubed with a tarbrush the
15:56
Speaker 1: edges of a neatly folded studding sail, which lay near
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Speaker 1: me on a barrel. The studding sail is now bent
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Speaker 1: upon the ship, and the thoughtless touches of the brush
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Speaker 1: are spread out into the word discovery. I have made
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Speaker 1: many observations lately upon the structure of the vessel. Although
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Speaker 1: well armed, she is not, I think a ship of war.
16:16
Speaker 1: Her rigging, build, and general equipment all negative a supposition
16:20
Speaker 1: of this kind what she is not, I can easily
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Speaker 1: perceive what she as I fear it is impossible to say,
16:28
Speaker 1: I know not how it is. But in scrutinizing her
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Speaker 1: strange model and singular cast of spars, her huge size
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Speaker 1: and overgrown suits of canvas, her severely simple bow and
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Speaker 1: antiquated stern, there will occasionally flash across my mind a
16:42
Speaker 1: sensation of familiar things, And there is always mixed up
16:46
Speaker 1: with such indistinct shadows of recollection, an unaccountable memory of
16:50
Speaker 1: old foreign chronicles and ages long ago. I have been
16:53
Speaker 1: looking at the timbers of the ship. She is built
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Speaker 1: of a material to which I am a stranger. There
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Speaker 1: is a peculiar character about the wood which strikes me
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Speaker 1: as rendering it unfit for the purpose to which it
17:05
Speaker 1: has been applied. I mean its extreme porousness. Considered independently
17:09
Speaker 1: by the worm eaten condition which is a consequence of
17:12
Speaker 1: navigation in these seas, and apart from the rottenness attendant
17:15
Speaker 1: upon age, it will appear perhaps an observation somewhat over curious.
17:20
Speaker 1: But this would would have every characteristic of Spanish oak.
17:23
Speaker 1: If Spanish oak were distended by any unnatural means. In
17:27
Speaker 1: reading the above sentence, a curious apathem of an old,
17:30
Speaker 1: weather beaten Dutch navigator comes full upon my recollection. It
17:35
Speaker 1: is as sure he was wont to say when any
17:38
Speaker 1: doubt was entertained of his veracity, as sure as there
17:40
Speaker 1: is a sea where the ship itself will grow in
17:42
Speaker 1: bulk like the living body of the seamen. About an
17:46
Speaker 1: hour ago I made bold to thrust myself among a
17:49
Speaker 1: group of the crew. They paid me no manner of attention,
17:52
Speaker 1: and although I stood in the very midst of them,
17:55
Speaker 1: all seemed utterly unconscious of my presence. Like the one
17:59
Speaker 1: I had of first seen in the hold, they all
18:01
Speaker 1: bore about them the marks of a hoary old age.
18:05
Speaker 1: Their knees trembled with infirmity, their shoulders were bent double
18:08
Speaker 1: with decrepitude. Their shriveled skins rattled in the wind. Their
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Speaker 1: voices were low, tremulous and broken. Their eyes glistened with
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Speaker 1: the room of years, and their gray hairs streamed terribly
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Speaker 1: in the tempest. Around them. On every part of the
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Speaker 1: deck lay scattered mathematical instruments of the most quaint and
18:25
Speaker 1: obsolete construction. I mentioned some time ago the bending of
18:30
Speaker 1: a studding sail. From that period, the ship, being thrown
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Speaker 1: dead off the wind, has continued her terrific course due south,
18:37
Speaker 1: with every rag of canvas packed upon her, from her
18:40
Speaker 1: trucks to her lower studding sail booms, and rolling every
18:43
Speaker 1: moment her top gallant yard arms into the most appalling
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Speaker 1: hell of water, which it can enter into the mind
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Speaker 1: of a man to imagine. I have just left the deck,
18:51
Speaker 1: where I find it impossible to maintain a footing. Although
18:54
Speaker 1: the crew seemed to experience little inconvenience, it appears to
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Speaker 1: me a miracle of mirrors that our enormous bulk is
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Speaker 1: not swallowed up at once and forever. We are surely
19:05
Speaker 1: doomed to hover continually upon the brink of eternity without
19:08
Speaker 1: taking a final plunge into the abyss from billows a
19:12
Speaker 1: thousand times more stupendous than any I have ever seen.
19:15
Speaker 1: We glide away with the facility of the ARROWI segull,
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Speaker 1: and the colossal waters rear their heads above us, like
19:20
Speaker 1: demons of the deep, but like demons confined to simple
19:24
Speaker 1: threats and forbidden to destroy. I am led to attribute
19:28
Speaker 1: these frequent escapes to the only natural cause which can
19:31
Speaker 1: account for such effect. I must suppose the ship to
19:34
Speaker 1: be within the influence of some strong current or impetuous undertow.
19:39
Speaker 1: I have seen the captain face to face, and in
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Speaker 1: his own cabin, But as I expected, he paid me
19:45
Speaker 1: no attention. Although in his appearance there is to a
19:49
Speaker 1: casual observer nothing which might bespeak him more or less
19:52
Speaker 1: than man, still a feeling of irrepressible reverence, and all
19:56
Speaker 1: mingled with the sensation of wonder with which I regarded him.
20:00
Speaker 1: In stature, he is nearly my own height, that is
20:03
Speaker 1: about five feet eight inches. He is of a well
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Speaker 1: knit and compact frame of body, neither robust nor remarkably otherwise.
20:11
Speaker 1: But it is the singularity of the expression which reigns
20:14
Speaker 1: upon the face. It is the intense, the wonderful, the
20:17
Speaker 1: thrilling evidence of old age, so utter, so extreme, which
20:21
Speaker 1: excites within my spirit a sense, a sentiment ineffable. His forehead,
20:26
Speaker 1: although little wrinkled, seems to bear upon it the stamp
20:29
Speaker 1: of a myriad of years. His gray hairs are records
20:33
Speaker 1: of the past, and his grayer eyes are sybyls of
20:36
Speaker 1: the future. The cabin floor was thickly strewn with strange,
20:40
Speaker 1: iron clasped folios and moldering instruments of science and obsolete,
20:44
Speaker 1: long forgotten charts. His head was bowed down upon his hands,
20:49
Speaker 1: and he poured with a fiery, unquiet eye over a
20:52
Speaker 1: paper which I took to be a commission, and which,
20:54
Speaker 1: at all events bore the signature of a monarch. He
20:58
Speaker 1: muttered to himself, as did the first seamen, whom I
21:01
Speaker 1: saw in the hold, some low, peevish syllables of a
21:04
Speaker 1: foreign tongue. And although the speaker was close at my elbow,
21:07
Speaker 1: his voice seemed to reach my ears from the distance
21:09
Speaker 1: of a mile. The ship and all in it are
21:12
Speaker 1: imbued with the spirit of eld. The crew glide to
21:16
Speaker 1: and fro, like the ghosts of buried centuries. Their eyes
21:19
Speaker 1: have an eager and uneasy meaning. And when their fingers
21:22
Speaker 1: fall athwart my path in the wild glare of the
21:24
Speaker 1: battle lanterns, I feel as I have never felt before,
21:27
Speaker 1: although I have been all my life a dealer in antiquities,
21:30
Speaker 1: and have imbibed the shadows of fallen columns at Balbach
21:34
Speaker 1: and Tadmore and Persepolis, until my very soul has become
21:38
Speaker 1: a ruin. When I look around me. I feel ashamed
21:41
Speaker 1: of my former apprehensions. If I trembled at the blast
21:45
Speaker 1: which has hitherto attended us, shall I not stand aghast
21:48
Speaker 1: at a warring of wind and ocean to convey any
21:50
Speaker 1: idea of which the words tornado and simonm are trivial
21:53
Speaker 1: and ineffective. All in the immediate vicinity of the ship
21:57
Speaker 1: is the blackness of eternal night and a chaos of
22:00
Speaker 1: foamless water. But about a league on either side of
22:03
Speaker 1: us may be seen indistinctly, and at intervals, stupendous ramparts
22:07
Speaker 1: of ice, towering away into the desolate sky, and looking
22:11
Speaker 1: like the walls of the universe. As I imagined, the
22:14
Speaker 1: ship proves to be in a current, if that appellation
22:17
Speaker 1: can properly be given to a tide witch, howling and
22:20
Speaker 1: shrieking by the white ice thunders on to the southward
22:23
Speaker 1: with a velocity like the headlong dashing of a cataract.
22:27
Speaker 1: To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume,
22:30
Speaker 1: utterly impossible. Yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of
22:34
Speaker 1: these awful regions predominates even over my despair, and will
22:38
Speaker 1: reconcile me to the most hideous aspect of death. It
22:41
Speaker 1: is evident that we are hurrying onwards to some exciting knowledge,
22:45
Speaker 1: some never to be imparted secret whose attainment is destruction.
22:49
Speaker 1: Perhaps this current leads us to the Southern Pole itself.
22:53
Speaker 1: It must be confessed that a supposition apparently so wild
22:56
Speaker 1: has every probability in its favor. The crew you pace
23:00
Speaker 1: the deck with unquiet and tremulous step, But there is
23:03
Speaker 1: upon their countenance as an expression more of the eagerness
23:06
Speaker 1: of hope than of the apathy of despair. In the meantime,
23:09
Speaker 1: the wind is still in our poop, and as we
23:12
Speaker 1: carry a crowd of canvas, the ship is at times
23:15
Speaker 1: lifted bodily from out the sea. Oh, horror, upon horror,
23:19
Speaker 1: the ice open suddenly to the right and to the left,
23:23
Speaker 1: and we are whirling dizzily in immense concentric circles round
23:27
Speaker 1: and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheater, the summit
23:30
Speaker 1: of whose walls is lost in the darkness and the distance.
23:34
Speaker 1: But little time will be left me to ponder upon
23:36
Speaker 1: my destiny. The circles rapidly grow small. We are plunging
23:41
Speaker 1: madly within the grasp of the whirlpool, and amid a
23:44
Speaker 1: roaring and bellowing and thundering of ocean and of tempest,
23:47
Speaker 1: the ship is quivering, Oh God, and going down Note dot.
23:53
Speaker 1: The m s Found in a Bottle was originally published
23:57
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty one, and it was not until many
24:00
Speaker 1: years afterwards that I became acquainted with the maps of Mercador,
24:03
Speaker 1: in which the ocean is represented as rushing by four
24:06
Speaker 1: mouths into the Northern Polar Gulf to be absorbed into
24:10
Speaker 1: the bowels of the Earth, the pole itself being represented
24:13
Speaker 1: by a black rock towering to a prodigious height.