| 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 |
| 1 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
|
no difference whether either of us held on at all; so I let him have the
bolt, and went astern to the cask. This there was no great difficulty
in doing; for the smack flew round steadily enough, and upon an even
keel--only swaying to and fro, with the immense sweeps and swelters of
the whirl. Scarcely had I secured myself in my new position, when we
gave a wild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. I
muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over.
"
As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively
tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. For some seconds
I dared not open them--while I expected instant destruction, and
wondered that I was not already in my death-struggles with the water.
But moment after moment elapsed. I still lived. The sense of falling had
ceased; and the motion of the vessel seemed much as it had been before,
while in the belt of foam, with the exception that she now lay more
along. I took courage, and looked once again upon the scene.
"Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with
which I gazed about me. The boat appeared to be hanging, as if by
magic, midway down, upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in
circumference, prodigious in depth, and whose perfectly smooth sides
might have been mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering rapidity
with which they spun around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance
they shot forth, as the rays of the full moon, from that circular rift
7
9
Page
Quick Jump
|