g there was enveloped, and over which there
hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering bridge which
Mussulmen say is the only pathway between Time and Eternity. This mist
or spray was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls of
the funnel as they all met together at the bottom, but the yell that
went up to the heavens from out of that mist I dare not attempt to
describe.

"Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had
carried us a great distance down the slope, but our farther descent was
by no means proportionate. Round and round we swept--not with any
uniform movement--but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent us
sometimes only a few hundred yards--sometimes nearly the complete
circuit of the whirl. Our progress downward at each revolution was slow
but very perceptible.

"Looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid ebony on which we were
thus borne, I perceived that our boat was not the only object in the
embrace of the whirl. Both above and below us were visible fragments of
vessels, large masses of building timber and trunks of trees, with many
smaller articles, such as pieces of house furniture, broken boxes,
barrels, and staves. I have already described the unnatural curiosity
which had taken the place of my original terrors. It appeared to grow
upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom. I now began to
watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our
company. I _must_ have been delirious, for I even sought _amusement_ in
speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents
toward the foam below. 'This fir tree,' I found myself at one time
saying, 'will certainly be the next thing that takes the awful plunge
and disappears'--and then I was disappointed to find that the wreck of a
Dutch merchant ship overtook it and went down before. At length, after
making several guesses of this nature, and being deceived in all, this
fact--the fact of my invariable miscalculation--set me upon a train of
reflection that made my limbs again tremble, and my heart beat heavily
once more.

"It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more
exciting _hope_. This hope arose partly from memory, and partly from
present observation. I called to mind the great variety of buoyant
matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been absorbed and then
thrown forth by the Moskoe-strom. By far the greater number