o throw myself with it into the water. I attracted my brother's
attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us,
and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about
to do. I thought at length that he comprehended my design, but, whether
this was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to
move from his station by the ring-bolt. It was impossible to reach him,
the emergency admitted of no delay, and so, with a bitter struggle, I
resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of the
lashings which secured it to the counter, and precipitated myself with
it into the sea without another moment's hesitation.

"The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. As it is myself
who now tell you this tale--as you see that I _did_ escape--and as you
are already in possession of the mode in which this escape was effected,
and must therefore anticipate all that I have further to say, I will
bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might have been an hour or
thereabout after my quitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast
distance beneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid
succession, and bearing my loved brother with it, plunged headlong at
once and forever into the chaos of foam below. The barrel to which I was
attached sunk very little farther than half the distance between the
bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a
great change took place in the character of the whirlpool. The slope of
the sides of the vast funnel became momently less and less steep. The
gyrations of the whirl grew gradually less and less violent. By degrees
the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed
slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the
full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the
surface of the ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above
the spot where the pool of the Moskoe-strom _had been_. It was the hour
of the slack--but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the
effects of the hurricane. I was borne violently into the channel of the
Strom, and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the
'grounds' of the fishermen. A boat picked me up, exhausted from fatigue
and (now that the danger was removed) speechless from the memory of its
horror. Those who drew me on board were my old mates and daily
companions, but t