vortex, the prodigious suction of which is sufficiently known by lesser experiments."-These are the words of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Kircher and others imagine that in the center of the channel of the Maelstrom is an abyss penetrating the globe, and issuing in some very remote part-the Gulf of Bothnia being somewhat decidedly 10 named in one instance. This opinion, idle in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my imagination most readily assented; and, mentioning it to the guide, I was rather surprised to hear him say that, although it was the view almost universally entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was not his own. As to the former notion he confessed his ina20 bility to comprehend it; and here I agreed with him-for, however conclusive on paper, it becomes altogether unintelligible, and even absurd, amid the thunder of the abyss.

8. Gulf of Bothnia, the north part of the Baltic Sea.

THE GUIDE'S MARVELOUS TALE "You have had a good look at the whirl now," said the old man, "and if you will creep round this crag, so as to deaden the roar of the water, I will tell you a story that will convince you I ought to know something of the 30 Moskoestrom." I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded.

"Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner-rigged smack of about seventy tons burden, with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moskoe, nearly to Vurrgh. In all violent eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper opportunities, if one has only the courage to 40 attempt it; but among the whole of the Lofoden coastmen we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands, as I tell you. The usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward. There fish can be got at all hours, without much risk, and therefore these places

are preferred. The choice spots over here among the rocks, however, not only yield the finest variety, but in far greater abundance; so that we often got in a single day what the more timid of the craft could not scrape together in a week. In fact, we made it a matter of desperate speculation-the risk of life standing instead of labor, and 10 courage answering for capital.

"We kept the smack in a cove about five miles higher up the coast than this; and it was our practice, in fine weather, to take advantage of the fifteen minutes' slack to push across the main channel of the Moskoestrom, far above the pool, and then drop down upon anchorage somewhere near Otterholm, or Sandflesen, where the eddies 20 are not so violent as elsewhere. Here we used to remain until time for slack water again, when we weighed anchor and made for home. We never set out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for going and coming-one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return-and we seldom made a miscalculation upon this point. Twice, during six years, we were forced 30 to stay all night at anchor on account

of a dead calm, which is a rare thing indeed just about here; and once we had to remain on the ground nearly a week, starving to death, owing to a gale which blew up shortly after our arrival, and made the channel too boisterous to be thought of. Upon this occasion we should have been driven out to sea in spite of everything 40 (for the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently that, at length, we fouled our anchor and dragged it) if it had not been that we drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents -here today and gone tomorrow

which drove us under the lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up.

"I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we encountered 50 on the ground'—it is a bad spot to be in, even in good weather-but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moskoestrom itself without accident; although at times my heart has been in my mouth when we happened to be a minute or so behind or before the slack. The wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at starting, and then we made rather less 60 way than we could wish, while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. My eldest brother had a son eighteen years old, and I had two stout boys of my own. These would have been of great assistance at such times, in using the sweeps, as well as afterward in fishing-but, somehow, although we ran the risk ourselves, we had not the heart to let the young ones 70 get into the danger-for, after all said and done, it was a horrible danger, and that is the truth.

"It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. It was on the tenth of July, 18-, a day which the people of this part of the world will never forgetfor it was one in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out so of the heavens. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the southwest, while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow.

"The three of us-my two brothers

53. run the gauntlet, expose ourselves to the trials and difficulties. 67. sweeps, large oars.

and myself-had crossed over to the islands about two o'clock P. M., and soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more plenty that day than we had ever known them. It was just seven, by my watch, when we weighed anchor and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Strom at slack water, 10 which we knew would be at eight.

"We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard quarter, and for some time spanked along at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it. All at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. This was most unusual-something that had never happened to us before-and 20 I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the boat on the wind, but could make no headway at all for the eddies, and I was upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage, when, looking astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper-colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity.

30

"In the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and we were dead becalmed, drifting about in every direction. This state of things, however, did not last long enough to give us time to think about it. In less than a minute the storm was upon us— in less than two the sky was entirely overcast and what with this and the driving spray, it became suddenly so 40 dark that we could not see each other in the smack.

"Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. The oldest seaman in Norway never experienced anything like it. We had let

our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us; but, at the first puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawed off-the mainmast taking with it my youngest brother, 50 who had lashed himself to it for safety.

"Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water." It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow, and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to cross the Strom, by way of precaution against the chopping seas. But for this circumstance we should have 60 foundered at once- for we lay entirely buried for some moments. How my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot say, for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining. For my part, as soon as I had let the foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow, and with my hands grasping a ringbolt near the foot of the fore- 70 mast. It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this-which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done for I was too much flurried to think.

SWEPT INTO THE MAELSTROM "For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this time I held my breath, and clung to the bolt. When I could stand it no longer I raised myself upon my knees, 80 still keeping hold with my hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid herself, in some

46. go by the run, let go altogether, instead of slacking off. 48. by the board, over the side. 54. flush, clear of everything. 55. hatch, opening. 57. batten down, cover with canvas. 63. gunwale, the upper edge.

measure, of the seas. I was now trying to get the better of the stupor that had come over me, and to collect my senses so as to see what was to be done, when I felt somebody grasp my arm. It was my elder brother, and my heart leaped for joy, for I had made sure that he was overboard-but the next moment all this joy was turned into 10 horror-for he put his mouth close to my ear, and screamed out the word 'Moskoestrom!'

"No one will ever know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook from head to foot as if I had had the most violent fit of the ague. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough-I knew what he wished to make me understand. With the 20 wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strom, and nothing could save us!

"You perceive that in crossing the Strom channel, we always went a long way up above the whirl, even in the calmest weather, and then had to wait and watch carefully for the slack-but now we were driving right upon the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as 30 this! To be sure,' I thought, 'we shall get there just about the slackthere is some little hope in that'-but in the next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all. I knew very well that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun ship.

"By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or perhaps we 40 did not feel it so much as we scudded

before it; but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. A singular change, too, had come over

the heavens. Around in every direction it was still black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular rift of clear skyas clear as I ever saw-and of a deep, 50 bright blue and through it there blazed forth the full moon with a luster that I never before knew her to wear. She lit up everything about us with the greatest distinctness-but, oh, God, what a scene it was to light up!

"I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother-but, in some manner which I could not understand, the din had so increased that I could 60 not make him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head, looking as pale as death, and held up one of his fingers, as if to say listen!

"At first I could not make out what he meant-but soon a hideous thought flashed upon me. I dragged my watch from its fob. It was not going. I 70 glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. It had run down at seven o'clock! We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Strom was in full fury!

"When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and not deep laden, the waves in a strong gale, when she is going large, seem always to slip from so beneath her-which appears very strange to a landsman-and this is what is called riding, in sea phrase.

"Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly; but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose-up-up-as if into the sky. I would not have believed that any wave could rise so high. And then 90

down we came with a sweep, a slide, and a plunge that made me feel sick and dizzy, as if I was falling from some lofty mountain-top in a dream. But while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around-and that one glance was all-sufficient. I saw our exact position in an instant. The Moskoestrom whirlpool was about a quarter 10 of a mile dead ahead-but no more like the everyday Moskoestrom than the whirl as you now see it is like a mill-race. If I had not known where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have recognized the place at all. As it was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. The lids clenched themselves together as if in a spasm.

"It could not have been more than 20 two minutes afterwards until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. The boat made a sharp half turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt. At the same moment the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek-such a sound as you might imagine given out by the water-pipes 30 of many thousand steam vessels, letting off their steam all together. We were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl; and I thought, of course, that another moment would plunge us into the abyss-down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing velocity with which we were borne along. The boat did not seem to sink into the water at 40 all, but to skim like an air-bubble upon

the surface of the surge. Her starboard side was next the whirl, and on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left. It stood like a huge, writhing wall between us and the horizon.

"It may appear strange, but now, when we were in the very jaws of the gulf, I felt more composed than when we were only approaching it. Having made up my mind to hope no more, I 50 got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first. I suppose it was despair that strung my nerves.

"It may look like boasting-but what I tell you is truth-I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life, in view of so wonderful a mani- 60 festation of God's power. I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the whirl itself. I positively felt a wish to explore its depths, even at the sacrifice I was going to make; and my principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old companions on shore about 70 the mysteries I should see. These, no doubt, were singular fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity-and I have often thought, since, that the revolutions of the boat around the pool might have rendered me a little lightheaded.

"There was another circumstance which tended to restore my self-possession; and this was the cessation of the 80 wind, which could not reach us in our present situation-for, as you saw yourself, the belt of surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean, and this latter now towered above us, a high, black, mountainous ridge. If you have never been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray together. 90