fixed immovably by weakness and despair, I observed
that the waters were rising visibly upon us, probably from the
absorption of the small quantity of oxygen that remained in the tainted
air around us. It had risen up half way between the rim and the seats,
and was gradually gaining upon me. A foot more would bring it to the
level of where I sat. My feet were already immersed, and the coldness
produced by the water operated in combination with the spasms in my
labouring chest to destroy vitality. The black fragment of the wreck
rose with the waters, and raised obliquely the side of the bell, which
may have been an additional cause for the rising of the sea within.
Through my glazed eye I saw, lying in a hollow of the broken raft, a
white figure--probably that seen by Vanderhoek when he fell into the
sea. By and by, it became more visible as the waters rose, and I saw
that it was the body of a female who had perished in the vessel. The
image of the apparition has haunted me to this hour, and shall do till I
die. A part of the dress which she had worn when she perished, still
clung to her--about the half of the skirt of a silk gown that had been
of some light colour, but had changed to a greenish hue. It was bound to
the waist by a sash or belt of a darker shade. Her bosom was bare, and
bore the same sickly hue of pale green; her face was placid; the eyes
were open; but one of the balls had been extracted by some reptile of
the deep; her long hair flowed among the weeds; and, hanging from the
lobe of the left ear, I saw a clear gem that shone with the brightness
of the stone called _aqua marina_. One of the arms had been taken off a
little above the elbow; the flesh at the end of the stump appeared
bloodless, and bleached to the colour of the skin; and limpets and other
kinds of small shell-fish lay on or adhered to the cuticle. My feelings
recoil from the recollections of the horrors of that apparition; and I
fear I may incur the charge of endeavouring to produce an effect by the
vulgar mode of harassing the mind with a minute description, too easily
effected, of what, for the sake of humanity, should be concealed.

There the body lay in all its green horror. It was rising gradually to
my side, within the bell, through the gloom of which the pale skin and
light robes sent a sickly gleam. I had no power to move myself away from
it. My body was bent so that my face was within a few inches of it; and
a slight undulation of