, 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 amid
the clouds which I have already described, streamed in a flood of golden
glory along the black walls, and far away down into the inmost recesses
of the abyss.
"At first I was too much confused to observe anything accurately. The
general burst of terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. When I
recovered myself a little, however, my gaze fell instinctively downward.
In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view from the
manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the pool. She
was quite upon an even keel--that is to say, her deck lay in a plane
parallel with that of the water--but this latter sloped at an angle of
more than forty-five degrees, so that we seemed to be lying upon our
beam-ends. I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I had scarcely
more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation
than if we had been upon a dead level, and this, I suppose, was owing to
the speed at which we revolved.
"The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound
gulf; but still I could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a
thick mist in which everythin
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