The wind came in a sudden
charge from the northwest, and the whale dived with a harpoon in its
back; and in the confusion a reel fouled, and one of the boats was whipt
under in a moment--half a mile down, perhaps--and its crew drawn with
it, and their lungs, full of air, burst like bubbles. We had no time to
think of them. We got the other boat-load on board, and then the gale
sent us crashing down the slopes of the sea. I have no knowledge of how
long we were curst of the tempest and the sport of its ravings. I only
know that when it released us at last, we had been hurled a thousand
miles eastwards. The long interval was all a hellish jangle in which time
seemed obliterated. Sometimes we saw the sun--a furious red globe; and we
seemed to stand still while it raced down the sky and ricocheted over the
furthermost waves like a red-hot cannon ball. Sometimes in pitch darkness
the wild sense of flight and expectation was an ecstasy. But through all
my friend lay in a half-delirious stupor.

"At length a morning broke, full of icy scud, but the sea panting and
exhausted of its rage. As a child catches its breath after a storm of
tears, so it would heave up suddenly, and vibrate, and sink; and we
rocked upon it, a ruined hulk. We were off a flat, vacant shore--if shore
you could call it--whose margin, for miles inland, it seemed, undulated
with the lifting of the swell. It was treeless desolation manifest; and
on our sea side, as far as the eye could reach, the water bobbed and
winked with countless spars of ice.

"I will tell you at once, my friend,--we were brought to opposite an
inhuman swamp on the coast of Siberia, fifty miles or more to the west
of North-east Cape; and there what remained of the crew made shift to
cast anchor; and for a day and night the ragged ship curtsied to the
land, like a blind beggar to an empty street, and we only dozed in our
corners and wondered at the silence.

"By-and-by the men made a raft, and that took us all ashore. There was
something like a definite coast-line, then; but for long before we
touched it the undersides of the planks were scraping and hissing over
vegetation. This was the winter fur of the land--thick, coarse tundra
moss; and on that we pitched a camp, and on that we remained for long
weeks while the ship was mending. It was a weird, lonely time. Once
or twice strange, wandering creatures came our way--little, belted men,
with hairless faces, who rode up on strong horse