im 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-stroem 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 Stroem, 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
they knew me no more than they would have known a traveler from the
spirit-land. My hair, which had been raven-black the day before, was as
white as you see it