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 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 as black as pitch, but
      nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular rift of
      clear sky—as clear as I ever saw—and of a deep bright blue—and
      through it there blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that I
      never before knew her to wear. She lit up every thing 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 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 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 Ström 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 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 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 Moskoe-Ström whirlpool was
      about a quarter of a mile dead ahead—but no more like the
      every-day Moskoe-Ström 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 recognised 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 two minutes afterward 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
      waste-pipes 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
      wore borne along. The boat did not seem to sink into the water at
      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 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 manifestation 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 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 light-headed. “There was another circumstance which tended to restore my
      self-possession; and this was the cessation of the 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. They blind, deafen,
      and strangle you, and take away all power of action or
      reflection. But we were now, in a great measure, rid of these
      annoyances—just as death-condemned felons in prison are allowed
      petty indulgences, forbidden them while their doom is yet
      uncertain. “How often we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to
      say. We careered round and round for perhaps an hour, flying
      rather than floating, getting gradually more and more into the
      middle of the surge, and then nearer and nearer to its horrible
      inner edge. All this time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. My
      brother was at the stern, holding on to a small empty water-cask
      which had been securely lashed under the coop of the counter, and
      was the only thing on deck that had not been swept overboard when
      the gale first took us. As we approached the brink of the pit he
      let go his hold upon this, and made for the ring, from which, in
      the agony of his terror, he endeavored to force my hands, as it
      was not large enough to afford us both a secure grasp.