"How did our fellows work? She dragged a feel?" good deal below the Gut." Miller looked somewhat serious, but even he cannot be finding fault just now. For the first step is gained, the first victory won; and as Homer sometimes nods, so Miller relaxes the sternness of his rule. The crew, as soon as they have found their voices again, laugh and talk and answer the congratulations of their friends, as the boat slips along close to the towing-path on the Berks side, "casy all," almost keeping pace nevertheless with the lower boats, which are racing up under the willows on the Oxfordshire side. Jack, after one or two feints, makes a frantic bound into the water, and is hauled dripping into the boat by Drysdale, unchid by Miller, but to the intense disgust of Diogenes, whose pantaloons and principles are elite outraged by the proceeding. He-the Cato of the oar-scorns to relax the strictness of his code, even after victory won. Neither word nor look docs he cast to the exulting St. Ambrosians on the bank; a twinkle in his eye, and a subdued chuckle or two, alone betray that, though an oarsman, he is mortal. Already he "All right," said Tom; "I never felt jollier in my life." "By Jove, though, it was an awful grind! didn't you wish yourself well out of it below the Gut ?" "No, nor you either." "Dida't I? I was awfully baked, my throat is like a lime-kiln yet. What did you think about ?" "Well, about keeping time, I think," said Tom, laughing; "but I can't remember much." "I only kept on by thinking how I hated those devils in the Exeter boat, and how done up they must be, and hoping their number two felt like having a fit." At this moment they came opposite the Cherwell. The leading boat was just passing the winningpost, off University barge, and the band struck up the "Conquering Hero," with a crash. And while a mighty sound of shouts, murmurs, and music went up into the evening sky, Miller shook the tiller-ropes again, the captain shouted, "Now then, pick up here!" and the St. Ambrose boat shot up between the swarming banks at racing pace to her landing-place, the lion of the evening. ON THE DEATH OF A [THOMAS GRAY. "TWAS on a lofty vase's side, Where China's gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow, Her conscious tail her joy declared; The velvet of her paws, Her coat that with the tortoise vies, The genii of the stream: The hapless nymph with wonder saw; FAVOURITE CAT. She stretched in vain to reach the prize; Presumptuous maid! with looks intent, Eight times emerging from the flood, Some speedy aid to send. No dolphin came, no Naiad stirred, Nor all that glistens, gold. A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM. [EDGAR ALLAN POE. See Page 8] E had now been about ten minutes upon the top of Helseggen, to which we had ascended from the interior of Lofoden, so that we had caught no glimpse of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit. I became aware of a loud and gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an American prairie; and at the same moment I perceived that what seamen term the chopping character of the ocean beneath us, was rapidly changing into a current, which set to the eastward. Suddenly this whirling movement assumed a dis. tinct and definite existence, in a circle of more than a mile in diameter. The edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice -half shriek, half roar-such as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to heaven. "You have had a good look at the whirl now," said the old man; "and if you will creep round this crag, so as to get in its lee, and deaden the roar of the water, I will tell you a story that will convince you I ought to know something of the Moskoe-strom.” I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded :"Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner-rigged smack, of about seventy tons burthen, with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moskoe, nearly to Vurrgh. In all violent eddies at sea, there is good fishing at proper opportunities, if one has only the courage to attempt it; but among the whole of the Lofoden coastmen, we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands, as I tell you. "It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. It was on the 10th day of July, 18-, a day which the people of this part of the world will never forget, for it was one in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens. And yet all the morning, and, indeed, until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow. "The three of us-my two brothers and myself had crossed over to the islands about two o'clock p.m., and had soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more plentiful that day than we had ever known them. It was just seven by my watch when we weighed and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Strom at slack water, which we knew would be at eight. "Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. The oldest seaman in Norway never experienced anything like it. We had let our sails go by the run before it clearly took us; but, at the first puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawn off-the mainmast taking with it my youngest brother, who had lashed himself to it for safety. "Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow; and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to cross the Strom, by way of precaution against the chopping seas. But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once, for we lay entirely buried for some moments. How my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot say. For my part, as soon as I had let the foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow, and with my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot of the foremast. It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this-which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done for I was too much flurried to think. 66 For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this time I held my breath, and clung to the bolt. When I could stand it no longer, I raised myself upon my knees, still keeping hold with my hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid herself, in some measure, of the seas. I was now trying to get better of the stupor that had come over me, and to collect my senses so as to see what was to be done, when I felt somebody grasp my arm. It was my elder brother, and my heart A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM. leaped for joy, for I had made sure that he was overboard; but the next moment all this joy was changed to horror, for he put his mouth close to my ear and screamed out the word, 'Moskoestrom!' 64 No one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook from head to foot as if I had had the most violent fit of the ague. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough-I knew what he wished to make me understand. With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strom, and nothing could save us. "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 everything about us with the greatest distinctness; but, O 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 the face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the It had run down at seven o'clock! We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Strom was in full fury. ocean. "When a boat is well built, properly and not deeply laden, the waves in a strong gale, when she is going high, 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 roseup-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 quite dizzy, as if I were falling from some lofty mountain top in a dream. "It could not have been more than two minutes 107 afterwards, when 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. We were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl; and I thought, of course, that another moment we must plunge in the abyss, down which we could only see indistinctly, on account of the amazing velocity with which we were borne along. 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 66 nerves. "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. "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 endeavoured to force my hands, as it was not large enough to afford us both a secure grasp. I never felt deeper grief than when I saw him attempt this act, although I knew he was a madman when he did it-a raving maniac through sheer fright. I did not care, however, to contest the point with him. I knew it could make no difference whether either of us held on at all: so I let him have the bolt, and went astern to the cask. This there was no difficulty in doing, for the smack flew round steadily enough, 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 carboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. I muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over. "As I feit 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 sensation 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 of a funnel vast in circumference, prodigious in depth, and with perfectly smooth sides that might have been mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering rapidity with which they spun round, 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 than if we had been upon a dead level; and this, I suppose, was owing to the speed at which we revolved. "Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had carried us a great distance down the slope; but our farther progress was by no means proportionate. Round and round we swept, not with any uniform movement, but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards, sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the whirl. Our progress downward at each revolution was slow, but very perceptible. "I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terror. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. I must have been delirious; for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below. 'This fir-tree,' I found myself at one time saying, 'will certainly be the next thing that takes the awful plunge and disappears;' and then I was disappointed to find that the wreck of a Dutch merchant-ship overtook it, and went down before. At length, after making several guesses of this nature, and being deceived in all, this fact the fact of my invariable miscalculation-set me upon a train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble, and my heart beat heavily once more. "It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more exciting hope. This hope arose partly from memory, and partly from present observation. I called to mind the great variety of buoyant matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been absorbed, and then thrown forth by the Moskoe-strom. By far the greater number of the articles were shattered in the most extraordinary way-so chafed and roughened as to have the appearance of being stuck full of splinters; but then I distinctly recollected that there were some of them which were not disfigured at all. Now, I could not account for this difference, except by supposing that the roughened fragments were the only ones which had been completely absorbed that the others had entered the whirl at so late a period of the tide, or, for some reason, had descended so slowly after entering, that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came, or of the ebb, as the case might be. I conceived it possible, in either instance, that they might thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean, without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more early, or absorbed more rapidly. I made, also, three important observations:-The first was, that, as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descent; the second, that, between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical, and the other of any other shape, the superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere; the third, that, between two masses of equal size, the one cylindrical, and the other of any other shape, the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly. Since my escape, I have had several conversations on this subject with an old schoolmaster of the district. From him I learned the use of the words cylinder' and 'sphere.' "There was one startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcing these observations, and rendering me anxious to turn them to account, and this was, that at every revolution we passed something like a barrel, or else the yard or the mast of a vessel; while many of those things which had been on our level when I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the whirlpool, were now high above us, and seemed to have moved but little from their original station. "I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash myself securely to the water-cask upon |