One morning I was astonished by perceiving that
the light of the sun seemed to change its position regularly every
quarter of an hour. Had it done so occasionally during the day, and at
no stated intervals, I should have imagined that the ice that I was
inclosed in, altered its position from the winds and currents; but the
regularity astonished me. I watched it, and I found that the same
phenomenon occurred, but at shorter intervals, and it continued until
the light shifted from side to side every minute.
After some reflection, the horrid idea occurred to me that I must have
been drifted to the coast of Norway, and was in the influence of the
dreadful whirlpool, called the Maelstroom, and that, in a few minutes, I
should be engulfed for ever, and, whilst I was thinking that such might
be the case, the light revolved each fifteen seconds. "Then it is!"
cried I in despair, and, as I uttered the words, it became quite dark,
and I knew that I had sunk in the vortex, and all was over.
It may appear strange to your highness, that after the first pang,
occasioned by the prospect of perdition, had passed away, that so far
from feeling a horror at my situation, I mocked and derided it. I could
feel no more, and I waited the result with perfect indifference. From
the marks in my nails, I afterwards found out that I was nearly six
months in the interior of the earth. At last, one day I was nearly
blinded by the powerful light that poured through my tenement, and I
knew that I was once more floating on the water.
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