Had a high-pressure engine on board a vast Atlantic steamer become desirous of taking a little fresh air, and mounted for that purpose amidst the shrouds and blocks of the rigging whilst it continued to labour, the scene could not have been more astounding.
Down — down he kept going; but now it was in comparative darkness — in a region of beams and pullies, of huge wheels and mighty ropes, all in motion around him, and threatening every instant to entangle him in their complicated movements and tear him limb from limb.  Had a high-pressure engine on board a vast Atlantic steamer become desirous of taking a little fresh air, and mounted for that purpose amidst the shrouds and blocks of the rigging whilst it continued to labour, the scene could not have been more astounding.  Once he had a faint vision of some feminine creation in book-muslin and silk tights who was pre paring to ascend, and whom he perceived by the dim light of an oil-lamp as he went down ; but his mind was in such a state of bouleversement that he was not certain whether he gazed at substance or the image of one of the beauties above still left upon the bewildered retina, as he had seen motes in the sunbeams after he had shut his eyes — small things that danced in insolent hilarity before his pupils, but flew off nowhere the instant he attempted to direct his gaze towards them.