Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-03-18
NEAR A MAELSTROM,
VISIT TO THE MOST TERRIBLE
WHIRLPOOL IN THE WORLD.

WHIRLPOOL IN THE WORLD.
! Sailing Around tie Edge of Dcstruc-
tive Rapid, ssyirlins Current. Off the
Coast of Norway-A Pen Picture of a
Wonderful Natural Curiosity.
If you take map and turn to the west
ern coast of Norway, in the 6Sth deg. of
latitude, you will find traced thereon the
name of the largest and most terrible
whirlpool in the known world. This maeL
strom is about a mile and half in diam
| eter, and it's vortex has an inclination of
45 dogs, or about that of water in a large
funnel when half run out Its condition is
variant. Sometimes it is not at all dan
gerous at other times it is so powerfully
destructive that the largest vessel ever
constructed, if once fairly caught in it's
whirl, could be no more than a mere
feather. Everything that enters it at such
a time is crushed and torn to pieces.
The cause of this immense whirlpool
has been variously stated but it is only
guesswork and theory after all Some
have thought there is subterranean pas
sage and that the waters come out at Il
great distance-one writer even giving the
again, and with more plausibility, argue
that the whirl is solely the effect of the
waters of the tide, during it's ebb and flow,
being pent up by lodges of rocks, over
which they fall with the velocity of cata-
ract, and assume the gyratory movement
in their effort to escape or reach level.
The word ''maelstrom' means mill
stream" and is said to have been given to
it because its rush resembles that of mill
stream when it is let loose from confine-
ment.
Business of commercial nature led
me to visit some of the ports of Norway
and the Loffoden islands, and being within
easy reach of the wonder of the world, I
became possessed with great desire to see
it for myself. In conversation with an old
Norwegian fisherman | learned, to my
great surprise, that he had not only sailed
close around it when it was raging with
great fury but that he had more than once
ventured across it, with a strong breese,
during it's regular lull at the turn of the
tide
A TERRIBLE SCENE.
The next day saw me walking the deck
of a snug, well rugged schooner, on my way
to sublime scene of peril that for many
long year had often come up in my fancy
with strange kind of fascination. l need
not describe my voyage down to the mael
strom, for that is of no moment in this con-
nection.
From the moment l first heard the dis
tant roar of the maelstrom we sailed di
rectly toward it for more than an hour, the
roar gradually increasing in volume as we
neared it, until it became SO loud that it
was with difficulty that could distinguish
the different and sometimes rapid orders of
the daring fisherman.
can never describe the awful mael
strom as | saw it and felt it.
Imagine an area of million and half
miles in diameter. To do this fully and
comprehensively you should fix your eye
or your mind upon some object o mile and
a half from where you are. Then fancy
this broad space to be all water, moving
round in circle, slowly on the outer edge,
but gradually increasing in velocity to
ward the center, with a downward inclina-
ton of 45 degs., SO that it looks like a vast
hollow gulf Of awful depth.
Then imagine yourself sailing round on
the outer edge Of this immense funnel
with the water black and level on one side
of you and on the other inclined and run
ming around and downward, rolling, tum
| bling, rushing, dashing, seething. whirling
and boiling, the center dashed into milk
white foam and sending up the deafening
roar of thousand Niagaras.
If to all this you add the fancy that you
are floating around this awful gulf in a
| frail vessel that seems only an air bubble,
to be sucked in and crushed, and which,
while driving before the wind, is now and
then caught by a current and turned sew
eral points toward destruction, so that the
| master shouts frantically and the sailors
| make almost superhuman exertions to
keep her from rushing madly into the vor-
| tex, and you pray agonizingly, with breath
! suspended and hair standing on end, till
| the wavering balance has inclined to life
if, say, you add this to all the rest, you
| get perhaps as good an external of the
| scene and situation of the beholder as my
descriptive powers are able to convey.
FATE OF A VICTIM.
! Amid the bewilderment of this indescrib
| able scene my eyes dazzled with the whirl-
| ing rushing, flashing Of the waters, my
ears stunned with their kissing, dashing,
| laundering roar my soul going down into
the foaming vortex, and thence onward
into the eternity beyond, the old fisherman
laid one hand upon my arm, pointing with
CQe Opu6F cuU SuOuGcu.
"I4ookl ReholdP'
| turned and saw one of the seamen hold
ing large sea bird, to one of whose legs
was attached a long cord, the other end Of
which was secured to short. heavy stick
of timber, which another sailor was in the
act Of casting into the sea. AS the timber
struck the water the one holding the bird
let him go, and with wild scream he few
to the length of his tether and then strug-
gled in the air to break his bonds and
escape. But the cord held him, and the
moving timber took a gradual inclination
toward the vortex.
With the schooner run safely back from
the gyratory draft, watched the bird with
glass, as the descending timber dragged
him downward, fluttering and screaming,
and seeming to my excited fancy like some
unfortunate spirit being dragged to per
dition. Round and round went the tim
Der, slowly at first, and with steadily in
creasing velocity, till at last with quick
jerkings and rapid descent, the futtering
bird disappeared from my view.
| had seen enough had felt the emo
tions of lifetime compressed into few
hours-and we sailed away from the never
| to-be-forgotten scene.-New York Ledger.
His Looks Betrayed Him.
A gentleman wearing light colored sur