Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1894-02-23

rtrom is about mile and h3SSS
eter, and its vortex has an inc - Or 4
Is degs., or about tbatcf water in large
funnel when half run out. Its condition IL
variant. Sometimes IL 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 its
whirl, could be no more than a mere
feather. Everything chat enters it at such
u 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
great distance-one writer even giving the
Gulf of Bothnia for their terminus. Others
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,
became possessed with great desire to see
1t 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 strong breese
during its regular lull at the turn of the
tide.
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 a
long year had often come up in my fancy
with strange kind of fascination. | 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 a million and hall
miles in diameter. To do this fully and
comprehensiyely you should fix your eye
or your mind upon some object 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 downward inclina
tion of 45 degs., SO that it looks like vast
hollow gulf of awful depth.
Then imagine yourself sailing round oil
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. whirlinq
and boiling, the center dashed into mil k
white foam and sending up the deafening
roar of a thousand Niagaras.
If to all this you add the fancy that you
are floating around this awful gulf in Q
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 tc
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
II, | say, you add this to all the rest, you
lget perhaps as good an external of the
scene and situation of the beholder as my
descriptive powers are able to convey.
FATE OF VICTIM.
Amid the bewilderment of this indescrib-
HI.Na I i Il
ing, rushing flashing of the waters, my
ears stunned with their Kissing, dashing
laundering rosr, my soul going down intt
the foaming vortex, and thence onward
into the eternity beyond, the old fisherman
laid one hanC. upon my arm, pointing witt
the other and shouted:
"Lookl Beholdp'
turned and saw one of the seamen hold
ing large sea bird, to one Of whose legs
was attached 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 gradual inclination
toward the vortex
With the schooner run safely back from
the gyratory draft, watched the bird with
a glass, as the descending timber dragged
him downward, futtering and screaming
and seeming to my excited fancy like somt
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 fluttering
bird disappeared from my view.
had seen enough-I 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.
Fat People and Disease.
Medical authorities declare that fat peo