To finish the description of this place, which may well be called a gulf, since nothing ever returns from it --it is not possible for ships to get off from it, when once they come within such a distance of it. If they be driven thither by a wind from the sea, the wind and the current ruin them; and it they come into it when a land-wind blows, which might seem to favour their getting out again, the height of the mountain stops the wind, and occasions a calm, so that the force of the current runs them ashore, where they are broken to pieces, as ours was; and that which completes the misfortune is, that there is no possibility to get to the top of the mountain, or to get out any manner of way. We continued upon the shore like men out of their senses, and expected death every day. At first, we divided our provisions as equally as we could, and thus every one lived a longer or shorter time, according to their temperance, and the use they made of their provisions. Scheherazade perceiving day, left off speaking, but next night she resumed the story as follows: EIGHTY-SIXTH NIGHT. Those who died first, continued Sindbad, were interred by the rest, and as for my part, I paid the last duty to all my companions: nor are you to wonder at this, for besides that I husbanded the provision that fell to my share better than they, I had provisions of my own, which I did not share with my comrades, yet when I buried the last, I had so little remaining, that I thought I could not hold out long, so that I dug a grave, resolving to lie down in it, because there was none left alive to inter me. I must confess to you at the same time, that while I was thus employed, I could not but reflect upon myself as the cause of my own ruin, and repented that I had ever undertaken this last voyage; nor did I stop at reflections only, but had well nigh hastened my own death, and began to tear my hands with my teeth. But it pleased God once more to take compassion on me, and put it in my mind to go to the bank of the river which ran into the great cave; where, considering the river with great attention, I said to myself, This river, which runs thus under ground, must come out somewhere or other. If I make a float, and leave myself to the current, it will bring me to some inhabited country, or drown me. If I be drowned, I lose nothing, but only change one kind of death for another; and if I get out of this fatal place, I shall not only avoid the sad fate of my comrades, but perhaps find some new occasion of enriching myself. Who knows but fortune waits upon my getting off this dangerous shelf, to compensate my shipwreck with usury?