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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.Poe, Edgar Allan

General

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

Name: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.
Author: Poe, Edgar Allan

Poe, Edgar Allan

Sea stories; Stowaways -- Fiction; Whaling ships -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction

We found the entire length of the third chasm three hundred and twenty
yards. At the point _a_ was an opening about six feet wide, and
extending fifteen feet into the rock, where it terminated in a bed of
marl, there being no other chasm beyond, as we had expected. We were
about leaving this fissure, into which very little light was admitted,
when Peters called my attention to a range of singular-looking
indentures in the surface of the marl forming the termination of the
_cul-de-sac_. With a very slight exertion of the imagination, the left,
or most northerly of these indentures might have been taken for the
intentional, although rude, representation of a human figure standing
erect, with outstretched arm. The rest of them bore also some little
resemblance to alphabetical characters, and Peters was willing, at all
events, to adopt the idle opinion that they were really such. I
convinced him of his error, finally, by directing his attention to the
floor of the fissure, where, among the powder, we picked up, piece by
piece, several large flakes of the marl, which had evidently been
broken off by some convulsion from the surface where the indentures
were found, and which had projecting points exactly fitting the
indentures; thus proving them to have been the work of nature. Figure
4. presents an accurate copy of the whole.

[Illustration: _Figure 4_.]

After satisfying ourselves that these singular caverns afforded us no
means of escape from our prison, we made our way back, dejected and
dispirited, to the summit of the hill. Nothing worth mentioning
occurred during the next twenty-four hours, except that, in examining
the ground to the eastward of the third chasm, we found two triangular
holes of great depth, and also with black granite sides. Into these
holes we did not think it worth while to attempt descending, as they
had the appearance of mere natural wells, without outlet. They were
each about twenty yards in circumference, and their shape, as well as
relative position in regard to the third chasm, is shown in figure 5,
preceding page.




CHAPTER XXIV.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

Poe, Edgar Allan

Sea stories; Stowaways -- Fiction; Whaling ships -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction

We found the entire length of the third chasm three hundred and twenty
yards. At the point _a_ was an opening about six feet wide, and
extending fifteen feet into the rock, where it terminated in a bed of
marl, there being no other chasm beyond, as we had expected. We were
about leaving this fissure, into which very little light was admitted,
when Peters called my attention to a range of singular-looking
indentures in the surface of the marl forming the termination of the
_cul-de-sac_. With a very slight exertion of the imagination, the left,
or most northerly of these indentures might have been taken for the
intentional, although rude, representation of a human figure standing
erect, with outstretched arm. The rest of them bore also some little
resemblance to alphabetical characters, and Peters was willing, at all
events, to adopt the idle opinion that they were really such. I
convinced him of his error, finally, by directing his attention to the
floor of the fissure, where, among the powder, we picked up, piece by
piece, several large flakes of the marl, which had evidently been
broken off by some convulsion from the surface where the indentures
were found, and which had projecting points exactly fitting the
indentures; thus proving them to have been the work of nature. Figure
4. presents an accurate copy of the whole.

[Illustration: _Figure 4_.]

After satisfying ourselves that these singular caverns afforded us no
means of escape from our prison, we made our way back, dejected and
dispirited, to the summit of the hill. Nothing worth mentioning
occurred during the next twenty-four hours, except that, in examining
the ground to the eastward of the third chasm, we found two triangular
holes of great depth, and also with black granite sides. Into these
holes we did not think it worth while to attempt descending, as they
had the appearance of mere natural wells, without outlet. They were
each about twenty yards in circumference, and their shape, as well as
relative position in regard to the third chasm, is shown in figure 5,
preceding page.




CHAPTER XXIV.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

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