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Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - NOTES

{*1} Whaling vessels are usually fitted with iron oil-tanks- why the_Grampus was not I have never been able to ascertain.{*2} The case of the brig _Polly_, of Boston, is one so much inpoint, and her fate, in many respects, so remarkably similar to ourown, that I cannot forbear alluding to it here. This vessel, of onehundred and thirty tons burden, sailed from Boston, with a cargo oflumber and provisions, for Santa Croix, on the twelfth of December,1811, under the command of Captain Casneau. There were eight souls onboard besides the captain- the mate, four seamen, and the cook,together with a Mr.... Long Stories - Post by : iw433 - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2065

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 25

WE now found ourselves in the wide and desolate Antarctic Ocean, ina latitude exceeding eighty-four degrees, in a frail canoe, and withno provision but the three turtles. The long polar winter, too, couldnot be considered as far distant, and it became necessary that weshould deliberate well upon the course to be pursued. There were sixor seven islands in sight belonging to the same group, and distantfrom each other about five or six leagues; but upon neither of thesehad we any intention to venture. In coming from the northward in the_Jane Guy we had been gradually leaving behind us the severestregions of... Long Stories - Post by : Kurtmon - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2816

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 24

ON the twentieth of the month, finding it altogether impossible tosubsist any longer upon the filberts, the use of which occasioned usthe most excruciating torment, we resolved to make a desperateattempt at descending the southern declivity of the hill. The face ofthe precipice was here of the softest species of soapstone, althoughnearly perpendicular throughout its whole extent (a depth of ahundred and fifty feet at the least), and in many places evenoverarching. After a long search we discovered a narrow ledge abouttwenty feet below the brink of the gulf; upon this Peters contrivedto leap, with what assistance I could render him... Long Stories - Post by : Sar_P - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2538

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 23

DURING the six or seven days immediately following we remainedin our hiding-place upon the hill, going out only occasionally, andthen with the greatest precaution, for water and filberts. We hadmade a kind of penthouse on the platform, furnishing it with a bed ofdry leaves, and placing in it three large flat stones, which servedus for both fireplace and table. We kindled a fire without difficultyby rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, the one soft, the otherhard. The bird we had taken in such good season proved excellenteating, although somewhat tough. It was not an oceanic fowl, but aspecies of... Long Stories - Post by : OnlyOne - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2186

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 22

OUR situation, as it now appeared, was scarcely less dreadfulthan when we had conceived ourselves entombed forever. We saw beforeus no prospect but that of being put to death by the savages, or ofdragging out a miserable existence in captivity among them. We might,to be sure, conceal ourselves for a time from their observation amongthe fastnesses of the hills, and, as a final resort, in the chasmfrom which we had just issued; but we must either perish in the longpolar winter through cold and famine, or be ultimately discovered inour efforts to obtain relief. The whole country... Long Stories - Post by : goldensuccess - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 965

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 21

AS soon as I could collect my scattered senses, I found myselfnearly suffocated, and grovelling in utter darkness among a quantityof loose earth, which was also falling upon me heavily in everydirection, threatening to bury me entirely. Horribly alarmed at thisidea, I struggled to gain my feet, and at last succeeded. I thenremained motionless for some moments, endeavouring to conceive whathad happened to me, and where I was. Presently I heard a deep groanjust at my ear, and afterward the smothered voice of Peters callingto me for aid in the name of God. I scrambled one or two pacesforward, when I... Long Stories - Post by : Victoria_Butler - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1187

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 20

THE chief was as good as his word, and we were soon plentifullysupplied with fresh provisions. We found the tortoises as fine aswe had ever seen, and the ducks surpassed our best species of wildfowl, being exceedingly tender, juicy, and well-flavoured. Besidesthese, the savages brought us, upon our making them comprehend ourwishes, a vast quantity of brown celery and scurvy grass, with acanoe-load of fresh fish and some dried. The celery was a treatindeed, and the scurvy grass proved of incalculable benefit inrestoring those of our men who had shown symptoms of disease. In avery short time we had not a... Long Stories - Post by : Johnnee - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1771

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 19

We were nearly three hours in reaching the village, it beingmore than nine miles in the interior, and the path lying through arugged country. As we passed along, the party of Too-wit (the wholehundred and ten savages of the canoes) was momentarily strengthenedby smaller detachments, of from two to six or seven, which joined us,as if by accident, at different turns of the road. There appeared somuch of system in this that I could not help feeling distrust, and Ispoke to Captain Guy of my apprehensions. It was now too late,however, to recede, and we concluded that our best security lay... Long Stories - Post by : wrooster - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1701

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 18

January 18.- This morning {*4} we continued to the southward,with the same pleasant weather as before. The sea was entirelysmooth, the air tolerably warm and from the northeast, thetemperature of the water fifty-three. We now again got oursounding-gear in order, and, with a hundred and fifty fathoms ofline, found the current setting toward the pole at the rate of a milean hour. This constant tendency to the southward, both in the windand current, caused some degree of speculation, and even of alarm, indifferent quarters of the schooner, and I saw distinctly that nolittle impression had been made upon the mind of... Long Stories - Post by : elliott2 - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2623

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 17

We kept our course southwardly for four days after giving upthe search for Glass's islands, without meeting with any ice at all.On the twenty-sixth, at noon, we were in latitude 63 degrees 23' S.,longitude 41 degrees 25' W. We now saw several large ice islands, anda floe of field ice, not, however, of any great extent. The windsgenerally blew from the southeast, or the northeast, but were verylight. Whenever we had a westerly wind, which was seldom, it wasinvariably attended with a rain squall. Every day we had more or lesssnow. The thermometer, on the twenty-seventh stood at thirty-five.... Long Stories - Post by : od4jesus - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1805

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 16

It had been Captain Guy's original intention, after satisfyinghimself about the Auroras, to proceed through the Strait of Magellan,and up along the western coast of Patagonia; but information receivedat Tristan d'Acunha induced him to steer to the southward, in thehope of falling in with some small islands said to lie about theparallel of 60 degrees S., longitude 41 degrees 20' W. In the eventof his not discovering these lands, he designed, should the seasonprove favourable, to push on toward the pole. Accordingly, on thetwelfth of December, we made sail in that direction. On theeighteenth we found ourselves about the station indicated... Long Stories - Post by : BigBurt - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1880

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 15

ON the twelfth we made sail from Christmas Harbour retracing ourway to the westward, and leaving Marion's Island, one of Crozet'sgroup, on the larboard. We afterward passed Prince Edward's Island,leaving it also on our left, then, steering more to the northward,made, in fifteen days, the islands of Tristan d'Acunha, in latitude37 degrees 8' S, longitude 12 degrees 8' W. This group, now so well known, and which consists of threecircular islands, was first discovered by the Portuguese, and wasvisited afterward by the Dutch in 1643, and by the French in 1767.The three islands together form a triangle, and... Long Stories - Post by : pamela - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2699

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 14

THE _Jane Guy was a fine-looking topsail schooner of a hundredand eighty tons burden. She was unusually sharp in the bows, and on awind, in moderate weather, the fastest sailer I have ever seen. Herqualities, however, as a rough sea-boat, were not so good, and herdraught of water was by far too great for the trade to which she wasdestined. For this peculiar service, a larger vessel, and one of alight proportionate draught, is desirable- say a vessel of from threehundred to three hundred and fifty tons. She should be bark-rigged,and in other respects of a different construction from the usualSouth... Long Stories - Post by : PharmacyGirl - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1181

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 13

JULY 24. This morning saw us wonderfully recruited in spirits andstrength. Notwithstanding the perilous situation in which we werestill placed, ignorant of our position, although certainly at a greatdistance from land, without more food than would last us for afortnight even with great care, almost entirely without water, andfloating about at the mercy of every wind and wave on the merestwreck in the world, still the infinitely more terrible distresses anddangers from which we had so lately and so providentially beendelivered caused us to regard what we now endured as but little morethan an ordinary evil- so strictly comparative is either... Long Stories - Post by : Clement_Neo - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2719

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 12

I had for some time past, dwelt upon the prospect of our beingreduced to this last horrible extremity, and had secretly made up mymind to suffer death in any shape or under any circumstances ratherthan resort to such a course. Nor was this resolution in any degreeweakened by the present intensity of hunger under which I laboured.The proposition had not been heard by either Peters or Augustus. Itherefore took Parker aside; and mentally praying to God for power todissuade him from the horrible purpose he entertained, I expostulatedwith him for a long time, and in the most supplicating manner,begging him in... Long Stories - Post by : Luciano - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 3431

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 11

WE spent the remainder of the day in a condition of stupidlethargy, gazing after the retreating vessel until the darkness,hiding her from our sight, recalled us in some measure to our senses.The pangs of hunger and thirst then returned, absorbing all othercares and considerations. Nothing, however, could be done until themorning, and, securing ourselves as well as possible, we endeavouredto snatch a little repose. In this I succeeded beyond myexpectations, sleeping until my companions, who had not been sofortunate, aroused me at daybreak to renew our attempts at getting upprovisions from the hull. It was now a dead... Long Stories - Post by : blakew - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 3460

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 10

SHORTLY afterward an incident occurred which I am induced to lookupon as more intensely productive of emotion, as far more repletewith the extremes first of delight and then of horror, than even anyof the thousand chances which afterward befell me in nine long years,crowded with events of the most startling and, in many cases, of themost unconceived and unconceivable character. We were lying on thedeck near the companion-way, and debating the possibility of yetmaking our way into the storeroom, when, looking toward Augustus, wholay fronting myself, I perceived that he had become all at oncedeadly pale, and that his lips were... Long Stories - Post by : hoestonb - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 3702

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 9

LUCKILY, just before night, all four of us had lashed ourselvesfirmly to the fragments of the windlass, lying in this manner as flatupon the deck as possible. This precaution alone saved us fromdestruction. As it was, we were all more or less stunned by theimmense weight of water which tumbled upon us, and which did not rollfrom above us until we were nearly exhausted. As soon as I couldrecover breath, I called aloud to my companions. Augustus alonereplied, saying: "It is all over with us, and may God have mercy uponour souls!" By-and-by both the others were enabled to speak, whenthey... Long Stories - Post by : dockrue - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 1561

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 8

AS I viewed myself in a fragment of looking-glass which hung upin the cabin, and by the dim light of a kind of battle-lantern, I wasso impressed with a sense of vague awe at my appearance, and at therecollection of the terrific reality which I was thus representing,that I was seized with a violent tremour, and could scarcely summonresolution to go on with my part. It was necessary, however, to actwith decision, and Peters and myself went upon deck. We there found everything safe, and, keeping close to thebulwarks, the three of us crept to the cabin companion-way.... Long Stories - Post by : dengkane - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2601

Narrative Of A. Gordon Pym - Chapter 7

JULY 10. Spoke a brig from Rio, bound to Norfolk. Weather hazy,with a light baffling wind from the eastward. To-day Hartman Rogersdied, having been attacked on the eighth with spasms after drinking aglass of grog. This man was of the cook's party, and one upon whomPeters placed his main reliance. He told Augustus that he believedthe mate had poisoned him, and that he expected, if he did not be onthe look-out, his own turn would come shortly. There were now onlyhimself, Jones, and the cook belonging to his own gang- on the otherside there were five. He had spoken to Jones... Long Stories - Post by : Andrewww - Date : May 2011 - Author : Edgar Allan Poe - Read : 2437

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