Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
disinfecting of town sewage, and never was beaten before;
but this whale butchery and its inconceivable
stench produced such irrepressible vomiting that
I was compelled to run at full speed up the nearest
hill-slope, or should have fallen in fainting
helplessness into the midst of the surrounding horrors.
My humiliation was rendered the more crushing
by the ladies remaining behind after I had fled.
They had smelling bottles; I had none. The
stink was of an exquisitely sickening character.
There may be stronger stinks in some corners of
the universe, but an honest ordinary stink has
usually some degree of ammoniacal or sulphurous
pungency of stimulating property; here there was
none. The ammoniacal vapours were all saponified
by the blubbery exhalations, and slimy, greasy,
oleaginous, mucoid rottenness alone remained.
The survival of the men who were slashing at
the dreadful mass, and partly buried within it—one
emerging just as we landed—was the most
surprising of all. If Dante could have visited
Vadsö this morning, he would add another chapter
to his ‘Inferno,’ presenting the souls of the
wickedest of wicked sinners suffering the final
climax of damnation by eternally peeling blubber
from putrid whales, and carving the carcass into
lumps for the manufacture of guano.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
