A True History (2.1)

From this time our life in the whale became insupportable to me; I chafed against our imprisonment, and sought some device that would make escape possible. My first idea was to dig through the right side and make our way out, and we began the excavation. But when we had advanced as much as a thousand yards and accomplished nothing, we gave over digging, and decided to set fire to the forest, for this would kill the

whale, and if he should die we could easily get out. Accordingly, we set fire to it, beginning from the tail, and for seven days and as many nights he paid no attention to the burning. But on the eighth and ninth days we saw he felt ill—at least he opened his mouth more languidly, and when he did open it, shut it again on the instant. On the tenth and eleventh days he grew rigid, and began to smell.