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.