21. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 659-686

Two: America; 68-70

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They are proceeding at about a mile or two per day, and in August tell the crew that "from here to the Warpath, we'll have no time for gentle recreations, but must stand Watch and Watch for as far west as we may." They hire a ferryman named Mr. Ice to take them across the Yochio Geni [Youghgiogheny] River. While they cross, Ice tells them of how his family was massacred by Indians. On the other side of the river, his nephew holds out a coonskin hat, asking for sixpence for the narrative, which outrages Mason's sensibilities.

As they cross the Cheat River and near the Monongahela, they begin to lose axmen, and the Indians grow more alert. "Cheat is the Rubicon, Monongahela is the Styx." There is an interlude about a chicken that becomes mesmerized by the Line, and the mechanical duck is similarly detained by "A simple, immoderate Desire for the Orthogonal," as Professor Voam puts it. Euphrenia interrupts Cherrycoke's narrative to comment, "The Life of an Automaton cannot, however conceiv'd, strike anyone as enviable," revealing that when she was a student in Paris, she earned money by pretending to be a mechanical oboe player.

Dixon "becomes possess'd by the Horizon," a phenomenon that Crawfford has seen before: the fascination with the West. "You will hear of gold cities, marble cities, men that fly, women that fight, fantastickal creatures never dream'd in Europe, -- something always to take and draw you that way." He warns Mason that when "something requires an unpremeditated cessation to the Line, well, -- Mr. Dixon ... may not be inclin'd to stop." Mason is puzzled by the reference to stopping the Line, but then disaster strikes: Two axmen are killed when the tree they are cutting down falls on them. It is a morale blow, but they proceed.

When they cross the Monongahela, more Indians appear. "'It's like Covent Garden on Saturday Night,' Mason grumbles, '-- what are we become, -- a Show they all must see, or lose credibility among ... whatever Indians have for Fops?'" Crawfford advises them that if the sense trouble, the best thing to do is act insane: "These folk respect Madness. To them 'tis a holy state." Dixon and Mason trade quips about each other's credibility as a madman.

But there still remains the problem of crossing the Great Warpath. Mason argues that "only the Mightiest God may command" the stars, and that therefore, because their line is determined by the stars, they "deserve at least the one small respectful Courtesy, of allowing their Line to cross, without a Mark, your Nations' own Great Path." The Indian, Daniel, takes them out on the path and shows them signs that the Catawbas have been there and have placed poisoned splinters on the way. It unsettles both men, but "Mason, stubborn, wishes to go on." Dixon is concerned that the Indians "want to know how to stop this great invisible Thing that comes crawling Straight on over their Lands, devouring all in its Path." Mason and Dixon argue for eleven days, and "at some point exchange Positions, with Dixon now for pushing on, razzle-dazzling their way among the Indians at least as far as Ohio." Mason, now cautious, warns Dixon that the Indians have been eying his red coat "and you are but the minor inconvenience from which 'twill have to be remov'd."

But finally the Indians agree to let them cross the Warpath, and they are only forty miles short of the end of their survey. "Mason is Gothickally depressive, as Dixon is Westeringly manic." But as they are sighting the Ohio, they "are surpriz'd by a Party of Indians in elaborate Paint-Work." They recognize the Indian they know as Catfish, who "is packing a Lancaster Rifle, slung in a Scabbard upon his Saddle, with an inverted Pentacle upon the Stock, unmistakable in the Moon-light." They recognize the rifle, which Catfish says he took "From a White man I have wish'd to meet for a long time. He was a very bad man. Even White People hated him." Mason warns that "The Sign on it has evil Powers" and Catfish should pry it out of the stock. Dixon, "with a look of unsuccessfully feign'd innocence," asks what happened to the rifle's owner. Catfish shows him the scalp.

On November 5, "the Visto is completed, and the Indians depart, -- as if, as long as a Tree remain'd, so might they." As the company breaks up, the November snows arrive. On the way back east, they pick up Timothy Tox, the poet, and agree to accompany him back to Newark, "'So long as he doesn't bring the Golem,' stipulates Mason.... As 'twill prove, the closer they escort Mr. Tox to the Metropolis, the less Evidence for his Creature's existence will they be given, till at length they must believe that the Poet has either pass'd, like some Indian Youth at the Onset of Manhood, under the Protection of a potent tho' invisible Spirit, -- or gone mad."

19. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 597-622

Two: America; 61-63

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Capt. Shelby leads them to a mound that he insists must be seen at sunrise. Dixon is surprised to find that it is "a great Cone!" There is an entrance to the mound, which Shelby surmises was made by someone mistaking it for a pyramid and hoping to loot it, but there's nothing inside, "for Indians never built it." They find that it is made of layers of what Mason says "seem but different kinds of Refuse, -- dirt, ashes, crush'd seashells." Dixon says that things constructed with "alternating Layers of different Substances are ever a Sign of the intention to Accumulate Force, not necessarily Electrical, [but] suited to Forces more Tellurick in nature, more attun'd, that is, to Death and the slower Phenomena." Mason shakes his head dubiously. Dixon produces his compass, whose "Needle is swinging wildly and without pause, rocking about like a Weather-Vane, Dixon pretending to gaze at it knowingly."

Shelby informs them that the mound is "quite in the projected path of your Line" ad that when the "Visto" reaches that point "the Mound will become active, as an important staging-house, for ... whatever it may be." He also claims that the mound is "Welsh in origin."

The Cymry, Capt. Shelby explains, having first come to Britain from far to the East, -- some say Babylon, some Nineveh, -- their Fate ever to be Westering, -- America but one of their dwelling-places, the Ocean nearly irrelevant.

At the top of a hill, he points out "what seems to be the Ruin of a Wall," with a stone on which are some markings that he claims to be ogham. Asked what the markings say, he replies, "Well ... as nearly as I can make out, -- 'Astronomers Beware, Surveyors too. This means you.'" 

Back at camp, they fall into a discussion of the mystical, magnetic and telluric powers of the Line and the Visto, with Zhang persisting in his insistence that they invite Sha and on his belief that the planet itself is a living thing.

"Exactly as the creatures Microscopic upon your skin believe you to be a Planet. They may be arguing even now about whether or not you are a form of Life. Each time you step into a Tub, there comes upon them another universal Flood, with its Animalcular Noah, and another Reinhabiting, another Chain of Generations, to them how timeless, till the next Wash." 

Dixon wonders why "that Bottle isn't moving more briskly." But then he proceeds to twit Mason, as Mason had earlier done with his tale about being trapped in the missing eleven days, with his theory that the Earth is hollow. "Dixon on now like a tree-ful of ravens, with his Hollow Earth, an enthusiasm, Mason judges, too developed to be argued away without investing more time and patience than he possesses." Zhang joins in with the theory that China was once another planet, "embedded into the Earth thro' some very slow collision." When Dixon asks if the Jesuits believe this, Zhang replies, "Zarpazo does," and "beams and nods as if Dixon has just understood a Joke."

Captain Shelby foments another mystery, by asking "Where is the Third Surveyor?" The question puzzles Mason and Dixon, until Shelby proclaims, "you are Wise Men from the East, -- and ev'ryone knows they come in Threes!" The joke is laughed at, "Yet reported sightings of the Supernumerary Figure now begin to drift in. He is seen often in the Company of an Animal that most describe as a Dog, though a few are not so sure, for its Eyes glow as if all the Creature's Interior be a miniature of Hell."

On April 22 it snows, and as they sit around trying to warm themselves after a snowball fight, Dixon tells about his dream "of a City to the West of here, ... at some great Confluence of Rivers, or upon a Harbor in some inland Sea, -- a large City, -- busy, prosperous, sacred." But Mason insists that "Philadelphia is as sacred as anything over here will ever get." As they move west, away from civilization, they encounter more of "those Forces, which Cities upon Coasts have learn'd to push away, and leave to Back Inhabitants, -- the Lightning, the Winter, an Indifference to Pain, not to mention Fire, Blood, and so forth.... We trespass, each day ever more deeply, into a world of less restraint in ev'rything." He sees the western city Dixon has dreamed as "an Anti-City, -- some concentration of Fate, -- some final condition of Abandonment, -- wherein all are unredeemably alone and at Hazard as deep as their souls may bear."

Dixon scoffs at Mason's response to his dream, and says he knows that the dreams Mason has just before he awakes are good ones because he has listened to Mason talking in his sleep, though he doesn't understand the language Mason is speaking. Mason is appalled:  "I'm talking, another Language, in my Sleep, -- Dixon?" When Dixon shrugs this off, Mason says, "somebody else's soul, possessing my body, whilst I sleep, -- that's what it's about!" Dixon suggests that he have Zhang listen in to see if he can understand what Mason is saying, but Mason protests, "Too intimate." Dixon replies that "Half the Camp hears it. Some take it for Indians. Axmen say, if so, 'tis a Nation they have not yet encounter'd."

Then one of the men, known as Light-Fingers McFee, is caught meddling in the sea-chest of the Swedish axman, Stig. McFee responds by showing what he found: "an un-roll'd Sheet of Parchment cover'd with elaborate Seals and antiquated writing in some other Language, possibly Swedish." He runs away, pursued by Stig, until Capt. Shelby's co-officer, Joseph Warford, rounds them both up and asks about "the mysterious Parchment." Stig says it's in Latin, and that he is "here on behalf of certain Principals in Sweden, who believe that the Penns, being secretly creatures of Rome, took illegally the original Svånssen land 'pon which Philadelphia would later come to sit, -- and thus that the whole Metropolis has never ceas'd to belong, rightfully, to Sweden." Stig goes on to assert that he's not really Swedish,that his "people are of the North, Northern, and very White, so white in fact that you British to us appear as do Africans, to you." And that his people learn "to impersonate Swedes, -- fr our Nation much prefer to remain unmolested."

Settlements begin to thin out as they move further west, and when they complete another ten-mile segment, they turn east so the axmen can widen the Visto. Mason tells Zhang, "this unremitting Forest, -- it disturbs me. Far, far too many trees."

"Consider," replies the Geomancer, " -- Adam and Eve ate fruit from a Tree, and were enlighten'd. The Buddha sat beneath a Tree, and he was enlighten'd. Newton, also sitting beneath a Tree, was hit by a falling Apple, -- and he was enlighten'd. A quick overview would suggest that Trees produce Enlightenment. Trees are not the Problem. The Forest is not an Agent of Darkness. But it may be your Visto is.... Nothing will produce Bad History more directly nor brutally, than drawing a Line, in particular a Right Line, the very Shape of Contempt, through the midst of a People, -- to create thus a Distinction betwixt 'em, -- 'tis the first stroke, -- All esle will follow as if predestin'd, unto War and Devastation." 

Mason objects that the provinces being separated are too much alike to provoke conflict. "'Except for the Negro Slavery upon one side,' Dixon points out, less mildly than he might, 'and not the other.'"

On June 14 they reach the Allegheny Divide, the point at which rivers begin to run west. And they encounter a group of frontiersmen, "holding long Rifles with octagonal barrels, and packing a Pistol or two each. Even the horses are glaring, all but carnivorously, at the Party." But they are mollified by the offer of any of the timber being felled and by the possibility of joining the team chopping down the trees. And soon the party encounters Zepho Beck who, when the moon is full, turns into a were-beaver, chopping down trees with his teeth. "'Kastoranthropy,' Professor Voam shaking his head. "And haven't I seen it do things to a man. Tragick.'" Zapho's wife, Rhodie, agrees. "I love him, but Zepho's no Carpenter."

But she has an idea: She'll wager that Zepho can fell more trees than "that Swedish Axman Stig." But once the full moon has risen on August 5, something happens: "Mason looks at Dixon. Dixon looks at Mason. 'The Eclipse!' both cry at the same time. They have only now remember'd the Eclipse of the Moon, due to start later tonight. Zepho is 'morposing back to Human, and not enjoying it much."

Rhodie has some consolation: "There is a promising Lawsuit in this, if we can prove those Astronomers knew about it in advance." Mason and Dixon both vow innocence. But the incident reminds Zhang of a story....

14. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 422-459

Two: America; 42-46

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Unfortunately, the gambling didn't go well for Mason. Not only did he lose twenty pounds, but he also suffered the indignity of seeing Lord Lepton, "this runny-nos'd, titl'd Savage, tossing their Expeditionary Funds as airy Gratuities to the Slaves." Dixon proposes that they "take something worth twenty pounds" and decides on "a giant Bathing-tub with Feet, Bear Feet in fact, cast at the Lepton Foundry from local Iron." When Mason protests that the thing must weigh half a ton, Dixon reveals that "William Emerson taught things no one else in England knows. Secret techniques of mechanickal Art, rescued from the Library at Alexandria, circa 390 A.D." And to Mason's astonishment, "Dixon seems scarcely to touch the pond'rous Fixture" before one end levitates and the tub is standing "precariously balanced upon a sort of lip or Flange at its other end."

Dixon leaves Mason with the tub while he goes to "reconnoitre," but  soon Mason hears Dixon talking to Lady Lepton in the corridor. "Sighs. Fabric tearing. A merry Squeal." And then music, Handel's "O Ruddier than the Cherry," issuing from "the infamous Musickal Bodice, devis'd by an instrument-maker of London, wherein Quills sewn into its fastening, when this is pull'd apart," play a tune. Mason stands there fuming with the tub while Dixon and the Lady proceed with their dalliance.

But soon someone else appears, fascinated by the tub, which he says is a "quite astonishing Magnet" and "damn' nearly Earth's third Pole." He introduces himself as "Professor Voam, Philosophical Operator, just at present scampering from the King's Authorities." Voam is in possession of a "Torpedo" -- an electric eel, which electrocuted a man in Philadelphia who disregarded warnings not to touch it. Mason is irritated when Voam recognizes him as one of "The Astronomers! Dixon and Mason!" He tries to correct the order of billing, but Voam talks on, pointing out that the tub would be "just the Article to keep Felípe in," Felípe being the Torpedo.

Dixon returns, "emerging coprophagously a-grin from some false Panel in a Wall," and the three of them exit with the tub. In a corridor, Mason is confronted by the slave woman whom Dixon encountered the night before. He recognizes her, but can't believe his eyes. She tells him she was abducted by Malays and sold to the Jesuits, who sent her to a nunnery. "Whence, after my Novitiate, kind Captain D. and I came to our Rapprochement." He admits that he knows who she is -- although the name Austra is not yet mentioned -- but she disappears around a corner.

They enter a room where they find a rifle suspended over the fireplace, and where Wade LeSpark has been resting on a couch. They talk about the rifle, which has an inverted silver five-pointed star on its stock that Mason has seen before, in Lancaster, "upon the Sign of the Dutch Rifle," a tavern. Dixon says they could have taken the rifle instead of the tub, but Mason protests that the silver pentacle means the rifle is cursed. And LeSpark counsels that "taking the Rifle will be far more dangerous, than taking the Tub."

Finally they get the tub outside "where they transfer Tub and Torpedo to a Conestoga Waggon but lately unloaded, with fresh Horses hitch'd up." Only then does Mason ask Dixon, "Did it seem like Austra to you?" And they agree that it couldn't have been. And Voam begins to tell them about the Torpedo, which he says is not an eel but a ray or a skate, native to Surinam, and is also known as "El Peligroso." The professor has been doing a traveling show with the Torpedo, and when they stop at an inn for one, he quickly attracts an audience. He demonstrates the eel's electrical powers by lighting a cigar from the giant spark it produces, but it has a peculiar effect on Mason, who looks directly into the spark and sees "at the heart of the Electrick Fire, beyond color, beyond even Shape, an Aperture into another Dispensation of Space, yea and Time, than what Astronomers and Surveyors are us'd to working with.... Throughout, the Creature in the Tank regarded me with a personal stare, as of a Stranger claiming to know me from some distant, no longer accessible Shore."

Abandoning the Tub, the Professor builds a larger circular Tank, and mounts it upon wheels, so that daily it may be situated directly upon the Line. Felípe then slowly rotates until his head is pointing north. Presently, he has become the camp Compass, as often consulted as the Thermometer or the Clock.

At the end of February they are in Newark when word comes that Maskelyne has been made Astronomer Royal. Mason tries to put on a good face at the news, though for Dixon, "Mason attempting to be chirpy is less easy to bear than Mason in blackest Melancholy." He soon admits that Maskelyne "is unworthy, damn him! to succeed James Bradley." Mason's own aspirations for the post become obvious, and Dixon suggests, "Were I thee, I should make him feel guilty ev'ry change I got. Perhaps he doubts his own Worthiness." Which amuses Mason: "Why bless me, Sir, -- you are a Jesuit, after all. Sinister Alfonso, move aside, -- sheathe that Stiletto, wicked Giuseppe, -- here is the true Italian Art."

In April they begin the West Line and bid farewell to the Harland farm that has been their base of operations. Before they leave, they encounter a stranger named Jonas Everybeet who is fascinated by "the chunk of Rose Quartz where cross the Latitude of the south Edge of Philadelphia, and the Longitude of the Post Mark'd West, -- the single Point to which all work upon the West Line (and its eastward Protraction to the Delaware Short) will finally refer." Everybeet gazes into the crystal and when Mason looks into it he sees a face with "Huge, dark Eyes." Everybeet joins the party as a specialist in magnetic fields, anomalies in which he can discover.

Mason and Dixon are also dogged by a "Body-jobber" named O'Rooty, who specializes in finding workers for the crew, including some Swedish axmen, and a "'Developer,' or Projector of Land-Schemes," whom Dixon suggests they kill. The first day of surveying the West Line is April 5, and in less than a week they have found that the line runs through the house of a Rhys Price, who is away but whose wife has them survey right through the house while she marks the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland within it. When her husband shows up, she announces to him that they were married in Pennsylvania, "So from now on, when I am upon this side of the House, I am in Maryland, legally not ;your wife, and no longer subject to your Authority." Advised that he will have to pay taxes to both Pennsylvania and Maryland, Price decides to put; the house on rollers and move it into one state or the other. And since Maryland is downhill and they will no longer be married there, he chooses Maryland.

Now the mechanical duck makes a return, showing up when Mason makes a disparaging remark about it as a "French toy." The duck steals his hat and is persuaded to return it only when Allègre, who seems to have joined the expedition, persuades it. We also have a glimpse of the crew, including Moses Barnes, the overseer of the axmen, and Nathanael McClean, a handsome young man working during his summer break from college in Williamsburg.