Chapter 3 Summary

Kerouac opens his third chapter telling himself that if he doesn't move fast, he'll never move again, and so grabs a cab to get to the coast and away from the temptations of the city. The driver warns him that he must use his lamp with the danger of the dark, and Kerouac describes the sound of the violently crashing water as he walks along, unable to see where the cliffs stop and the decline to water begins. He follows his lamp one footstep at a time, and inner voices of fear and calm battle for his attention.

He describes the ferns and plants as horrifying things and believes that the incredible noise of the water and darkness of the foliage mean that the place doesn't want him there, like there is an ancient war being waged that he isn't welcome to witness...