THE riTFALL RELEASE. 



301! 



and held his head forcibly down, while with my right hand, 

 and by the aid of a stick that I picked up, I scraped away 

 the soil on one side of the pit so that it became in a degree 

 an inclined plane; with my feet I also so far leveled the 

 wall that it formed a kind of platform. This matter being 

 arranged, I laid myself on my back on the edge of the pit and 

 pulled stoutly at the bridle. The horse understood me, for 

 with a violent jerk of his body he sprang on to the platform, 

 and next to the inclined plane, where for a moment he near- 

 ly lost his equilibrium, but at last successfully cleared the 

 abyss. 



The poor brute was so sensible of the danger he had es- 

 caped that, on finding himself on firm ground, he uttered a 

 wild, half-suppressed neighing, or rather scream, and con- 

 tinued to tremble violently for several minutes. On examin- 

 ing him, I found he had sustained no farther injury than 

 the loss of a few inches of skin and a quantity of hair. As 



Q 



