44 pioneer life; or, 



On Monday morning we commenced our final 

 week's work of surveying, and completed it i as we 

 had anticipated, on Saturday afternoon, at a place 

 called Pine Island. We then started in pairs f jr our 

 block-house. For a mile along the creek the rocks 

 rose perpendicularly to the height of one, two and 

 three hundred feet, and we were compelled to go two 

 miles to the northward of our direct route. We then 

 descended a sort of gully, picking our way along the 

 rugged and broken rock, until we arrived within 

 thirty feet of the bottom, when a perpendicular preci- 

 pice presented itself. We crawled down the face of 

 this by the crevices in its surface, until we reached a 

 a ledge about fifteen feet from the bottom. On the 

 brow of this grew a beech sapling, and near it an 

 iron-wood about ten feet high, with limbs nearly to 

 the ground. My companion, John Strawbridge pro- 

 posed to cut down the iron-wood sapling and trim off 

 the limbs, leaving only a hook at the large end which 

 we could attach to the beech sapling, to assist us 

 down the rocks. We accordingly prepared our hook, 

 when we disagreed as to who should first make the 

 perilous descent. Strawbridge finally broke a couple 

 of sticks and presented them to me, to draw one, and 

 whoever had the longest should take the lead. I 

 drew the longest cut, and prepared to descend. As 

 I was passing down the pole, Strawbridge, who was 

 holding the upper end of the pole, so that it should 

 not slip off the beech sapling, looked over the brow 

 of the ledge and saw a large rattle-snake coiled up 

 m the exact spot where I would alight. He instantly 



