222 MAKES THE LEAP. CHAP. XL 



would require to go beyond it in order to reach the 

 landing underneath. To accomplish such a feat 

 seemed to me impossible. 



" I hung thus, being afraid to make the leap, though 

 up I could not get, until my hands began to give 

 way ; when, mustering all my remaining strength, 

 and having taken the last swing with some force, I 

 let go my hold to abide by the dreadful alternative, 

 for I had little hope of gaining the desired haven. 

 Most fortunately, however, I did gain it, but, in doing 

 so, I received a severe blow on the left temple from 

 the rock I had so much dreaded. I also lost my 

 cap, which fell off when my head struck the rock. 

 From this cavity or chink, which was the worst that 

 I ever had to deal with, I managed, by leaping and 

 swinging from one rocky shelf and cavity to another, 

 and by crawling from crag to crag, alternately, as 

 circumstances required it, to reach a huge stone, 

 which evidently had once formed a part of the higher 

 portion of the cliff, but had, at a bygone period, by 

 some means or other, become detached from it, and on 

 rolling down had found a temporary resting-place 

 there, 



" Beyond this stone, I found my leaping was at an 

 end, for I had now arrived at the top of a rather 

 rough and almost perpendicular declivity, fully fifty 

 feet from the bottom, and bounded on both sides b} 

 steep and overhanging cliffs. Before me was the sea, 

 behind and above me was an insurmountable barrier 



