SLOWLY AND SURELY. 239 



to an almost insurmountable unwillingness to re- 

 cede, for the reasons above mentioned, and the 

 chance that, as it could not well be worse, the re- 

 mainder might possibly be better, I decided on 

 going on, estimating every additional inch as a 

 valuable accession of space, with a secret proviso, 

 however, in my own mind, that nothing on earth 

 should induce me to return the same way, notwith- 

 standing the declaration of the. guides, that they 

 knew of no other line, unless a bridge, which was 

 impassable yesterday, had been made passable to- 

 day, and we knew the people were at work, for a 

 man had gone before us with an axe over his 

 shoulder. 



"Thus persevering with the speed of a tortoise or 

 a sloth, these solemn slow movements of hand and 

 foot forcibly reminding me of that cautious animal, 

 we at last drew near to a more acute point in the 

 curve of this gaunt amphitheatre, where it bent 

 forward towards the river, and consequently we 

 were more immediately fronted by the precipice 

 forming the continuation of that on which we stood. 

 By keeping my head obliquely turned inwards, I 

 had hitherto in great measure avoided more visual 

 communication than I wished with the bird's-eye 

 prospect below ; but there was no possibility of ex- 

 cluding the smooth bare frontage of rock right 

 overhead. There it reared itself from the clods 



