240 ONCE MORE OX SOLID GROUND. 



beneath to the clouds above, without outward or 

 visible sign of fret or fissure, as far as I could 

 judge, on which even a chamois could rest its hoof ; 

 for the width of whatever ledge it might have was 

 diminished, by the perspective view we had of it, 

 to Euclid's true definition of a mathematical line 

 viz., length without breadth. At this distance of 

 time I have no very clear recollection of the mode 

 of our exit, and cannot speak positively as to 

 whether we skirted any part of this perilous wall 

 of the Titans, or crept up through the corner of 

 the curve by some fissure leading to the summit. 

 I have, however, a very clear and agreeable recol- 

 lection of the moment when I came in contact 

 with a tough bough, which I welcomed and grasped 

 as I would have welcomed and grasped the hand 

 of the dearest friend I had upon earth, and by the 

 help of which I in a very few more seconds 

 scrambled up, and set my foot once more, without 

 fear of slips or sliding, on a rough heathery surface, 

 forming the bed of a ravine, which soon led us to 

 an upland plateau, on which I stood as in tho 

 garden of Paradise." 



