Expedition to John Day River 183 



ward into the gorge when by a violent struggle in 

 mid-air I managed to throw my elbows on the 

 ledge; and I hung there until I could find a foot- 

 hold and pull myself out onto solid rock. 



Another time I was climbing a steep slope which 

 was capped by a perpendicular ledge. I thought, 

 however, that I could climb over it to the top of a 

 ridge that ran back into the hills, where I could find 

 a way down. For understand, we could never go 

 back the way we had come, as we could not relax 

 our muscles sufficiently to enable us to find with the 

 tips of our toes the niches by which we had climbed 

 up. So we had to be sure that we could get to the 

 top and find a way down from there. On this oc- 

 casion I was so busy searching the face of the rock 

 for fossils that I worked for hours, climbing up 

 niche after niche, without noticing very much where 

 I was going, until chancing to look upward, I dis- 

 covered that an escarpment of the top ledge leaned 

 over the slope that I was scaling, rendering it im- 

 possible for me to reach the top. I fully expected 

 that I should have to cut out a place to sit in and 

 wait until the boys missed me and looked for me. 

 They could then reach the top of the ledge by some 

 other way, and lower a rope to me. But I was de- 

 lighted to find at last a perpendicular seam in the 

 rocky ledge, which proved wide enough to admit my 

 body. So I climbed to the top as a man climbs a 



