222 MAKES THE LEAP. CHAP. xr. 



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 by 

 steep and overhanging cliffs. Before me was the sea, 

 behind and above me was an insurmountable barrier 



