X.] LOST IN THE BUSH. 219 



succumb to exhaustion and exposure, for the night was bitterl}' 

 cold. 



It was surmised that he would most probably attempt to make 

 his way across to the inlet — a distance of about two miles — as in- 

 land the bush was less thick, and if he could succeed in reaching 

 the cliff he would be within sight of the ship, and would l3e able 

 to make signals. Accordingly a search party of six men, provided 

 with lanterns and ropes, started to scale the chff, which was about 

 400 feet in height. It was a task requiring all the nerve of an 

 experienced cHmber. Dangerous enough by day, it was ten times 

 more so by the uncertain light aftbrded by the lanterns, and it was 

 with the keenest anxiety that we watched the specks of light 

 slowly workmg up the face of the precipice before us. Half way 

 they came to a part so difficult as to be almost insurmountable, 

 and here an accident occurred to one of the party which was 

 within an ace of proving fatal. While springing on to a higher 

 ledge he missed his footing and slipped back, and had it not been 

 for the pluck and presence of mind of one of his comrades, who, 

 although himself on a most insecure foothold, leant forward and 

 managed to check his descent, notliuig could have saved Imn.^ 

 At length, after what seemed an interminable time, they reached 

 the summit, and the Kghts immediately disappeared. 



It was now early morning, and we were discussing the ad- 

 \isability of startmg with another party or of waiting until day- 

 light, when we noticed a liglit at the edge of the cliff" farther up 

 the inlet. It had, however, been sighted some time previously 

 from the ship, and a boat arrived almost immediately afterwards 

 with another party to aid in the search. Our anxiety as to our 

 friend's whereabouts was now at an end, but getting at him was 

 another affah, for the cliffs at this spot were almost perpendicular, 

 and we were forced to go some distance farther before finding a 



1 The name of the man who so pliickilj' risked his life deserves to be recorded. 

 Samuel Scarff, who at a later period of the voyage became boatswain, was a universal 

 favourite, and when in the following year he succumbed to the effects of the climate 

 during oui' cruise to I^ew Guinea, his loss was very keenly felt by all of us. 



