rrr.;: 



I love's chmhe-rt J firm the top of the ladder, by the cleft in the face of 

 the rrck, no: trusting his weight to the old and rotten line. Pie carried 

 a small cord round his middle, and it was fearful to see the cool, steady 

 war in which he climbed, where a single loose stone, or false hold, must 

 have sent him i 5 cvn into the abyss: however, he partially scrambled 

 away, till at length we heard him halloo from under the rock ** all right" 

 These nesroes use their feet exactly like monkeys, grasping with them 

 everv projection, almost as firmly as with their hands. The line which 

 he carried up was made fast above, and up it we all four " shinned" in 

 succession. It was, joking apart, awful work. In several places the 

 ridse ran to an edre not a foot broad, and I could as I held on, half 

 sitting, half kneeling, across the ridge, have kicked my right shoe down 

 to the plain on one side, and my left into the bottom of the ravine on the 

 other. The only thing which surprised me, was my own steadiness and 

 freedom from all giddiness. I had been nervous in mounting the ravine 

 in the morcins, but gradually I got so excited and determined to 

 succeed, that I could look down that dizzy height without the smallest 

 sensation of swimming in the head; nevertheless, I held uncommonly 

 hard, and felt very well satisfied when I was safe under the neck, and 

 a more extraordinary situation I never was in. The head, which is an 

 enormous mass of rock, about thirty-five feet in height, overhangs its 

 base many feet on every side. A ledge of tolerably level rock, runs 

 round three sides of the base, about six feet in width, bounded every 

 where by the abrupt edge of the precipice, except in the spot where it is 

 joined by the ridge, up which we climbed. In one spot, the head, 

 though overhanging its base several feet, reaches only perpendicularly 

 over the edge of the precipice, and most fortunately it was at the very 

 spot where we mounted. Here it was that we reckoned on getting up ; 

 a communication being established with the shoulder by a double line of 

 ropes, we proceeded to get up the necessary materials, Lloyd's portable 

 additional coils of rope, crowbars, &c. But now the question, and a 

 puzzler too, was, how to get the ladder up against the rock. Lloyd had 

 prepared some iron arrows, with thongs, to fire over, and having got up 

 a gun, he made a line fast round his body, which we all held on, and 

 going over the edge of the precipice on the opposite side, he leaned back 

 against the line, and fired over the least projecting part. Had the line 

 broken, he would have fallen at least 1800 feet Twice this failed, and 

 then he had recourse to large stone, with a lead line, which swung diago- 

 nally, and seemed to be a feasible plan. Several times he made beautifu 

 heaves, but the provoking line would not catch, and away went the stone 



