PERILOUS SITUATION. 279 



at the moment aware of it, was, on moving onwards, 

 tripped up, and precipitated over the rock/where he 

 hung suspended. He, too, as in the preceding case, 

 had no companion; and, to add to his misfortune, 

 darkness was at hand, leaving little prospect of his 

 being discovered before morning. In vain he exerted 

 himself to bend upwards, so as to reach the noose or 

 grapple the rock. After a few fruitless efforts, his 

 strength was exhausted, and in this dreadful situa- 

 tion, expecting moreover, that the noose might give 

 way every instant, did he pass a long night. At 

 early dawn, by good fortune, his shouts were heard 

 by a neighbour, who rescued him from his perilous 

 suspension*. 



The last we shall relate, terminated in a more 

 awful manner. A father and two sons were out 

 together, and, having firmly attached their rope at 

 the summit of a precipice, descended, on their usual 

 occupation. Having collected as many birds and 

 eggs as they could carry, they were all three ascend- 

 ing by the rope, the eldest of the sons first, his 

 brother, a fathom or two below him; and the father 

 following last. They had made considerable pro- 

 gress, when the elder son, looking upwards, perceived 

 the strands of the rope grinding against a sharp 

 edge of rock, and gradually giving way. He imme- 

 diately reported the alarming fact. " Will it hold 

 together till we can gain the summit?" asked the 

 father. " It will not hold another minute," was the 

 reply ; " our triple weight is loosening it rapidly !" 

 " Will it hold one ?" said the father. " It is as much 

 as it can do," replied the son, " even that is but 



* Buchanan's Hebrides. 



