186 Falls from a Cliff. [CHAP. x. 
the bird, missed it, lost his footing on the smooth rock, and 
fell over the precipice. His gun fell out of his hand and 
lodged across two rocks jutting out from the beach below. 
Edward fell upon his gun and smashed it to pieces; but it 
broke the force of the blow, and probably saved his life. 
A fall of at least forty feet on rocks and stones would cer- 
tainly have killed most men, or at least broken many of 
their bones. When afterward endeavoring to recall his 
feelings on the occasion, Edward said, ““I remember that 
on losing my balance my gun slipped from my hand, and 
I uttered the exclamation, ‘Oh God! Then my breath 
seemed to be cut by a strong wind which made me com- 
press my lips. I shut my eyes, and felt a strange-like sen- 
sation of a rushing sound in my ears; and then of coming, 
suddenly and violently, with a tremendous thud, upon the 
stony rock.” 
His breath was gone, and it was long before he could re- 
cover it. He was for a time utterly senseless. On slightly 
recovering consciousness, he thought he was under the in- 
fluence of a nightmare. He seemed to be in bed, and saw 
before him hideous faces, grinning and grimacing, like so 
many demons. He tried to shake them off, to shut them 
out. But no! the monsters were still there in all their hid- 
eousness, and still he was utterly helpless. 
At length two plow-men, who had been working in the 
adjoining field, and seen Edward fall over the cliff, came for- 
ward to its edge, and looked down upon him wedged among 
the rocks. ‘“Ye’re no dead yet, are ye?” said one of the 
men. Edward was unable to make any answer. “Fa is’t?” 
said the other man. ‘Ou! it’s that feel chiel* that’s aye 
gaun aboot wi’ his gun and his wallets!” The men looked 
down again in consternation, with eyes that seemed about 
to leap from their sockets. Edward at length began to feel 
about him. He felt himself wedged in as in a vise, between 
* Feel chiel, foolish fellow. 
