CHAP. XI. ] Drives out the Foxes. 205 
which the foxes were. But how could I dislodge them to 
get at that point? The space on which we stood was only 
from about two feet and a half to one foot broad, and 
about nine feet long, projecting to some distance over the 
cliff beneath. To have shot them, and rid myself of their 
presence in that fashion, was, from my position, utterly im- 
possible. 
“At length a thought struck me, and, with the view of 
putting it in execution, I laid down my gun close to the 
back of the shelving, out of harm’s way; then crouching 
down with my feet toward my shaggy friends, who kept 
up a constant chattering of their teeth during the whole 
time, and pushing myself backward until I reached the 
nearest, I gave him a kick with my foot on the hind-quar- 
ters, which produced the desired effect; for I had no soon- 
er done so than I felt first the feet of one, and then of the 
other, passing lightly along my back, and, before I had 
time to lift up my head, they had bolted up the precipice, 
and disappeared. 
“T was now master of the place, though not of the situa- 
tion; On looking over the cliff, I found that there was no 
way of getting down but by leaping into a crevice of the 
rocks, more than eight feet beneath me, and in a slanting 
direction from where I was. This was a doleful discovery, 
but there was no help now; so, taking off my coat, shot- 
belt, and powder-flask, that I might be so much the lighter, 
and have the free use of my arms, I threw them down to 
the bottom of the rock. I next bound the gun to my back, 
having previously emptied it of its contents. I then crawled 
over the edge of the rock, and hung dangling in the air for 
a little, like the pendulum of a clock. I would have given 
all that I ever possessed in the world to have been again in 
the foxes’ den, stinking though it was. For then, and not 
till then, did I discover, to my sorrow, that a rugged por- 
tion of a rock projected over the entrance to the aperture 
to which I wished to descend, and that, in leaping, I would 
