A DISAGREEABLE ALTERNATIVE. 
187 
that also fail me I should slide helplessly into the 
ragged and apparently-fatliomless fissure, which was 
now just midway between me and the bed of rocks, 
which formed one of its broken sides. There was no 
time to ihink^ either, for at any moment the roots might 
draw, and then — what ? 
“The rocky bed already alluded to was now some four 
feet lower than my feet, and about five or six feet to 
the right. It was full of holes, and' the sharp-pointed 
rocks peered up here and there through a rank under- 
growth in which a thousand snakes might have coiled 
themselves without being seen ; and, as we had already 
killed one most villanous-looking rascal while sunning 
himself in a similar locality, I shuddered at the idea of 
springing bodily over the yawning fissure into the un- 
inviting berth, whose only recommendation was that 
it was level, and whose drawbacks were so numerous. 
Besides, I was not certain but that I might fall short in 
my spring and drop viio the fissure instead of upon its 
fur edge; for, having no foothold to spring from, I 
should have to cast myself bodily from the side of the 
mountain by means of my elbows, chest, knees, and, 
subsequently, my hands and feet. It was about the 
tightest place that I can look back upon during that 
eventful cruise, and as I look back I shuddei*. 
“That bodily leap was a most disagreeable alternative; 
but I had either to accomplish it or finally slip, from 
sheer exhaustion or the uprooting of the grass, into the 
fissure that was under me. 
“ My first thought was to tax the strength of the grass 
as little as possible; and, to that end, I let the box slip 
