190 
GREAT ABUNDANCE OF ANTELOPE, 
a lifetime of hesitation and unbelief, I ceased to liesitate, 
and believed that God was God and that I was but dust. 
The prayer of extreme peril, ^Lord, have mercy upon 
me, a miserable sinner,’ struggled in my troubled heart 
and nerved me to the desperate leap. 
* * * * 
^^It was over. The very edge of the fissure received 
me on its shelving side, bruised, panting, weak as an 
infant, and yet with whole bones and safety. It seemed 
as if the strength of a dozen men had rushed through 
my frame and thrown me bodily from the glaring ej'es 
of that lifted crest, leaving me with the cold drops upon 
my brow and a sickening feeling of overtaxed muscle 
throughout my limbs. 
^‘Slowly I regained my feet, rubbed iny bruised side 
with half-numbed hands, looked back for the now- 
absent snake, and at the friendly clump of grass, whose 
torn and drooping blades gave ample proof of the service 
they had rendered ; and, as I picked my way through 
the ‘bayonets’ and thick undergrowth, silently vowed 
never again to volunteer for an exploring and surveying 
expedition round the world.” 
This and similar scenes were alarming drawbacks to 
our pleasure while surveying the Anakirima group; but 
there were also others of a repaying nature. One day, 
for instance, we came to an island where several of us 
had fine sport shooting antelope while wood was being 
taken in at an opposite village. Old bust-proof and 
his master went into ecstasies over the abundance of 
game, and slew them right and left. We killed some- 
thing like a dozen, and then learned that they were the 
