The rest of them bore also
      some little resemblance to alphabetical characters, and Peters
      was willing, at all events, to adopt the idle opinion that they
      were really such. I convinced him of his error, finally, by
      directing his attention to the floor of the fissure, where, among
      the powder, we picked up, piece by piece, several large flakes of
      the marl, which had evidently been broken off by some convulsion
      from the surface where the indentures were found, and which had
      projecting points exactly fitting the indentures; thus proving
      them to have been the work of nature. After satisfying ourselves that these singular caverns afforded
      us no means of escape from our prison, we made our way back,
      dejected and dispirited, to the summit of the hill. Nothing worth
      mentioning occurred during the next twenty-four hours, except
      that, in examining the ground to the eastward of the third chasm,
      we found two triangular holes of great depth, and also with black
      granite sides. Into these holes we did not think it worth while
      to attempt descending, as they had the appearance of mere natural
      wells, without outlet. They were each about twenty yards in
      circumference, and their shape, as well as relative position in
      regard to the third chasm, is shown in figure 5. {image}




CHAPTER 24


      On the twentieth of the month, finding it altogether impossible
      to subsist any longer upon the filberts, the use of which
      occasioned us the most excruciating torment, we resolved to make
      a desperate attempt at descending the southern declivity of the
      hill. The face of the precipice was here of the softest species
      of soapstone, although nearly perpendicular throughout its whole
      extent (a depth of a hundred and fifty feet at the least), and in
      many places even overarching. After a long search we discovered a
      narrow ledge about twenty feet below the brink of the gulf; upon
      this Peters contrived to leap, with what assistance I could
      render him by means of our pocket-handkerchiefs tied together. With somewhat more difficulty I also got down; and we then saw
      the possibility of descending the whole way by the process in
      which we had clambered up from the chasm when we had been buried
      by the fall of the hill—that is, by cutting steps in the face of
      the soapstone with our knives. The extreme hazard of the attempt
      can scarcely be conceived; but, as there was no other resource,
      we determined to undertake it. Upon the ledge where we stood there grew some filbert-bushes; and
      to one of these we made fast an end of our rope of handkerchiefs. The other end being tied round Peters’ waist, I lowered him down
      over the edge of the precipice until the handkerchiefs were
      stretched tight. He now proceeded to dig a deep hole in the
      soapstone (as far in as eight or ten inches), sloping away the
      rock above to the height of a foot, or thereabout, so as to allow
      of his driving, with the butt of a pistol, a tolerably strong peg
      into the levelled surface. I then drew him up for about four
      feet, when he made a hole similar to the one below, driving in a
      peg as before, and having thus a resting-place for both feet and
      hands. I now unfastened the handkerchiefs from the bush, throwing
      him the end, which he tied to the peg in the uppermost hole,
      letting himself down gently to a station about three feet lower
      than he had yet been that is, to the full extent of the
      handkerchiefs. Here he dug another hole, and drove another peg. He then drew himself up, so as to rest his feet in the hole just
      cut, taking hold with his hands upon the peg in the one above. It
      was now necessary to untie the handkerchiefs from the topmost
      peg, with the view of fastening them to the second; and here he
      found that an error had been committed in cutting the holes at so
      great a distance apart. However, after one or two unsuccessful
      and dangerous attempts at reaching the knot (having to hold on
      with his left hand while he labored to undo the fastening with
      his right), he at length cut the string, leaving six inches of it
      affixed to the peg. Tying the handkerchiefs now to the second
      peg, he descended to a station below the third, taking care not
      to go too far down. By these means (means which I should never
      have conceived of myself, and for which we were indebted
      altogether to Peters’ ingenuity and resolution) my companion
      finally succeeded, with the occasional aid of projections in the
      cliff, in reaching the bottom without accident. It was some time before I could summon sufficient resolution to
      follow him; but I did at length attempt it. Peters had taken off
      his shirt before descending, and this, with my own, formed the
      rope necessary for the adventure. After throwing down the musket
      found in the chasm, I fastened this rope to the bushes, and let
      myself down rapidly, striving, by the vigor of my movements, to
      banish the trepidation which I could overcome in no other manner. This answered sufficiently well for the first four or five steps;
      but presently I found my imagination growing terribly excited by
      thoughts of the vast depths yet to be descended, and the
      precarious nature of the pegs and soapstone holes which were my
      only support. It was in vain I endeavored to banish these
      reflections, and to keep my eyes steadily bent upon the flat
      surface of the cliff before me. The more earnestly I struggled
      _not to think,_the more intensely vivid became my conceptions,
      and the more horribly distinct. At length arrived that crisis of
      fancy, so fearful in all similar cases, the crisis in which we
      began to anticipate the feelings with which we _shall_fall—to
      picture to ourselves the sickness, and dizziness, and the last
      struggle, and the half swoon, and the final bitterness of the
      rushing and headlong descent. And now I found these fancies
      creating their own realities, and all imagined horrors crowding
      upon me in fact. I felt my knees strike violently together, while
      my fingers were gradually but certainly relaxing their grasp. There was a ringing in my ears, and I said, “This is my knell of
      death!” And now I was consumed with the irrepressible desire of
      looking below. I could not, I would not, confine my glances to
      the cliff; and, with a wild, indefinable emotion, half of horror,
      half of a relieved oppression, I threw my vision far down into
      the abyss.