r the other: no bone was broken; but I found them
painful in many places. Still clinging to my hold, on which I felt my
whole chance of escape from being plunged into the gulf below depended,
I, for some time, and by many useless efforts, attempted to get my knees
upon the ledge of rock; my position was becoming every minute more
painful, and I less able to retain it; my arms were benumbed, and my
hands powerless, from being so long above my head. I dared not pull
myself up, for the falling of stones and earth, when I first made the
attempt, gave fearful note of the feeble tenure by which I was
sustained. My left hand began to cramp; the fear of instant annihilation
seized me; I could hold by it no longer. I grasped still more firmly by
my right, and, stretching my left, found relief, by moving it gently
about, to restore the circulation. I dared not bring it down, lest the
other had failed; and, stretching farther than I had yet done, it
touched something hard and erect; it was the stem of a stoutish bush,
that grew out of a crevice in the rock. A ray of hope darted through my
mind. I grasped it, still keeping my first hold, and got my knees on the
ledge. To stand on my feet was now an easy effort. The joy of that
movement, in the midst of my sufferings and despair, I shall never
forget. I felt as if snatched from the roaring abyss. My nearly
exhausted strength began to be renewed; I felt comparative comfort; yet
I would have given all I possessed for my deliverance; my escape was not
yet more certain, or my situation much less perilous. I found that I
still held clutched in my right hand the bush that had given way, and
been the cause of my disaster; but how far I had fallen, or at what part
of the hideous chasm I had been mercifully arrested, I had no means to
ascertain; for I stood, like a Russian peasant ready to receive the
knout, with my face to the wall of rocks. I looked to the right side and
to the left; all was the most impenetrable darkness. My arms, now that
the weight of my body was taken from them, felt if possible more
benumbed. I groped with my feet as far as I could, and found my standing
very narrow, but inclining rather into than from the rock. I loosened
one hand, and with an effort, that I thought would have dislocated my
shoulder, brought it to my side. The tingling sensation I felt from the
returning circulation, almost made me cry aloud. As I found that I still
stood firm, I undid the grasp of my