the same
precipice. To reach to its top, more than a dozen ladders would be
required--each between twenty and thirty feet in length. The labour of
making these ladders, with such tools as they had, might be looked upon
as something stupendous--sufficient, you might suppose, to deter them
from the task. But you must endeavour to realise the situation in which
they were placed--with no other hope of being delivered from their
mountain prison--and with this idea in your mind, you will comprehend
why they should have been willing to undertake even a far greater
labour. Of course, they did not expect to complete it in a day, neither
in a week, nor in a month: for they well knew that it would take several
months to make the number of ladders that would be required. And then
there would be the additional labour of getting each into its place: as
all, after the first one, would have to be carried up the cliff to the
ledge for which it should be constructed. Indeed, to raise ladders of
thirty feet in the manner contemplated, would seem an impossibility--
that is, for such strength or mechanism as they could command.

And so it might have proved, had they intended to make these ladders of
the ordinary weight. But they foresaw this difficulty, and hoped to get
over it by making them of the very lightest kind--something that would
just carry the weight of a man.

Becoming more than half satisfied that at this point the precipice might
be scaled in the manner contemplated, they remained upon the ground in
order to give it a thorough examination. That done, they intended to
make the complete circuit of the valley, and ascertain whether there
might not be some other place still easier of ascent.

The point where they had halted was behind the tract of heavily-timbered
forest--of which Caspar had spoken, and which up to this time none of
them had entered. Between the trees and the cliff they were now
contemplating, there was a narrow strip of ground destitute of timber;
and covered with a shingle of loose stones which had fallen from the
mountain above. Several boulders of large dimensions rested upon the
ground, at short distances apart; and there was one of a pillar-shape
that stood some twenty-feet high, while it was only about five or six in
diameter. It bore a sort of rude resemblance to an obelisk; and one
might easily have fancied that the hand of man had accomplished its
erection. For all that, it was a mere freak