k within me. To render him any assistance was impossible; in a few
minutes he would be dashed to pieces. I should have been horrified to
see any human being in so fearful a predicament; but he was my friend,
the first I had ever possessed. I thought, also, of the grief the news
of his death would cause my sweet sister Clarice. How should I be able
to tell her of it? These thoughts flashed across my mind.

Close to the very edge of the precipice, a mass of jagged rock stood
out. Already Manley had disappeared, and the snow went thundering down.
For a moment I felt inclined to let myself glide down also. Just then I
heard a voice; it was Manley shouting out to us not to attempt to come
to his rescue. When about to be hurled over the edge of the precipice,
he had clutched the jutting rock, and held on for his life, while the
snow went rushing by under his feet. He waited until it had ceased to
fall, and then, clutching the sides of the rock, by a powerful effort
slowly worked himself upward, until at last he gained the firmer part of
the snow. Still, he several times cried out to us not to attempt to join
him, lest our united weight might again set the mass in motion.

[Illustration: A PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.]

"I have indeed been mercifully preserved," he said, when, having
rejoined us, we congratulated him on his escape. "I pray that we may
succeed in getting down into the valley, although at present I see no
path open to us."

After climbing some way, we found a gap in the rocks, which, although
full of snow, afforded a sufficiently firm footing to enable us to get
on without much difficulty. From thence, although the descent was not
without danger, we succeeded in reaching a broad ledge free from snow.
Here some bushes grew, of sufficient size to afford us fuel; and
sheltered in the hollow of a rock, we passed the night in tolerable
comfort.

On the return of day we recommenced our search for a practicable way
down the mountain; and happily finding it, we at length reached one of
the lower heights of the wide valley I have mentioned. I call it a
valley, but it was rather a large basin, surrounded, as far as the eye
could reach, by lofty mountains.

"Now we are here, how are we ever to get out again?" I asked Manley.

"Where those rivers find an outlet, so probably shall we," he answered.
"There can be no doubt that two or perhaps more canons lead into this
basin,--some to the north and east, so far as I can judge,