became convinced that they were marks made
by a human foot--the scratches of a strong-soled shoe. Beyond a doubt,
_the cliff had been scaled_!

My first impulse was to communicate the discovery to my companions; but
I forbore for a while--in order to satisfy myself that the person who
had made this daring attempt had actually succeeded in reaching the
summit.

Twilight was on, and I could get only an indistinct view of the gorge at
its upper part; but I saw enough to convince me that the attempt had
been successful.

What bold fellow had ventured this? and with what object? were the
questions I naturally asked myself.

Vague recollections were stirring within me; presently they grew more
distinct, and all at once I was able to answer both the interrogatories
I had put. I knew the man who had climbed that cliff. I only wondered
I had not thought of him before!

Among the many odd characters in the piebald band, of which I had the
honour to be chief, not the least odd was one who answered to the
euphonious name of "Elijah Quackenboss." He was a mixture of Yankee and
German, originating somewhere in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He had
been a schoolmaster among his native hills--had picked up some little
book-learning; but what rendered him more interesting to me was the fact
that he was a botanist. Not a very scientific one, it is true; but in
whatever way obtained, he possessed a respectable knowledge of _flora_
and _sylva_, and evinced an aptitude for the study not inferior to
Linneus himself. The more surprising was this, that such inclinations
are somewhat rare among Americans--but Quackenboss no doubt drew his
instinct from his Teutonic ancestry.

If his intellectual disposition was odd, not less so was his physical.
His person was tall, crooked, and lanky; and none of those members that
should have been counterparts of each other seemed exactly to match.
His arms were odd ones--his limbs were unlike; and all four looked as if
they had met by accident, and could not agree upon anything. His eyes
were no better mated, and never consented to look in the same direction;
but with the right one, Elijah Quackenboss could "sight" a rifle, and
drive in a nail at a hundred yards' distance.

From his odd habits, his companions--the rangers--regarded him as hardly
"square;" but this idea was partially derived from seeing him engaged in
his botanical researches--an occupation that to them appeared simply
absurd