straight portion of the fissure,
where it made a turn to the left. A few struggles more, and we reached
the bend, when to our inexpressible joy, there appeared a long seam or
crack extending upward a vast distance, generally at an angle of about
forty-five degrees, although sometimes much more precipitous. We could
not see through the whole extent of this opening; but, as a good deal of
light came down it, we had little doubt of finding at the top of it (if
we could by any means reach the top) a clear passage into the open air.

I now called to mind that three of us had entered the fissure from
the main gorge, and that our companion, Allen, was still missing; we
determined at once to retrace our steps and look for him. After a long
search, and much danger from the farther caving in of the earth above
us, Peters at length cried out to me that he had hold of our companion's
foot, and that his whole body was deeply buried beneath the rubbish
beyond the possibility of extricating him. I soon found that what he
said was too true, and that, of course, life had been long extinct. With
sorrowful hearts, therefore, we left the corpse to its fate, and again
made our way to the bend.

The breadth of the seam was barely sufficient to admit us, and, after
one or two ineffectual efforts at getting up, we began once more to
despair. I have before said that the chain of hills through which
ran the main gorge was composed of a species of soft rock resembling
soapstone. The sides of the cleft we were now attempting to ascend were
of the same material, and so excessively slippery, being wet, that we
could get but little foothold upon them even in their least precipitous
parts; in some places, where the ascent was nearly perpendicular, the
difficulty was, of course, much aggravated; and, indeed, for some time
we thought insurmountable. We took courage, however, from despair, and
what, by dint of cutting steps in the soft stone with our bowie knives,
and swinging at the risk of our lives, to small projecting points of
a harder species of slaty rock which now and then protruded from the
general mass, we at length reached a natural platform, from which was
perceptible a patch of blue sky, at the extremity of a thickly-wooded
ravine. Looking back now, with somewhat more leisure, at the passage
through which we had thus far proceeded, we clearly saw from the
appearance of its sides, that it was of late formation, and we concluded
that the conc