CHAPTER 23

During the six or seven days immediately following we remained in

our hiding-place upon the hill, going out only occasionally, and

then with the greatest precaution, for water and filberts. We had

made a kind of penthouse on the platform, furnishing it with a

bed of dry leaves, and placing in it three large flat stones,

which served us for both fireplace and table. We kindled a fire

without difficulty by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together,

the one soft, the other hard. The bird we had taken in such good

season proved excellent eating, although somewhat tough. It was

not an oceanic fowl, but a species of bittern, with jet black and

grizzly plumage, and diminutive wings in proportion to its bulk.

We afterward saw three of the same kind in the vicinity of the

ravine, apparently seeking for the one we had captured; but, as

they never alighted, we had no opportunity of catching them.

As long as this fowl lasted we suffered nothing from our

situation, but it was now entirely consumed, and it became

absolutely necessary that we should look out for provision. The

filberts would not satisfy the cravings of hunger, afflicting us,

too, with severe gripings of the bowels, and, if freely indulged

in, with violent headache. We had seen several large tortoises

near the seashore to the eastward of the hill, and perceived they

might be easily taken, if we could get at them without the

observation of the natives. It was resolved, therefore, to make

an attempt at descending.

We commenced by going down the southern declivity, which seemed

to offer the fewest difficulties, but had not proceeded a hundred

yards before (as we had anticipated from appearances on the

hilltop) our progress was entirely arrested by a branch of the

gorge in which our companions had perished. We now passed along

the edge of this for about a quarter of a mile, when we were

again stopped by a precipice of immense depth, and, not being

able to make our way along the brink of it, we were forced to

retrace our steps by the main ravine.

We now pushed over to the eastward, but with precisely similar

fortune. After an hour’s scramble, at the risk of breaking our

necks, we discovered that we had merely descended into a vast pit

of black granite, with fine dust at the bottom, and whence the

only egress was by the rugged path in which we had come down.

Toiling again up this path, we now tried the northern edge of the

hill. Here we were obliged to use the greatest possible caution

in our maneuvers, as the least indiscretion would expose us to

the full view of the savages in the village. We crawled along,

therefore, on our hands and knees, and, occasionally, were even

forced to throw ourselves at full length, dragging our bodies

along by means of the shrubbery. In this careful manner we had

proceeded but a little way, when we arrived at a chasm far deeper

than any we had yet seen, and leading directly into the main

gorge. Thus our fears were fully confirmed, and we found

ourselves cut off entirely from access to the world below.

Thoroughly exhausted by our exertions, we made the best of our

way back to the platform, and throwing ourselves upon the bed of

leaves, slept sweetly and soundly for some hours.

For several days after this fruitless search we were occupied in

exploring every part of the summit of the hill, in order to

inform ourselves of its actual resources. We found that it would

afford us no food, with the exception of the unwholesome

filberts, and a rank species of scurvy grass, which grew in a

little patch of not more than four rods square, and would be soon

exhausted. On the fifteenth of February, as near as I can

remember, there was not a blade of this left, and the nuts were

growing scarce; our situation, therefore, could hardly be more

lamentable. {*5} On the sixteenth we again went round the walls

of our prison, in hope of finding some avenue of escape; but to

no purpose. We also descended the chasm in which we had been

overwhelmed, with the faint expectation of discovering, through

this channel, some opening to the main ravine. Here, too, we were

disappointed, although we found and brought up with us a musket.

On the seventeenth we set out with the determination of examining

more thoroughly the chasm of black granite into which we had made

our way in the first search. We remembered that one of the

fissures in the sides of this pit had been but partially looked

into, and we were anxious to explore it, although with no

expectation of discovering here any opening.

We found no great difficulty in reaching the bottom of the hollow

as before, and were now sufficiently calm to survey it with some

attention. It was, indeed, one of the most singular-looking

places imaginable, and we could scarcely bring ourselves to

believe it altogether the work of nature. The pit, from its

eastern to its western extremity, was about five hundred yards in

length, when all its windings were threaded; the distance from

east to west in a straight line not being more (I should suppose,

having no means of accurate examination) than forty or fifty

yards. Upon first descending into the chasm, that is to say, for

a hundred feet downward from the summit of the hill, the sides of

the abyss bore little resemblance to each other, and, apparently,

had at no time been connected, the one surface being of the

soapstone, and the other of marl, granulated with some metallic

matter. The average breadth or interval between the two cliffs

was probably here sixty feet, but there seemed to be no

regularity of formation. Passing down, however, beyond the limit

spoken of, the interval rapidly contracted, and the sides began

to run parallel, although, for some distance farther, they were

still dissimilar in their material and form of surface. Upon

arriving within fifty feet of the bottom, a perfect regularity

commenced. The sides were now entirely uniform in substance, in

colour, and in lateral direction, the material being a very black

and shining granite, and the distance between the two sides, at

all points facing each other, exactly twenty yards. The precise

formation of the chasm will be best understood by means of a

delineation taken upon the spot; for I had luckily with me a

pocketbook and pencil, which I preserved with great care through

a long series of subsequent adventure, and to which I am indebted

for memoranda of many subjects which would otherwise have been

crowded from my remembrance.

This figure [No figures in text] gives the general outlines of

the chasm, without the minor cavities in the sides, of which

there were several, each cavity having a corresponding

protuberance opposite. The bottom of the gulf was covered to the

depth of three or four inches with a powder almost impalpable,

beneath which we found a continuation of the black granite. To

the right, at the lower extremity, will be noticed the appearance

of a small opening; this is the fissure alluded to above, and to

examine which more minutely than before was the object of our

second visit. We now pushed into it with vigor, cutting away a

quantity of brambles which impeded us, and removing a vast heap

of sharp flints somewhat resembling arrowheads in shape. We were

encouraged to persevere, however, by perceiving some little light

proceeding from the farther end. We at length squeezed our way

for about thirty feet, and found that the aperture was a low and

regularly formed arch, having a bottom of the same impalpable

powder as that in the main chasm. A strong light now broke upon

us, and, turning a short bend, we found ourselves in another

lofty chamber, similar to the one we had left in every respect

but longitudinal form. Its general figure is here given.

The total length of this chasm, commencing at the opening _a_ and

proceeding round the curve _b_ to the extremity _d_, is five

hundred and fifty yards. At _c_ we discovered a small aperture

similar to the one through which we had issued from the other

chasm, and this was choked up in the same manner with brambles

and a quantity of the white arrowhead flints. We forced our way

through it, finding it about forty feet long, and emerged into a

third chasm. This, too, was precisely like the first, except in

its longitudinal shape, which was thus.

We found the entire length of the third chasm three hundred and

twenty yards. At the point _a_ was an opening about six feet

wide, and extending fifteen feet into the rock, where it

terminated in a bed of marl, there being no other chasm beyond,

as we had expected. We were about leaving this fissure, into

which very little light was admitted, when Peters called my

attention to a range of singular-looking indentures in the

surface of the marl forming the termination of the _cul-de-sac_.

With a very slight exertion of the imagination, the left, or most

northern of these indentures might have been taken for the

intentional, although rude, representation of a human figure

standing erect, with outstretched arm. The rest of them bore also

some little resemblance to alphabetical characters, and Peters

was willing, at all events, to adopt the idle opinion that they

were really such. I convinced him of his error, finally, by

directing his attention to the floor of the fissure, where, among

the powder, we picked up, piece by piece, several large flakes of

the marl, which had evidently been broken off by some convulsion

from the surface where the indentures were found, and which had

projecting points exactly fitting the indentures; thus proving

them to have been the work of nature.

After satisfying ourselves that these singular caverns afforded

us no means of escape from our prison, we made our way back,

dejected and dispirited, to the summit of the hill. Nothing worth

mentioning occurred during the next twenty-four hours, except

that, in examining the ground to the eastward of the third chasm,

we found two triangular holes of great depth, and also with black

granite sides. Into these holes we did not think it worth while

to attempt descending, as they had the appearance of mere natural

wells, without outlet. They were each about twenty yards in

circumference, and their shape, as well as relative position in

regard to the third chasm, is shown in figure 5. {image}