CHAPTER NINE
PERILOUS PASSAGE OF THE RAVINE--DESCENT INTO THE VALLEY
The fearless confidence of Toby was contagious, and I began to adopt theHappar side of the question. I could not, however, overcome a certainfeeling of trepidation as we made our way along these gloomy solitudes.Our progress, at first comparatively easy, became more and moredifficult. The bed of the watercourse was covered with fragments ofbroken rocks, which had fallen from above, offering so many obstructionsto the course of the rapid stream, which vexed and fretted aboutthem,--forming at intervals small waterfalls, pouring over into deepbasins, or splashing wildly upon heaps of stones.
From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its sides, therewas no mode of advancing but by wading through the water; stumblingevery moment over the impediments which lay hidden under its surface,or tripping against the huge roots of trees. But the most annoyinghindrance we encountered was from a multitude of crooked boughs, which,shooting out almost horizontally from the sides of the chasm, twistedthemselves together in fantastic masses almost to the surface of thestream, affording us no passage except under the low arches which theyformed. Under these we were obliged to crawl on our hands and feet,sliding along the oozy surface of the rocks, or slipping into the deeppools, and with scarce light enough to guide us. Occasionally we wouldstrike our heads against some projecting limb of a tree; and whileimprudently engaged in rubbing the injured part, would fall sprawlingamongst flinty fragments, cutting and bruising ourselves, whilst theunpitying waters flowed over our prostrate bodies. Belzoni, worminghimself through the subterranean passages of the Egyptian catacombs,could not have met with great impediments than those we hereencountered. But we struggled against them manfully, well knowing ouronly hope lay in advancing.
Towards sunset we halted at a spot where we made preparations forpassing the night. Here we constructed a hut, in much the same way asbefore, and crawling into it, endeavoured to forget our sufferings. Mycompanion, I believe, slept pretty soundly; but at day break, when werolled out of our dwelling, I felt nearly disqualified for any furtherefforts. Toby prescribed as a remedy for my illness the contents of oneof our little silk packages, to be taken at once in a single dose. Tothis species of medical treatment, however, I would by no means accede,much as he insisted upon it; and so we partook of our usual morsel, andsilently resumed our journey. It was now the fourth day since we leftNukuheva, and the gnawings of hunger became painfully acute. We werefain to pacify them by chewing the tender bark of roots and twigs,which, if they did not afford us nourishment, were at least sweet andpleasant to the taste.
Our progress along the steep watercourse was necessarily slow, and bynoon we had not advanced more than a mile. It was somewhere near thispart of the day that the noise of falling waters, which we had faintlycaught in the early morning, became more distinct; and it was not longbefore we were arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly a hundred feetin depth, that extended all across the channel, and over which the wildstream poured in an unbroken leap. On each hand the walls of theravine presented their overhanging sides both above and below the fall,affording no means whatever of avoiding the cataract by taking a circuitround it.
'What's to be done now, Toby?' said I.
'Why,' rejoined he, 'as we cannot retreat, I suppose we must keepshoving along.'
'Very true, my dear Toby; but how do you purpose accomplishing thatdesirable object?'
'By jumping from the top of the fall, if there be no other way,'unhesitatingly replied my companion: 'it will be much the quickest wayof descent; but as you are not quite as active as I am, we will try someother way.'
And, so saying, he crept cautiously along and peered over into theabyss, while I remained wondering by what possible means we couldovercome this apparently insuperable obstruction. As soon as mycompanion had completed his survey, I eagerly inquired the result.
'The result of my observations you wish to know, do you?' began Toby,deliberately, with one of his odd looks: 'well, my lad, the result of myobservations is very quickly imparted. It is at present uncertain whichof our two necks will have the honour to be broken first; but about ahundred to one would be a fair bet in favour of the man who takes thefirst jump.'
'Then it is an impossible thing, is it?' inquired I gloomily.
'No, shipmate; on the contrary, it is the easiest thing in life: theonly awkward point is the sort of usage which our unhappy limbs mayreceive when we arrive at the bottom, and what sort of travelling trimwe shall be in afterwards. But follow me now, and I will show you theonly chance we have.' With this he conducted me to the verge of thecataract, and pointed along the side of the ravine to a number ofcurious looking roots, some three or four inches in thickness, andseveral feet long, which, after twisting among the fissures of the rock,shot perpendicularly from it and ran tapering to a point in the air,hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles. They covered nearlythe entire surface of one side of the gorge, the lowest of themreaching even to the water. Many were moss grown and decayed, with theirextremities snapped short off, and those in the immediate vicinity ofthe fall were slippery with moisture.
Toby's scheme, and it was a desperate one, was to entrust ourselvesto these treacherous-looking roots, and by slipping down from one toanother to gain the bottom.
'Are you ready to venture it?' asked Toby, looking at me earnestly butwithout saying a word as to the practicability of the plan.
'I am,' was my reply; for I saw it was our only resource if we wished toadvance, and as for retreating, all thoughts of that sort had been longabandoned.
After I had signified my assent, Toby, without uttering a a single word,crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a point from whencehe could just reach one of the largest of the pendant roots; he shookit--it quivered in his grasp, and when he let it go it twanged in theair like a strong, wire sharply struck. Satisfied by his scrutiny, mylight limbed companion swung himself nimbly upon it, and twisting hislegs round it in sailor fashion, slipped down eight or ten feet, wherehis weight gave it a motion not un-like that of a pendulum. He could notventure to descend any further; so holding on with one hand, he with theother shook one by one all the slender roots around him, and at last,finding one which he thought trustworthy, shifted him self to it andcontinued his downward progress.
So far so well; but I could not avoid comparing my heavier frame anddisabled condition with his light figure and remarkable activity;but there was no help for it, and in less than a minute's time I wasswinging directly over his head. As soon as his upturned eyes caught aglimpse of me, he exclaimed in his usual dry tone, for the danger didnot seem to daunt him in the least, 'Mate, do me the kindness not tofall until I get out of your way;' and then swinging himself more onone side, he continued his descent. In the mean time I cautiouslytransferred myself from the limb down which I had been slipping to acouple of others that were near it, deeming two strings to my bow betterthan one, and taking care to test their strength before I trusted myweight to them.
On arriving towards the end of the second stage in this verticaljourney, and shaking the long roots which were round me, to myconsternation they snapped off one after another like so many pipestems, and fell in fragments against the side of the gulf, splashing atlast into the waters beneath.
As one after another the treacherous roots yielded to my grasp, and fellinto the torrent, my heart sunk within me. The branches on which I wassuspended over the yawning chasm swang to and fro in the air, and Iexpected them every moment to snap in twain. Appalled at the dreadfulfate that menaced me, I clutched frantically at the only large rootwhich remained near me, but in vain; I could not reach it, though myfingers were within a few inches of it. Again and again I tried to reachit, until at length, maddened with the thought of my situation, I swayedmyself violently by striking my foot against the side of the rock, andat the instant that I approached the large root caught desperately atit, and transferred myself to it. It vibrated violently under the suddenweight, but fortunatel
y did not give way.
My brain grew dizzy with the idea of the frightful risk I had just run,and I involuntarily closed my eyes to shut out the view of thedepth beneath me. For the instant I was safe, and I uttered a devoutejaculation of thanksgiving for my escape.
'Pretty well done,' shouted Toby underneath me; 'you are nimbler thanI thought you to be--hopping about up there from root to root like anyyoung squirrel. As soon as you have diverted yourself sufficiently, Iwould advise you to proceed.'
'Aye, aye, Toby, all in good time: two or three more such famous rootsas this, and I shall be with you.'
The residue of my downward progress was comparatively easy; the rootswere in greater abundance, and in one or two places jutting out pointsof rock assisted me greatly. In a few moments I was standing by the sideof my companion.
Substituting a stout stick for the one I had thrown aside at the top ofthe precipice, we now continued our course along the bed of the ravine.Soon we were saluted by a sound in advance, that grew by degreeslouder and louder, as the noise of the cataract we were leaving behindgradually died on our ears.
'Another precipice for us, Toby.'
'Very good; we can descend them, you know--come on.'
Nothing indeed appeared to depress or intimidate this intrepid fellow.Typees or Niagaras, he was as ready to engage one as the other, and Icould not avoid a thousand times congratulating myself upon having sucha companion in an enterprise like the present.
After an hour's painful progress, we reached the verge of another fall,still loftier than the preceding and flanked both above and below withthe same steep masses of rock, presenting, however, here and therenarrow irregular ledges, supporting a shallow soil, on which grew avariety of bushes and trees, whose bright verdure contrasted beautifullywith the foamy waters that flowed between them.
Toby, who invariably acted as pioneer, now proceeded to reconnoitre.On his return, he reported that the shelves of rock on our rightwould enable us to gain with little risk the bottom of the cataract.Accordingly, leaving the bed of the stream at the very point where itthundered down, we began crawling along one of those sloping ledgesuntil it carried us to within a few feet of another that inclineddownwards at a still sharper angle, and upon which, by assisting eachother we managed to alight in safety. We warily crept along this,steadying ourselves by the naked roots of the shrubs that clung to everyfissure. As we proceeded, the narrow path became still more contracted,rendering it difficult for us to maintain our footing, until suddenly,as we reached an angle of the wall of rock where we had expected it towiden, we perceived to our consternation that a yard or two further onit abruptly terminated at a place we could not possibly hope to pass.
Toby as usual led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from him howhe proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty.
'Well, my boy,' I exclaimed, after the expiration of several minutes,during which time my companion had not uttered a word, 'what's to bedone now?'
He replied in a tranquil tone, that probably the best thing we could doin our present strait was to get out of it as soon as possible.
'Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it.'
'Something in this sort of style,' he replied, and at the same moment tomy horror he slipped sideways off the rocks and, as I then thought, bygood fortune merely, alighted among the spreading branches of a speciesof palm tree, that shooting its hardy roots along a ledge below, curvedits trunk upwards into the air, and presented a thick mass of foliageabout twenty feet below the spot where we had thus suddenly been broughtto a standstill. I involuntarily held my breath, expecting to see theform of my companion, after being sustained for a moment by the branchesof the tree, sink through their frail support, and fall headlong tothe bottom. To my surprise and joy, however, he recovered himself, anddisentangling his limbs from the fractured branches, he peered out fromhis leafy bed, and shouted lustily, 'Come on, my hearty there is noother alternative!' and with this he ducked beneath the foliage, andslipping down the trunk, stood in a moment at least fifty feet beneathme, upon the broad shelf of rock from which sprung the tree he haddescended.
What would I not have given at that moment to have been by his side. Thefeat he had just accomplished seemed little less than miraculous, andI could hardly credit the evidence of my senses when I saw the widedistance that a single daring act had so suddenly placed between us.
Toby's animating 'come on' again sounded in my ears, and dreading tolose all confidence in myself if I remained meditating upon the step,I once more gazed down to assure myself of the relative bearing of thetree and my own position, and then closing my eyes and uttering onecomprehensive ejaculation of prayer, I inclined myself over towards theabyss, and after one breathless instant fell with a crash into the tree,the branches snapping and cracking with my weight, as I sunk lower andlower among them, until I was stopped by coming in contact with a sturdylimb.
In a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree manipulatingmyself all over with a view of ascertaining the extent of the injuriesI had received. To my surprise the only effects of my feat were a fewslight contusions too trifling to care about. The rest of our descentwas easily accomplished, and in half an hour after regaining the ravinewe had partaken of our evening morsel, built our hut as usual, andcrawled under its shelter.
The next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of hunger underwhich we were now suffering, though neither of us confessed to the fact,we struggled along our dismal and still difficult and dangerous path,cheered by the hope of soon catching a glimpse of the valley beforeus, and towards evening the voice of a cataract which had for some timesounded like a low deep bass to the music of the smaller waterfalls,broke upon our ears in still louder tones, and assured us that we wereapproaching its vicinity.
That evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over which the darkstream bounded in one final leap of full 300 feet. The sheer descentterminated in the region we so long had sought. On each side of thefall, two lofty and perpendicular bluffs buttressed the sides of theenormous cliff, and projected into the sea of verdure with which thevalley waved, and a range of similar projecting eminences stood disposedin a half circle about the head if the vale. A thick canopy of treeshung over the very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture for thepassage of the waters, which imparted a strange picturesqueness to thescene.
The valley was now before us; but instead of being conducted into itssmiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep watercourse we had thusfar pursued, all our labours now appeared to have been rendered futileby its abrupt termination. But, bitterly disappointed, we did notentirely despair.
As it was now near sunset we determined to pass the night where we were,and on the morrow, refreshed by sleep, and by eating at one meal all ourstock of food, to accomplish a descent into the valley, or perish in theattempt.
We laid ourselves down that night on a spot, the recollection of whichstill makes me shudder. A small table of rock which projected over theprecipice on one side of the stream, and was drenched by the sprayof the fall, sustained a huge trunk of a tree which must have beendeposited there by some heavy freshet. It lay obliquely, with one endresting on the rock and the other supported by the side of the ravine.Against it we placed in a sloping direction a number of the half decayedboughs that were strewn about, and covering the whole with twigs andleaves, awaited the morning's light beneath such shelter as it afforded.
During the whole of this night the continual roaring of thecataract--the dismal moaning of the gale through the trees--thepattering of the rain, and the profound darkness, affected my spirits toa degree which nothing had ever before produced. Wet, half famished,and chilled to the heart with the dampness of the place, and nearly wildwith the pain I endured, I fairly cowered down to the earth underthis multiplication of hardships, and abandoned myself to frightfulanticipations of evil; and my companion, whose spirit at last was a gooddeal broken, scarcely uttered a word during the whole night.
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nbsp; At length the day dawned upon us, and rising from our miserable pallet,we stretched our stiffened joints, and after eating all that remainedof our bread, prepared for the last stage of our journey. I will notrecount every hair-breadth escape, and every fearful difficulty thatoccurred before we succeeded in reaching the bosom of the valley. As Ihave already described similar scenes, it will be sufficient to say thatat length, after great toil and great dangers, we both stood with nolimbs broken at the head of that magnificent vale which five days beforehad so suddenly burst upon my sight, and almost beneath the shadow ofthose very cliffs from whose summits we had gazed upon the prospect.
Typee: A Romance of the South Seas Page 11
