How were we to carry all our building
materials up to this great height? One would think that the difficulties
would be enough to discourage us, but not so with the S. S. I. E. E. of W.
C. 1. Nothing daunted us.
Dutchy Takes a Dare.
Our first task was to try some other approach to the top of the cliff. At
one side of the overhanging ledge there was a fissure in the rocks which
ran from the base of the pillar to the foot of the cliff. Down this zigzag
crevice Dutchy had scrambled, one afternoon, on a dare. We were rather
frightened when he started, because it was a very hazardous undertaking,
and we watched him anxiously, peering over the edge of the precipice. By
bracing his back against one of the walls of the rock, and digging his
feet into the niches and chinks of the opposite wall, he safely made his
way to a shelf about half-way down, where he paused to rest. From that
point on the fissure widened out, and a steep, almost vertical incline,
sparsely covered with vegetation, led to the railroad track below. I think
he must have become rather frightened at his position, because he
hesitated long before he resumed his downward course, and when he finally
did make the attempt his foot slipped upon the moss-covered rocks and down
he fell, scratching and clawing at every shrub within reach.
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