SLOWLY AND SURELY. 239

to an almost insurmountable unwillingness to re-
cede, for the reasons above mentioned, and the
chance that, as it could not well be worse, the re-
mainder might possibly be better, I decided on
going on, estimating every additional inch as a
valuable accession of space, with a secret proviso,
however, in my own mind, that nothing on earth
should induce me to return the same way, notwith-
standing the declaration of the guides, that they
knew of no other line, unless a bridge, which was
impassable yesterday, had been made passable to-
day, and we knew the people were at work, for a
man had gone before us with an axe over his
shoulder.

“Thus persevering with the speed of a tortoise or
a sloth, these solemn slow movements of hand and
foot forcibly reminding me of that cautious animal,
we at last drew near to a more acute point in the
curve of this gaunt amphitheatre, where it bent
forward towards the river, and consequently we
were more immediately fronted by the precipice
forming the continuation of that on which we stood.
By keeping my head obliquely turned inwards, I
had hitherto in great measure avoided more visual
communication than I wished with the bird’s-eye
prospect below; but there was no possibility of ex-
cluding the smooth bare frontage of rock nght
overhead. There it reared itself from the clods