Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/204

 ledge that irregularly declined from the brow of the hill; it was wide enough to allow of cautious footing. On a similar stratum or ledge, projecting still further from the body of the hill, and close to the surface of the river, was the road. This stratum ascended from the level of the stream, while that on which I trod rapidly descended; I hoped that they would speedily be blended, or at least approach so near as to allow me to leap from one to the other without enormous hazard.

This fond expectation was frustrated. Presently I perceived that the ledge below began to descend, while that above began to tend upward, and was quickly terminated by the uppermost surface of the cliff. Here it was needful to pause. I looked over the brink, and considered whether I might not leap from my present station without endangering my limbs. The road into which I should fall was a rocky pavement, far from being smooth; the descent could not be less than forty or fifty feet: such an attempt was, to the last degree, hazardous; but was it not better to risk my life by leaping from this eminence, than to remain and perish on the top of this inhospitable mountain? The toils which I had endured in reaching this height appeared to my panic-struck fancy less easy to be borne again than death.

I know not but that I should have finally resolved to leap, had not different views been suggested, by observing that the outer edge of the road was, in like manner, the brow of a steep which terminated in the river. The surface of the road was twelve or fifteen feet above the level of the stream, which in this Spot was still and smooth: hence I inferred that the water was not of inconsiderable depth. To fall upon rocky points was indeed dangerous; but to plunge into water of sufficient depth, even from a height greater than that at which I now stood, especially to one to whom habit had rendered water almost as congenial an element as air, was scarcely attended with inconvenience. This expedient was easy and safe. Twenty yards from this spot the channel was shallow, and to gain the road from the stream was no difficult exploit.

Some disadvantages, however, attended this scheme.