{"id":"01KG8AM62DP0NX5S891MA5MKCV","cid":"bafkreifwtkg2wpds7kucv7vqdu6ek6vhl5brnuj4q2yti5tfdkyztik6fu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3226,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":3159,"text":"slipping down the trunk, stood in a moment at least fifty feet beneath\r\nme, upon the broad shelf of rock from which sprung the tree he had\r\ndescended.\r\n\r\nWhat would I not have given at that moment to have been by his side. The\r\nfeat he had just accomplished seemed little less than miraculous, and\r\nI could hardly credit the evidence of my senses when I saw the wide\r\ndistance that a single daring act had so suddenly placed between us.\r\n\r\nToby’s animating ‘come on’ again sounded in my ears, and dreading to\r\nlose all confidence in myself if I remained meditating upon the step,\r\nI once more gazed down to assure myself of the relative bearing of the\r\ntree and my own position, and then closing my eyes and uttering one\r\ncomprehensive ejaculation of prayer, I inclined myself over towards the\r\nabyss, and after one breathless instant fell with a crash into the tree,\r\nthe branches snapping and cracking with my weight, as I sunk lower and\r\nlower among them, until I was stopped by coming in contact with a sturdy\r\nlimb.\r\n\r\nIn a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree manipulating\r\nmyself all over with a view of ascertaining the extent of the injuries\r\nI had received. To my surprise the only effects of my feat were a few\r\nslight contusions too trifling to care about. The rest of our descent\r\nwas easily accomplished, and in half an hour after regaining the ravine\r\nwe had partaken of our evening morsel, built our hut as usual, and\r\ncrawled under its shelter.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of hunger under\r\nwhich we were now suffering, though neither of us confessed to the fact,\r\nwe struggled along our dismal and still difficult and dangerous path,\r\ncheered by the hope of soon catching a glimpse of the valley before\r\nus, and towards evening the voice of a cataract which had for some time\r\nsounded like a low deep bass to the music of the smaller waterfalls,\r\nbroke upon our ears in still louder tones, and assured us that we were\r\napproaching its vicinity.\r\n\r\nThat evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over which the dark\r\nstream bounded in one final leap of full 300 feet. The sheer descent\r\nterminated in the region we so long had sought. On each side of the\r\nfall, two lofty and perpendicular bluffs buttressed the sides of the\r\nenormous cliff, and projected into the sea of verdure with which the\r\nvalley waved, and a range of similar projecting eminences stood disposed\r\nin a half circle about the head if the vale. A thick canopy of trees\r\nhung over the very verge of the fall, leaving an arched aperture for the\r\npassage of the waters, which imparted a strange picturesqueness to the\r\nscene.\r\n\r\nThe valley was now before us; but instead of being conducted into its\r\nsmiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep watercourse we had thus\r\nfar pursued, all our labours now appeared to have been rendered futile\r\nby its abrupt termination. But, bitterly disappointed, we did not\r\nentirely despair.\r\n\r\nAs it was now near sunset we determined to pass the night where we were,\r\nand on the morrow, refreshed by sleep, and by eating at one meal all our\r\nstock of food, to accomplish a descent into the valley, or perish in the\r\nattempt.\r\n\r\nWe laid ourselves down that night on a spot, the recollection of which\r\nstill makes me shudder. A small table of rock which projected over the\r\nprecipice on one side of the stream, and was drenched by the spray\r\nof the fall, sustained a huge trunk of a tree which must have been\r\ndeposited there by some heavy freshet. It lay obliquely, with one end\r\nresting on the rock and the other supported by the side of the ravine.\r\nAgainst it we placed in a sloping direction a number of the half decayed\r\nboughs that were strewn about, and covering the whole with twigs and\r\nleaves, awaited the morning’s light beneath such shelter as it afforded.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ78FJSGVW77ZGHK0KC9","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM62DM2J6BBRVQAZMC77E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM6P295333KF92F2FC5D3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:28.749Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:35.735Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}