A LEAP FOR LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13399, 30 January 1907, Page 9

A LEAP FOR LIFE

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FEW would.care to have the experience related by Mr. Habersham in "My Last Cruise."" 'Even if bodily injury is not sustained the nervous system suffers such a. shock that it is hard to regain normal poise. Mr. Habersham, with two sailors, had left the vessel, which was lying off the Chinese coast, and was exploring a mountain peak. " Leaving Rose and Burke below 1 climbed an elevation, only to find that I could aiot get down again. It is much easier to ascend than to descend a precipice. There I hung on the rocky edge of a ravine.

"Beyond tin- abyss, and only eight or ten feet below me, was a bod of rocks. If I could spring to that I might land in safety. As 1 was thinking whether I dared make the venture mv flight foothold gave wuy, and my whole weight was loft suspended by a bunch of grass I was grasping. The question was decided. 1 must either fall into the fissure or dare, the ieap. •"The bed of rocks wa.- full of holes and sharp, pointed stone-. The rank growth might contain a thousand snakes. Only p. few moments before we had killed one most villainous reptile, sunning himself in a similar locality. I shuddered at the idea of casting myself bodily over that fissure into such an uninviting berth. Then, too, 1 might fall short and drop into the ravine. I had no foothold from which to spring. I should have to push myself from the mountain by means of elbow, (knees, chest, and feet. * . , , •• lv was the tightest place I ever was in. \nd I had to act at once, or the grass would loose its hold. Rose and Burke were in a terrible state of excitement. . " 'Hold on!' eallecl Rose. '••Stand by to jump!' shouted Burke. "The fissure was about three feel wide. The pointed rocks beyond looked wicked, and in the grass I fancied I saw the motion which indicated the presence of serpent-. ~, l a st although the very thought made the perspiration start. I resolved to trv the jump. 1 had > u ' braced . mysei when, within a foot, of the hand winch hold the bunch of grass. I saw the sullen glance of two eves and flattened head of a snake I gazed and shuddered, but the sight nerved '"••TheTery edge of the figure received me, bruised and'paminir, but with -hole bones and in safety'-