The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3

CHAPTER 23

DURING the six or seven days immediately following we remained in ourhiding-place upon the hill, going out only occasionally, and then withthe greatest precaution, for water and filberts. We had made a kind ofpenthouse on the platform, furnishing it with a bed of dry leaves,and placing in it three large flat stones, which served us for bothfireplace and table. We kindled a fire without difficulty by rubbing twopieces of dry wood together, the one soft, the other hard. The bird wehad taken in such good season proved excellent eating, although somewhattough. It was not an oceanic fowl, but a species of bittern, with jetblack and grizzly plumage, and diminutive wings in proportion to itsbulk. We afterward saw three of the same kind in the vicinity of theravine, apparently seeking for the one we had captured; but, as theynever alighted, we had no opportunity of catching them.

As long as this fowl lasted we suffered nothing from our situation, butit was now entirely consumed, and it became absolutely necessary thatwe should look out for provision. The filberts would not satisfy thecravings of hunger, afflicting us, too, with severe gripings of thebowels, and, if freely indulged in, with violent headache. We had seenseveral large tortoises near the seashore to the eastward of the hill,and perceived they might be easily taken, if we could get at themwithout the observation of the natives. It was resolved, therefore, tomake an attempt at descending.

We commenced by going down the southern declivity, which seemed to offerthe fewest difficulties, but had not proceeded a hundred yards before(as we had anticipated from appearances on the hilltop) our progress wasentirely arrested by a branch of the gorge in which our companions hadperished. We now passed along the edge of this for about a quarter of amile, when we were again stopped by a precipice of immense depth, and,not being able to make our way along the brink of it, we were forced toretrace our steps by the main ravine.

We now pushed over to the eastward, but with precisely similar fortune.After an hour’s scramble, at the risk of breaking our necks, wediscovered that we had merely descended into a vast pit of blackgranite, with fine dust at the bottom, and whence the only egress was bythe rugged path in which we had come down. Toiling again up this path,we now tried the northern edge of the hill. Here we were obliged touse the greatest possible caution in our maneuvers, as the leastindiscretion would expose us to the full view of the savages in thevillage. We crawled along, therefore, on our hands and knees, and,occasionally, were even forced to throw ourselves at full length,dragging our bodies along by means of the shrubbery. In this carefulmanner we had proceeded but a little way, when we arrived at a chasmfar deeper than any we had yet seen, and leading directly into the maingorge. Thus our fears were fully confirmed, and we found ourselves cutoff entirely from access to the world below. Thoroughly exhausted byour exertions, we made the best of our way back to the platform, andthrowing ourselves upon the bed of leaves, slept sweetly and soundly forsome hours.

For several days after this fruitless search we were occupied inexploring every part of the summit of the hill, in order to informourselves of its actual resources. We found that it would afford us nofood, with the exception of the unwholesome filberts, and a rank speciesof scurvy grass, which grew in a little patch of not more than four rodssquare, and would be soon exhausted. On the fifteenth of February, asnear as I can remember, there was not a blade of this left, and thenuts were growing scarce; our situation, therefore, could hardly be morelamentable. {*5} On the sixteenth we again went round the walls of ourprison, in hope of finding some avenue of escape; but to no purpose.We also descended the chasm in which we had been overwhelmed, with thefaint expectation of discovering, through this channel, some opening tothe main ravine. Here, too, we were disappointed, although we found andbrought up with us a musket.

On the seventeenth we set out with the determination of examining morethoroughly the chasm of black granite into which we had made our way inthe first search. We remembered that one of the fissures in the sidesof this pit had been but partially looked into, and we were anxiousto explore it, although with no expectation of discovering here anyopening.

We found no great difficulty in reaching the bottom of the hollow asbefore, and were now sufficiently calm to survey it with some attention.It was, indeed, one of the most singular-looking places imaginable, andwe could scarcely bring ourselves to believe it altogether the work ofnature. The pit, from its eastern to its western extremity, was aboutfive hundred yards in length, when all its windings were threaded; thedistance from east to west in a straight line not being more (I shouldsuppose, having no means of accurate examination) than forty or fiftyyards. Upon first descending into the chasm, that is to say, for ahundred feet downward from the summit of the hill, the sides of theabyss bore little resemblance to each other, and, apparently, had atno time been connected, the one surface being of the soapstone, and theother of marl, granulated with some metallic matter. The average breadthor interval between the two cliffs was probably here sixty feet, butthere seemed to be no regularity of formation. Passing down, however,beyond the limit spoken of, the interval rapidly contracted, and thesides began to run parallel, although, for some distance farther,they were still dissimilar in their material and form of surface.Upon arriving within fifty feet of the bottom, a perfect regularitycommenced. The sides were now entirely uniform in substance, in colour,and in lateral direction, the material being a very black and shininggranite, and the distance between the two sides, at all points facingeach other, exactly twenty yards. The precise formation of the chasmwill be best understood by means of a delineation taken upon the spot;for I had luckily with me a pocketbook and pencil, which I preservedwith great care through a long series of subsequent adventure, and towhich I am indebted for memoranda of many subjects which would otherwisehave been crowded from my remembrance.

This figure [No figures in text] gives the general outlines of thechasm, without the minor cavities in the sides, of which there wereseveral, each cavity having a corresponding protuberance opposite. Thebottom of the gulf was covered to the depth of three or four inches witha powder almost impalpable, beneath which we found a continuation of theblack granite. To the right, at the lower extremity, will be noticed theappearance of a small opening; this is the fissure alluded to above, andto examine which more minutely than before was the object of our secondvisit. We now pushed into it with vigor, cutting away a quantity ofbrambles which impeded us, and removing a vast heap of sharp flintssomewhat resembling arrowheads in shape. We were encouraged topersevere, however, by perceiving some little light proceeding from thefarther end. We at length squeezed our way for about thirty feet, andfound that the aperture was a low and regularly formed arch, having abottom of the same impalpable powder as that in the main chasm. A stronglight now broke upon us, and, turning a short bend, we found ourselvesin another lofty chamber, similar to the one we had left in everyrespect but longitudinal form. Its general figure is here given.

The total length of this chasm, commencing at the opening _a_ andproceeding round the curve _b_ to the extremity _d_, is five hundred andfifty yards. At _c_ we discovered a small aperture similar to the onethrough which we had issued from the other chasm, and this was choked upin the same manner with brambles and a quantity of the white arrowheadflints. We forced our way through it, finding it about forty feet long,and emerged into a third chasm. This, too, was precisely like thefirst, except in its longitudinal shape, which was thus.

We found the entire length of the third chasm three hundred andtwenty yards. At the point _a_ was an opening about six feet wide, andextending fifteen feet into the rock, where it terminated in a bed ofmarl, there being no other chasm beyond, as we had expected. We wereabout leaving this fissure, into which very little light was admitted,when Peters called my attention to a range of singular-lookingindentures in the surface of the marl forming the termination of the_cul-de-sac_. With a very slight exertion of the imagination, the left,or most northern of these indentures might have been taken for theintentional, although rude, representation of a human figure standingerect, with outstretched arm. The rest of them bore also some littleresemblance to alphabetical characters, and Peters was willing, atall events, to adopt the idle opinion that they were really such. Iconvinced him of his error, finally, by directing his attention to thefloor of the fissure, where, among the powder, we picked up, piece bypiece, several large flakes of the marl, which had evidently been brokenoff by some convulsion from the surface where the indentures were found,and which had projecting points exactly fitting the indentures; thusproving them to have been the work of nature.

After satisfying ourselves that these singular caverns afforded us nomeans of escape from our prison, we made our way back, dejected anddispirited, to the summit of the hill. Nothing worth mentioning occurredduring the next twenty-four hours, except that, in examining the groundto the eastward of the third chasm, we found two triangular holes ofgreat depth, and also with black granite sides. Into these holes wedid not think it worth while to attempt descending, as they had theappearance of mere natural wells, without outlet. They were each abouttwenty yards in circumference, and their shape, as well as relativeposition in regard to the third chasm, is shown in figure 5. {image}