The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-06-06

co.
where he placed it. The perspiration
streamed down from every pore, and the
few garments we had retained were wet
through and through before the halfway
point was reached, and still high es ever,
seemingly, the grim cliff to the left tow
cred above US, the tiny and feeble nnts
creeping up its side. By this time, too,
we had become tormented with intolera-
BILE thirst, our faces were flushed and
sun-burned, the tongue clave to the roof
of the mouth, defying all attempts at ar
ticulation, and the heart beat so rapidly
and fercely that it seemed as if the blood
would be forced from the throat and ears
and from the blood.shot eyes; and still
upward we toiled and groaned, while'as
if to add to our misery the two young
children of the mist skipped from rock
to rock and from bush to briar singing
like $50 pound larks on their way to the
sun.
We reached the top after while, and
found the Messrs. Excelsior stretched at
ease Oh the messy banks of little stream
whose waters-oh! so greedily drunk
flowed as sweetly for us in that hour as
did those which gushed forth for the
children of Israel from that other cleft
rock five thousand years ago.
Arrived at the top, we learned that
Afford lived on mountain half mile
away, so concluded to try the search first
without him. A rugged walk of few
hundred yards accordingly brought us to
the edge of the precipice, which we
found to be so rounding that NE scarcely
knew when we had turned downward,
and only appreciated this fact when,
peering through the laurel bushes on its
verge, we looked out through space to
the mountains across the valley, and
down, down, do,oa upon fields aud farms
far below, aud almost under footl /
turned back with q sickening shpdder,
and felt impelled to cling to; the trunks
Of the trees about me in order to resist
the power of those strong invisible hands
of the spirits of the air, which seemed
TO- be drawing me iirresistibly, over the
verge and down to. q bloody and cruel
death on the rocks below. / was sick to
the soul, and overcome with sensation
akin to intense nausea, as long as ] re-
manned where I, could look over that
brink of destruction.
After nearly an. hour spent in vain
search for the crevice in the locality
where we expected to find it, we at last
came to the unwilling conclusion that we
had been duped, and we're on the point
Of giving up the quest, when one of, the
guides, who had strayed off to some dis
tance alone, suddenly hailed us with the
cry
HERE 1T Is!
A scramble across little ravine en-
sued; no man taking any heed to his
way or to. his personal safety, and within
one hundred yards of where we had been
sitting in consultation as to what should
be done to Afford when we caught him,
we found Foster, the guide, lying fiat on
his face and looking down into an ugly
hole in the mountain sidel The hole
proved. to be the crack / had come two
hundred miles to find, and it extended,
as far as could be seen, some distance on
either side, but was covered tor the most
part by q treacherous carpet Of dead
leaves, twigs and moss, the accumulation
of years, aud which formed dangerous
trap for the unwary foot passing over it.
Looking into the hole you saw that the
crevice extended downward in slanting
direction for few yards and ended in q
vertical one, which, of course, was not
accessible, save to one who might creep
down the slant to its edge. None of us
crept down the slant. A number of
stones were rolled into the crack at diff
ferent points, and these disappeared over
the edge in question and fell with thud
upon the bottom or some ledge far out of
sight below, but at what varying depths
we could not determine. The crack at
this place was about four feet wide, and
this was its greatest width so far as we
could ascertain by uncovering it at inter-
walls. It's length was about one hundred
yards. Its position was perhaps forty or
fifty yards from the edge of the cliff, with
the liae of which it nearly corresponded
in direction, and it was terminated at
either end by little ravines running back
from the precipice at right angles to both
precipice and crack.
The surface of the ground for hundreds
of yards from the bottom of the cliff is
covered with immense boulders, ranging
in size from that of an ordinary dwelling
house down to that of barrel. My
opinion, and all appearances justify me
in giving it without hesitation, is that
the weight of this portion of the cliff
has caused it to fall away from the noun
tain, and the gap will probably widen
gradually as the supporting earth beneath
the detached portion gives way, until
some day the whole mass will fall out
from its place and descend with force to
the fields below, leaving broad, deep
gap where it now stands. The rock of
the cliff, and of all the mountain, indeed,
is of nature which cracks very easily,
and the face of the cliff, indeed, is fssured
in every direction by thousands of open
seams. By stamping the foot heavily on
the rock below the crack the whole frag-
ment is Jared, and the conclusion can be
felt at the distance of many yards by
placing the hand upon the trunk of
tree growing upon it.
The error of supposing that the crack
extends into the mountain was q natural
one, it is true, but very little thought or
experience was necessary to detect the
true state of affairs, and every one pres
ent readily assented to the views above
given.
1t is only necessary to repeat what was
said in my telegram yesterday, that the
creyice has been formed recently, and
nearly a year since the last shock was
felt under the mountain, and it may be
added that the catastrophe which is now
anticipated to take place on Bald Noun
tain at any time is of frequent occurrence
on every mountain in the country.