Year: 1860

neighborhood of the salt works of NJ


My father was first Engineer, and / fill
ed the situation Of assistant The scene
of our mining operations, at the time Of
the event which am going to narrate,
was in narrow valley, lying close to the
foot of perpendicular cliff of rock, about
one hundred feet high. On its bare sides
neither grass nor shrub, was to be seen,
and scarce any inequality was visible,
whereon the foot of the climber might
find resting place. In fact, it was con-
sdered unscalable for distance of two
miles, when it sunk down gradually at
either end to the level of the plain. AS
cending the cliff, one beheld on its sum-
nit wide plain, stretching off in the
distance from the sharp edge of the prec-
ipice, and from that dizzy point could
look down upon the works of the miners
below, close under its sides.


Upon the top of the cliff which l have
been describing, / was strolling listlessly
late one Sunday afternoon, thinking of a
strange aud sad circumstance which had
happened about year before in our fam
lily. My only brother, lad of fifteen,
had gone out early one summer morning
to shoot plover on the heights, and from
that hour had never been heard Of
When last seen, he was mounting the
cliff, from the eastern side, and though
(when alarmed at his long delay we
made immediate search and inquiry, we
never gained any further information
To speak of our family distress, and my
own heart grieving for my well-beloved
young brother, is not now my purpose !;
but it was the only subject ofmy thoughts
on that quiet summer evening, when all
the noise from the works was hushed,
and the stiffness seemed tenfold by con-
trast


now approached very near the edge
of the cliff. was now at its steepest
part, and looking down its mouth sides,
| thought how terrible fall would be; ;
but my brother could not have fallen
down. In that case his mangled body,
at least would have been found.


was recalled to myself by strange
sinking of my feet. My first confused
idea was that the soil had given away
from the edge of the cliff, upon whose
utmost verge 1 stood, and that was
about to be precipitated to the bottom.
1 became dizzy with horror, for / felt at
once that / could not recover myself, so
sudden was the eaving in of the earth
beneath me. / made one stumble for
ward, in wild struggle to save myself,
felt ringing and crushing in my ears,
and then lost all further sensation.


1t must have been many hours before
l was sufficiently conscious to know that
| still existed. Sick and bruised, was
long unable to raise myself from the
PROSTATE position in which l became
aware, at last, that / was lying. 1t was
quite dark, and every portion Of earth or
stone that touched was wet, and a smell
of damp salt pervaded the close atmos-
phere. l thought l had failed into an
extensive salt mine, but soon remember
ed that / had been standing on the edge
of the cliff. 1t was an impossibility.-
Then came the idea that must have fal-
len to the bottom, and the loose earth
and stones had fallen over me. That,
too, ] soon found equally unlikely, and,
after cropping about some time on my
hands and knees, (evcry movement one
of intense agony,) / became sure that my
prison was cave Of some extent. Too
weak to move further, l lay down and en-
deavored to think of my position. II
seemed hopeless one. was certainly
in one Of those caves formed in the salt
rocks, sometimes found by miners, run
ming far below the earth's surface. i
had no idea how far / had fallen. 1t
might be but a few feet it might be
many hundred. AS yet / could find no
trace of the passage through which had
dropped, but remembered that had a
case of matches in my pocket, and it was
not long before / succeeded in dragging
them out, though it was exoruciating
pain to my bruised limbs to move them.


Having no taper, determined to be
very careful Of the matches, and to inn
prove the short moment of light, during
which one would last. rubbed it very
carefully over the sole of my boot, then
! harder, then furiously-but Il would not