A few minutes later I stepped
forth on the platform, some two hundred yards in circumference,
whereon the vessel rested. The mist immediately around me was fast
dispersing; five hundred feet below it still concealed everything. On
three sides descent was barred by sheer precipices; on the fourth a
steep slope promised a practicable path, at least as far as my eye
could reach. I placed the weaker and smaller of my birds in portable
cages, and then commenced my experiment by taking out a strong-winged
cuckoo and throwing him downwards over the precipice. He fell at first
almost like a stone; but before he was quite lost to sight in the
mist, I had the pleasure of seeing that he had spread his wings, and
was able to sustain himself. As the mist was gradually dissolving, I
now ventured to begin my descent, carrying my bird-cages, and
dismissing the larger birds, several of which, however, persistently
clung about me. I had secured on my back an air-gun, arranged to fire
sixteen balls in succession without reloading, while in my belt,
scabbarded in a leathern sheath, I had placed a well and often tried
two-edged sword.
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