We tried to work along the edge till we should reach a lower place, but this utterly failed.

We were obliged to retrace our steps to the open wood above the slashing.

But if the downward climbing had been hard, this attempt to pull ourselves up again,-- "...

superasque evadere ad auras,"-- was labor indeed.

We stopped several times from sheer exhaustion, so blown that it seemed almost impossible to get breath again.