They were about to have recourse to the beautiful Thibet pine--the sort which had served them for bridging the crevasse--when a new tree was discovered by them, equally beautiful, and more suitable for their purpose.

It was the cedar (_Pinus deodara_).
Ossaroo once more lamented the absence of his beloved bamboos--alleging that with a sufficient number of these he could have made ladders enough for scaling the cliff, in less than a quarter of the time it would take to construct them out of the pines.

This was no exaggeration: for the culm of the great bamboo, just as it is cut out of the brake, serves for the side of a ladder, without any pains taken with it, further than to notch out the holes in which to insert the rounds.

Moreover, the bamboo being light, would have served better than any other timber for such ladders as they required--enabling them with less trouble to get them hoisted up to the ledges--an operation in which they apprehended no little difficulty.

But although there was a species of cane growing in the valley--that known to the hill people as the "ringall"-- its culms were neither of sufficient length nor thickness for their purpose.