The beast had planted his feet firmly upon the floor of the passage, and stretched his long body up and across the chasm to serve as a bridge for the rest.

Curdie mounted instantly upon his neck, threw his arms round him as far as they would go, and slid down in ease and safety, the bridge just bending a little as his weight glided over it.

But he thought some of the creatures would try the legserpent's teeth.
One by one the oddities followed, and slid down in safety.

When they seemed to be all landed, he counted them: there were but forty-eight.
Up the rope again he went, and found one which had been afraid to trust himself to the bridge, and no wonder! for he had neither legs nor head nor arms nor tail: he was just a round thing, about a foot in diameter, with a nose and mouth and eyes on one side of the ball.

He had made his journey by rolling as swiftly as the fleetest of them could run.
The back of the legserpent not being flat, he could not quite trust himself to roll straight and not drop into the gulf.