I have told you what my object was, when I first mounted upon that ledge, and discovered the cave and its surly occupant, the bear.

I thought then, that, if we could find a series of ledges one above another, and sufficiently near each other, we might plant ladders upon them, and so reach the top.

You see that there is such a succession of ledges--just before your faces there.

Unfortunately there is one of the spaces high up yonder--where the cliff is darkest--that cannot be less than sixty or seventy feet in width.

I have ascertained that by comparing it with the height from the ground to the cave--which I had just finished measuring when I met the bear.