From the acute but momentary pang this gave me, my attention was soon called off; for scarcely had my arm been struck, when a loud clattering noise to my left induced me to turn, and then, to my astonishment, I saw my friend O'Leary about twelve feet from the ground, hanging on by some ash twigs that grew from the clefts of the granite.
"The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete"
Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
Then-like the great eagles roosting high overhead in the clefts of the mountainside-these mites of birds must needs tuck their heads beneath their wings for sleep; thus we three rested in the violent heat.
"Edge of the Jungle"
William Beebe
In winter, north of the forty-ninth parallel, and especially in those deep clefts like the Toba, dusk falls at four in the afternoon, and day has not grown to its full strength at nine in the morning.
"The Hidden Places"
Bertrand W. Sinclair