He was lying face down, his arms stretched out wide at either side, his fingers convulsively clutching at TUFTS of grass.
"The Shepherd of the North"
Richard Aumerle Maher
Where the natives had passed the night, no huts, even of bushes, had been set up; a few TUFTS of dry grass only, marked the spot where, beside a small fire, each person had sat folded up, like the capital letter N; but with the head reclining on the knees, and the whole person resting on the feet and thigh-joints, clasped together by the hands grasping each ankle.
"Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia In Search of a Route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (1848) by Lt. Col. Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell Kt. D.C.L. (1792-1855) Surveyor-General of New South Wales"
Thomas Mitchell
All loose stones, TUFTS of grass and moss, had to be thrown down, and, in the absence of hand and foot hold, the knees, elbows, thighs, and other parts of the body had to do the holding on, whilst, caterpillar-like, we drew ourselves upward bit by bit.
"Climbing in The British Isles. Vol. 1 - England"
W. P. Haskett Smith