and made the
most extraordinary efforts to avoid their fate. They were my two
favorites of the pack, and I screamed out words of encouragement to
them, although the voice of a cannon could not have been heard among
the roar of waters. They had nearly gained the bank oil the very ver-e
of the fall, when a few tufts of lemon grass concealed them from my
view. I thought they were over, and I could not restrain a cry of
despair at their horrible fate. I felt sick with the idea. But the
next moment I was shouting hurrah! they are all right, thank goodness,
they were saved. I saw them struggling up the steep bank, through the
same lemon grass, which had for a moment obscured their fate. They
were thoroughly exhausted and half drowned.

In the mean time, the elk had manfully breasted the rapids, carefully
choosing the shallow places; and the whole pack, being mad with
excitement, had plunged into the waters regardless of the danger. I
thought every hound would have been lost. For an instant they looked
like a flock of ducks, but a few moments afterward they were scattered
in the boiling eddies, hurrying with fatal speed toward the dreadful
cataract. Poor "Phrenzy!" round she spun in the giddy vortex; nearer
and nearer she approached the verge--her struggles were
unavailing--over she went, and was of course never heard of afterward.

This was a terrible style of hunting; rather too much so to be
pleasant. I clambered down to the edge of the river just in time to see
the elk climbing, as nimbly as a cat up the precipitous bank on the
opposite side, threading his way at a slow walk under the overhanging
rocks, and scrambling up the steep mountain with a long string of
hounds at his heels in single file. "Valiant," "Tiptoe" and "Ploughboy"
were close to him, and I counted the other hounds in the line, fully
expecting to miss half of them. To my surprise and delight, only one
was absent; this was poor "Phrenzy." The others had all managed to save
themselves. I now crossed the river by leaping from rock to rock with
some difficulty, and with hands and knees I climbed the opposite bank.
This was about sixty feet high, from the top of which the mountain
commenced its ascent, which, though very precipitous was so covered
with long lemon grass that it was easy enough to climb. I looked
behind me, and there was the Tamby, all right, within a few paces.

The elk was no longer in sight, and the roar of the water was so great