inging back from the enemy, with every muscle
exerted to the utmost, in the direction the women and baggage had gone.
Laban and his sons were near me, I believed, but already dense showers
of snow, or rather solid masses, the _avant-coureurs_ of the avalanche,
were falling down on us and preventing me seeing anything many feet from
where I was. Unearthly shrieks and cries of terror and despair reached
my ears; a mass of snow struck me, and brought me to the ground deprived
of consciousness.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

I FIND MYSELF UNDER THE SNOW--MY ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE APPEAR TO BE VAIN--
STRUGGLE ON--AM FREE, BUT FIND MYSELF ALONE AMONG THE MOUNTAINS--PUSH
ON--ENCOUNTER A GRIZZLY BEAR--A FIGHT--WILL HE EAT ME, OR SHALL I EAT
HIM?--THE PLEASANTEST ALTERNATIVE OCCURS, AND BRUIN SAVES MY LIFE--I
HURRY ON IN THE HOPES OF OVERTAKING MY FRIENDS--TAKE UP MY LODGING FOR
THE NIGHT IN A CAVERN.

When I saw the avalanche come thundering down towards me, although I
used my utmost exertions to escape, I in reality had completely given
myself up for lost. My feelings were very bitter, but they were of
short duration, when I was brought stunned to the ground. I came to
myself at last, or I should not be writing this; but where I was, or
what had occurred, it was some time before I could recollect. At last a
dim consciousness came over me that something terrific had happened, and
I opened my eyes and looked about; I was under the snow, or rather under
a mass of ice in a space ten or twelve feet long, and about three high,
being rather wider at the base. This was a very respectable sized tomb,
and such I feared that it would prove to me, unless I could work my way
out of it. Of course I knew that I might be released when the snow
melted, but I should inevitably be starved long before that event could
take place, not to speak of dying of chill, and damp, and rheumatism.

My principle has always been never to say die; if it had been otherwise
I should not be again in Old England. My rifle lay on the ground close
to me where I had fallen; my hand still grasped the long pike I always
carried, and the ever constant weapon of the backwoodsman, my hatchet,
was in my belt. I crawled along to one end of the icy cavern, tapping
the roof to ascertain if there was any crack through which I may work my
way, but it was one solid sheet of ice; the end was blocked up also by a
solid mass, through which, after making several attempts, I found it