Immediately before me, rose the hill from which the elk had
barked; beneath my feet, the river stretched into a wide pool on its
entrance to the jungle.
This jungle clothed the precipitous cliffs of a
deep ravine, down which the river fell in two cataracts; these were
concealed from view by the forest. I waited in breathless expectation of
'the find.' A few minutes passed, when the sudden burst of the pack in
full cry came sweeping down upon the light breeze; loudly the cheering
sound swelled as they topped the hill, and again it died away as they
crossed some deep ravine. In a few minutes the cry became very distant;
as the elk was evidently making straight up the hills; once or twice I
feared he would cross them, and make away for a different part of the
country. The cry of the pack was so indistinct that my ear could barely
catch it, when suddenly a gust of wind from that direction brought down
a chorus of voices that there was no mistaking: louder and louder the
music became; the elk had turned, and was coming down the hill-side at a
slapping pace. The jungle crashed as he came rushing through the
yielding branches. Out he came, breaking cover in fine style, and away
he dashed over the open country. He was a noble buck, and had got a long
start; not a single hound had yet appeared, but I heard them coming
through the jungle in full cry. Down the side of the hill he came
straight to the pool beneath my feet. Yoick to him! Hark forward to him!
and I gave a view halloa till my lungs had well-nigh cracked. I had lost
sight of him, as he had taken to water in the pool within the jungle.
One more halloa! and out came the gallant old fellow Smut from the
jungle, on the exact line that the elk had taken. On he came, bounding
along the rough side of the hill like a lion, followed by only two
dogs--Dan, a pointer (since killed by a leopard), and Cato, a young dog
who had never yet seen an elk. The remainder of the pack had taken after
a doe that had crossed the scent, and they were now running in a
different direction. I now imagined that the elk had gone down the
ravine to the lower plains by some run that might exist along the edge
of the cliff, and accordingly I started off along a deer-path through
the jungle, to arrive at the lower plains by the shortest road that I
could make.
Hardly had I run a hundred yards, when I heard the ringing of the bay
and the deep voice of Smut, mingled with the roar of the waterfall, to
which I had been running parallel. Instantly changing my course, I was
in a few moments on the bank of the river just above the fall. There
stood the buck at bay in a large pool about three feet deep, where the
dogs could only advance by swimming. Upon my jumping into the pool, he
broke his bay, and, dashing through the dogs, he appeared to leap over
the verge of the cataract, but in reality he took to a deer-path which
skirted the steep side of the wooded precipice. So steep was the
inclination that I could only follow on his track by clinging to the
stems of the trees. The roar of the waterfall, now only a few feet on my
right hand, completely overpowered the voices of the dogs wherever they
might be, and I carefully commenced a perilous descent by the side of
the fall, knowing that both dogs and elk must be somewhere before me. So
stunning was the roar of the water, that a cannon might have been fired
without my hearing it. I was now one-third of the way down the fall,
which was about fifty feet deep. A large flat rock projected from the
side of the cliff, forming a platform of about six feet square, over one
corner of which, the water struck, and again bounded downwards. This
platform could only be reached by a narrow ledge of rock, beneath which,
at a depth of thirty feet, the water boiled at the foot of the fall.
Upon this platform stood the buck, having gained his secure but
frightful position by passing along the narrow ledge of rock. Should
either dog or man attempt to advance, one charge from the buck would
send them to perdition, as they would fall into the abyss below. This
the dogs were fully aware of, and they accordingly kept up a continual
bay from the edge of the cliff, while I attempted to dislodge him by
throwing stones and sticks upon him from above.
Finding this uncomfortable, he made a sudden dash forward, and, striking
the dogs over, away he went down the steep sides of the ravine, followed
once more by the dogs and myself.
By clinging from tree to tree, and lowering myself by the tangled
creepers, I was soon at the foot of the first fall, which plunged into a
deep pool on a flat plateau of rock, bounded on either side by a
wall-like precipice.
This plateau was about eighty feet in length, through which, the water
flowed in two rapid but narrow streams from the foot of the first fall
towards a second cataract at the extreme end. This second fall leaped
from the centre of the ravine into the lower plain.
When I arrived on this fine level surface of rock, a splendid sight
presented itself. In the centre of one of the rapid streams, the buck
stood at bay, belly-deep, with the torrent rushing in foam between his
legs. His mane was bristled up, his nostrils were distended, and his
antlers were lowered to receive the dog who should first attack him.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 48 of 90
Words from 47937 to 48950
of 91283
