244 PURSUED AND PURSUER. 



a very dense thicket, we saw them surround three enor- 

 mous deer, whose aspect seemed to lend new strength to 

 their resounding lungs. However, like prudent dogs, 

 they durst not venture on an attack, and prudently held 

 themselves on their guard. 



Immediately the deer perceived us, they slowly beat a 

 retreat ; slowly, for their feet sank deep into the fresh 

 fallen snow they plunged into it up to the belly. The 

 dogs, emboldened by this sign of fear, then rushed in 

 pursuit, though still keeping at a tolerable distance. 



Whether by chance or by peculiar tactics, the three 

 stags took three different directions. Maclean dashed 

 after the first, I pursued the second, and one of the 

 Indians sped in the track of the third. At first the 

 quadrupeds outran us : mine, especially, contrived to keep 

 five or six hundred feet ahead ; but gradually his bounds 

 became less rapid, and large gouts of blood showed that 

 the hard ice, crushed by his hoofs under the stratum of 

 freshly fallen snow, had sorely wounded him. 



The dense brushwood choking the abrupt declivities of 

 the hill hid from the eyes of each of us the animal he was 

 pursuing ; but one could distinctly hear the noise of his 

 breath through his snorting nostrils, and the crackling of 

 the branches which he snapped in his rapid flight. The 

 earth, much torn and ploughed up in various places, 

 showed where the animal had slipped or fallen; his 

 despair, augmented by the instinct of danger and the 

 impossibility of avoiding it, was manifested by unexampled 

 leaps. 



The further we advanced the more terrible became the 

 crackling of the branches, the more hurried and violent 

 the respiration of the animal, the more deeply the snow 



