318 DRUID ALONE. 



tongue I knew that lie was in water, and as he occasion 

 ally checked I was convinced that the deer was trying to 

 baffle him by " taking soil," and going in and out of the 

 water, and I would have given worlds to have arrived 

 on the immediate spot. Before I could attain it, however, 

 and at the exact place which I was endeavouring to reach, 

 the doe made her appearance behind the hound, when at 

 considerably more than a hundred yards, and when going 

 at speed, I took a random shot, but 'of course in vain, and 

 she disappeared again into the creek, when, if Mr Canter- 

 all had had his wits about him, and if he could have held 

 his gun straight, he might very possibly have been of 

 service. He ought to have got on considerably ahead, so 

 much so as to have made himself quite certain that he 

 would have kept the doe between him and me ; instead 

 of this he made for the exact spot in which the doe had 

 disappeared, and as in such a situation he was infinitely 

 more likely to have done harm than good, I cried to him 

 to stand still, and then I called on Druid. Unfortunately 

 at this moment two fresh obstacles to haste arose : one 

 was that the banks of the creek, in many places from the 

 water's edge, were so rocky and steep, that having hunted 

 the deer into the water, if Druid missed some narrow land 

 ing-place by whicli to ascend, he could not find another for 

 a long distance ; and the other was that we had crossed the 

 line of a fresh deer. After considerable delay, however, 

 I regained the obedient attention of the hound, and laid 

 him on the hunted deer, and by degrees, but more coldly, 

 we hunted up to George, who had viewed the doe going 

 back over the plains in the direction whence she had 

 come. The scent, however, with the decline of day, got 

 much worse, when as we were still an unknown distance 

 from the camping-place, and the shades of evening were 



