Scenery of the Pere-wette Mountains. 239 



upon the patina. At length Merriman came bounding 

 along upon his track, full a hundred yards in advance 

 of the pack. In a few minutes every dog had disap- 

 peared in the opposite jungle on the elk's path. 



This was a part of the country where we invariably 

 lost the dogs, as they took away across a vast jungle 

 country toward a large and rapid river situated among 

 stupendous precipices. I had often endeavored to find 

 the dogs in this part, but to no purpose ; this day, how- 

 ever, I was determined to follow them if possible. I 

 made a circuit of twenty miles down into the low coun- 

 tries, and again ascending through precipitous jungles, 

 I returned home in the evening, having only recovered 

 two dogs, which I found on the other side of the range 

 of mountains over which the buck had passed. No 

 pen can describe the beauty of the scenery in this part 

 of the country, but it is the most frightful locality for 

 hunting that can be imagined. The high lands sud- 

 denly cease ; a splendid panoramic view of the low 

 country extends for thirty miles before the eye ; but to 

 descend to this precipices of immense depth must be 

 passed ; and from a deep gorge in the mountain the 

 large river, after a succession of falls, leaps in one vast 

 plunge of three hundred feet into the abyss below. 

 This is a stupendous cataract, about a mile below the 

 foot of which is the village of Perewelle'. I passed 

 close to the village, and, having ascended the steep 

 sides of the mountain, I spent hours in searching for 

 the pack, but the roaring of the river and the din of the 

 waterfalls would have drowned the cry of a hundred 

 hounds. Once, and only once, when halfway up the 

 side of the mountain, I thought I heard the deep bay 

 of a hound in the river below ; then I heard the shoul 



