208 A BUSINESS DAY AT CHEE-HA. 



proached within fifty yards, when, snatching uf my 

 gun, I fired and lie fell. Dismounting and laying 

 down my gun, I advanced to secure him, when, sud- 

 denly regaining his legs, he slipped through my 

 fingers, and scrambling under the limbs of a low- 

 spreading oak, floundered off into a thicket and was 

 lost to view. Aware that his aim would be the 

 river, I rode quickly back to the bluff, and shouted 

 at the top of my voice. The noise of my gun and 

 my shouts now reached the pack, reviving their fail- 

 ing strength, and they bore down toward me with 

 renewed speed still I rode and shouted, in order to 

 turn back the deer, and hoping that they might 

 intercept him on their advance. The leading dogs 

 now reached the spot where the deer had fallen ; 

 there was his blood sprinkled over leaf and sod 

 but where was the deer? The laggards of the pack, 

 the cold of nose but slow of foot, now dropped in ; 

 but they all stood at complete fault ! Nimrod 

 alone (he was from a cross with the West India 

 bloodhound), traced him out on his back track, as 

 making a circuit to my left, he was working his way 

 to the river. I heard his cry of alarm, and galloping 

 in the direction, saw him seize the deer and hold 

 him fast, when he was but thirty yards distant from 

 the river. The other hounds were not up ; and a 

 second time I dismounted to lay hold of him. 



