OF THE OLD WORLD. 515 



"We followed the trail that Chineah's party had 

 made in their reconnaisance the day before, and 

 after an hour's painful climbing up the dry bed of 

 a mountain-torrent, filled with loose round stones 

 which rolled from under the feet at every step, and 

 somewhat tried our powers as mountaineers, we 

 arrived at a natural clearing in the midst of the 

 dense forest, where the gang had seen the bison 

 browsing the day before. We examined the ground 

 carefully, and found numbers of old marks, but no 

 fresh ones, so we continued our route up the side 

 of the mountain, and after a couple of hours' severe 

 toil found ourselves in a patch of bamboo-jungle, 

 where Chineah detected the fresh trail of a herd of 

 bison. 



Being thoroughly exhausted and done up with 

 our exertions, we sat down upon a ledge of rock to 

 regain our breath and rest ourselves before follow- 

 ing up the trail, and were indulging in the inde- 

 scribable luxury of weak brandy-panee and cheroots, 

 never more enjoyed than in the jungle, when an ex- 

 clamation from Googooloo caused us both to jump 

 on our feet and seize our rifles that were leaning at 

 our heads against a tree. I made a motion to our 

 people to lie flat on the ground, and listened for a 

 couple of minutes without hearing anything ; but a 

 glance at Googooloo's speaking features told me that 

 he had caught sound of something, and I remained 

 on the alert. 



Just at that moment we heard a sharp bark, 



