216 THE EASTEEN HUNTEES. 



had gone ; but after looking about for some time, 

 and finding no trace of it, he returned to the place 

 where it had been wounded, with the object of 

 taking up its pugs. He was by himself, as his spare 

 gun-bearer had gone to fetch men to carry home the 

 game already slain ; and now he found, as he had 

 often before done, the advantage of being able to 

 track. 



There was no blood on the trail ; and many, 

 from that fact alone, would have given up further 

 pursuit as useless. But he came to one place where 

 the pugs were quite irregular, as if the deer had 

 staggered, or stumbled badly ; and continuing on 

 for about three hundred yards further, found the 

 creature lying dead. 



After tearing a piece off his puggree, and tying it 

 to a wand which he stuck upright over the body, he 

 carefully retraced his steps, breaking branches off 

 the bushes as he passed along. This plan he pur- 

 sued as far as a tall tree, which was a prominent 

 object, and to which he thought he could direct the 

 men from the village, knowing that if they once 

 reached it, his marks would be a sufficient guide for 

 them to find the deer. And when the deer was 

 subsequently brought in, he improved the occasion 

 by again reading a lesson to Mackenzie on the 

 advantage of knowing how to track, and lamenting 



