292 FATAL ACCIDENT. 



wear themselves out in an useless contention 

 with the current, in endeavouring to get to him 

 It was a shocking scene : many of the hounds, 

 when they reached the shore, had entirely lost 

 the use of their limbs; for it froze, and the cold 

 was intolerable. Some lay as if they were dead, 

 and others reeled as if they had been drinking 

 wine. Our distress was not yet complete: the 

 weakest hounds, or such as were most affected 

 by the cold, we now saw entangled in the tops 

 of the hedges, and heard their lamentations. 

 Well-known tongues ! and such as I had never 

 before heard without pleasure. It was shock- 

 ing to see their distress, and not know how to 

 relieve them. A number of people, by this 

 time, were assembled by the river side ; but 

 there was not one amongst them that would 

 venture in. However, a guinea, at last, tempt- 

 ed one man to fetch out a hound that was 

 entangled in a bush, and would otherwise have 

 perished. Two hounds remained upon a hedge 

 all night, yet they got together before the morn- 

 ing ; when, the flood abating, they were found 

 closely clasping each other, and without doubt 

 it was the little heat they could afford each 

 other that kept both alive. We lost but one 

 hound by this unlucky expedition, but we lost 



