24 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



a pit or something of that sort. However, it was 

 only a momentary movement ; for before I could 

 realise the situation, I found myself flying downhill, 

 at the heels of my deer, at a tremendous rate ; and 

 not being accustomed to such rapid motion, I soon 

 flew out of the poolk, and was dragged on my face 

 down the remainder of the declivity, with the poolk 

 sometimes lying on me, and sometimes entangled 

 about the deer's legs, and without doubt both poolk 

 and deer entirely out of my control. On reaching 

 the foot of the hill I found the others waiting for 

 me, and ascertained that I was not the only one who 

 had "preferred to change his mode of travelling in 

 order to relieve the back a little. The others praised 

 me for having kept a hold of my brute, and for not 

 slipping the rein. I cannot, however, say that this 

 praise was exactly deserved, as it certainly was not 

 my fault that the knot by which I had fastened the 

 rein to my hand refused to undo itself. 



After several such episodes (for we were now, as 

 before mentioned, on the downhill track) we, at 

 eight o'clock, arrived at our resting-place, having 

 travelled about sixty miles that day, the way being 

 chiefly uphill. Including stoppages and dinner-time, 

 this distance took us about thirteen hours, which 

 must be considered pretty fair, if we take into con- 

 sideration the travelling already accomplished by the 

 animals. 



The country during the last mile or two had en- 



