Aug. 1849. KINCHIN DROWNED. 101 



had vainly tried to cure him, of running for a few yards on 

 the round bamboos by which the cane-bridges are crossed, 

 and on which it was impossible for a dog to retain his 

 footing : in this situation he used to get thoroughly 

 frightened, and lie down on the bamboos with his legs 

 hanging over the water, and having no hold whatever. I 

 had several times rescued him from this perilous position, 

 which was always rendered more imminent from the 

 shaking of the bridge as I approached him. On the 

 present occasion, I stopped at the foot of some rocks 

 below the bridge, botanizing, and Kinchin having 

 scrambled up the rocks, ran on to the bridge. I could 

 not see him, and was not thinking about him, when 

 suddenly his shrill, short barks of terror rang above the 

 roaring torrent. I hastened to the bridge, but before I 

 could get to it, he had lost his footing, and had dis- 

 appeared. Holding on by the canes, I strained my eyes 

 till the bridge seemed to be swimming up the valley, and 

 the swift waters to be standing still, but to no purpose ; 

 he had been carried under at once, and swept away miles 

 below. For many days I missed him by my side on the 

 mountain, and by my feet in camp. He had become a 

 very handsome dog, with glossy black hair, pendent 

 triangular ears, short muzzle, high forehead, jet-black 

 eyes, straight limbs, arched neck, and a most glorious tail 

 curling over his back.* 



A very bad road led to the village of Keadom, situated 

 on a flat terrace several hundred feet above the river, and 

 G,G09 feet above the sea, where I spent the night. Here 

 are cultivated plantains and maize, although the elevation 



* The woodcut at vol. i. p. 90, gives the character of the Tibet mastiff, to which 

 breed his father belonged; but it is not a portrait of himself, having been 

 sketched from a dog of the pure breed, in the Zoological Society's Gardens, by 

 C. Jenyns, Esq. 



