20 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [July 1, 1901. 
The pack, now almost all up, pressed Iiim fiercely, 
and raised such a chorus on his line that even the 
roar of the falls and the noise of the wind could 
not drown it. They hustled him alous^ through the 
dense forest, and now he tried a desperate move to 
baffle his pursuers. We were on the very top and 
brink of the falls, and Maitland waded across the 
pool just above where the stag had made a short 
stand, whilst I waited, expecting he would run a 
short ring and return to the same pool to continue 
the fight. Leaving tlie falls for a moment, I could 
hear hounds getting lower and lower, baying as 
they went. 
It was a frightful bit of country. The falls are 
broken into three steps or ledges, with a desp pool 
worn into the solid rock, into which the water 
plunges with a roar. The first fall is some 25ft., 
on to a narrow ledge, thence, after a swift swirl in 
its water-worn basin, it spouts out again over 
another 15ft. of rock on to a broader ledge below. 
Above, the river has divided so that, while half of 
it descends to the narrow ledge I have just des- 
cribed, the other half falls sheer over some 30ft. 
ihto a deep, dark pool at its base. On either side 
of these falls and within the influence of the water 
are perpendicular cliffs, from crevices in which 
magnificent tree-ferns lean their graceful fronds 
towards the spray. 
It had now become evident to me that there 
was no chance of the stag ever reaching the top 
of the falls again, and the sound of hounds could 
now only faintly be heard through tlie roar of 
water. Crossing with the greatest care over the 
very brink of the precipice, where a false step or a 
slip would have meant certain death, I reached the 
other bank, and forcing my way througli dense 
undergrowth away from the falls I could again 
hear the furious baying of the pack now far 
below me. 
Looking over the edge of the precipice, which 
extended into the jungle from the river, I could see 
Maitland lowering himself by saplings, roots of 
trees, and trailing creepers into a perfect chasm. 
But the baying of a pack of hounds and a lighting 
stag will lead a man anywhere, and down I went 
hand under hand, hanging sometimes directly over 
Maitland's head. 
Just as I reached the bottom, drenched and almost 
blinded by the spray of the left-hand fall, I wit- 
nessed an extraordinary sight. On the brink of 
the fall in one living, struggling mass were the 
stag and two-thirds of the pack — the stag with his 
feet in the air and Kover fast on his ear. The 
good old hound had made his seize with such effect 
that the shock and the slippery foothold had turned 
him over. It was only a momentary glimpse, for 
at that instant the whole lot of them went over 
the fall together. The force of the stream and 
the narrowness of the ledge gave no chance for a 
sinf^le hound to avoid it. 
Following Maitland, who was the clambering 
down the side of the fall, through pools and over 
boulders anddown another wall of rock, v/e reached 
the second pool. Here the stag had reached 
his last stronghold wherein to make his final effort, 
anrl a gallant elfott it was. The depth of the 
pool into wliich he had fallen had saved his life 
for the monient, for he had somehow crushed poor 
Kover in his fall. He lost no time in making good 
his advantage. The ledge of rock here was much 
broader than the one they had just left and the 
rocky basin was some 40ft. long and 20ft. wide. 
From this there was only one way out except over 
e falls, for on the far side rose a spur of some 
.50ft. whilst on the right was the fall and 
left the lower fall. 
The rest of the field here joined us, coming down 
the face of the precipice where a few shrubs and 
saplings grew. Now the fight began in earnest. It 
was a grand and awesome sight that we looked 
upon. From above us the upper fall plunged down 
into the deep, dark pool at our feet with a thun- 
dering roar, and clouds of spray rose into the air 
around us. At the tail of the pool, and on the lip 
of the lower fall, in the tierce rush of the descend- 
mg torrent stood the stag, facing the pack, as the 
bolder ones dashed or swam towards him. Below 
and behind him no living creature could have 
gamed one second's foothold. 
[THE MASTER SOUND.S HIS HORN AFTER THE KILL 
TO CALL UP STRAGGLERS. — ENGRAVING.] 
[HERE IS A UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING TWO 
HOUNDS ABOUT TO ATTACK A STAG AT BAY 
IN THE STREAM.— ENGRAVING.) 
The water from the pool confined in its narrow 
worn channel rushed with swirl and eddy past him. 
breaking over his hocks, but barely reaching his 
knees. To reach him here with the knife was 
quite impossible. Over a sheer wall of rock the 
fall plunged with a reverberating thud into the 
pool some 30ft. below— a solid rock cauldron of 
black, seething water- 
The gallant stag here held his own and gained 
his wind once more. Hound after hound feel- 
ing the danger of the stream and fearing to face 
the stag in such a place, came away to adjacent 
rocks and ledges to bay their feelings to the full. 
But Venus, a grand white deerhound, was not to 
be denied. With the courage and recklessness of 
the best of her race she made her spring to seize 
trying for the ear as Rover had successfully done 
in tlie pool above ; but she missed her point. In a 
second she was drawn into the vortex of the deadly 
rush of water, and in another she disappeared like 
a flash into the pool some ,30ft, below. 
It was a sickening sight for her owner— indeed 
for us all— to see this grand hound whirled down 
out of sight even before she was well over the cruel 
fall. Her attack, however, dislodged the stag and 
forward lie bounded once more into the safer 
environment of the pool. But other hounds en- 
couraged by the good seizer's effort, had ventured 
too far out in the stream, and in a moment, one 
after the other. Beauty and Rosebud -a splendid 
couple of foxhounds— and Rufua and Pillager were 
swept past us over the fall. Another good hound 
followed and then another, and two were saved on 
the very brink. 
Now hound after hound dashed in to seize 
only to be pounded by the stag as he stood on 
some submerged rock ss a point of vantage to 
meet his foes. Wilson sprang in at him knife in 
hand, but missed his point behind the shoulder, 
merely grazing the skiu. 
With all one's clothes it was no light matte^' 
to swim in the swirling eddies near these grea 
falls and it was with some difficulty that he re* 
gained the ledge of rock from which he had 
jumped. The stag in the meantime, startled by 
the sudden plunge and the prick of the hunting- 
knife, swam immediately under the fall, and as 
he paased under the torrent of water he threw his 
head back and seemed to lift himself away 
from the suction of the under current, which 
must have been very strong where the fall met 
the pool. 
