The foregoing description of an elk-hunt will give the reader a
good idea of the power of this animal in stemming rapids and
climbing dangerous precipices; but even an elk is not proof
against the dangers of Fort M'Donald river, an example of which
we had on the following morning.
The hounds found a doe who broke cover close to me in a small
patina and made straight running for the river. She had no
sooner reached it than I beard her cry out, and as she was
closely followed I thought she was seized. However, the whole
pack shortly returned, evidently thrown out, and I began to abuse
them pretty roundly, thinking that they had lost their game in
the river. So they had, but in an excusable manner; the poor doe
had been washed down a rapid, and had broken her thigh. We found
her dead under a hollow rock in the middle of the river.
Here we had a fine exemplification of the danger of the
mysterious pools.
While I was opening the elk, with the pack all round me licking
their lips in expectation, old "Madcap" was jostled by one of the
greyhounds, and slipped into a basin among the rocks, which
formed an edge of about two feet above the surface.
The opposite side of the pool was hemmed in by rocks about six
feet high, and the direction of the under-current was at once
shown by poor old "Madcap" being swept up against this high wall
of rock, where she remained paddling with all her might in an
upright position.
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