they had retired to rest as usual,
when they were awoke by the sound of the water rushing round the house;
that they both ran out and mounted their horses to drive off the cattle,
as had been arranged. Our father took the lead, urging on before him
the cows and horses, while he followed with the sheep, when his horse
fell and he was thrown into a deep hole. As he scrambled out, the
current took him off his legs. He was nearly drowned, but after
floundering about for some time, he found himself carried up against the
hut. He immediately climbed to the roof and shouted as loud as he could
in the hopes of recalling our father, but there was no answer. Again
and again he shouted. He tried to pierce the gloom which still hung
over the land, though it was nearly morning. He felt a wish to leap off
and try and follow his master, but what had become of his horse he could
not ascertain. The waters were increasing round the cottage. He felt
it shake violently, when, to his horror, it lifted and floated bodily
away. The logs had been put together in a peculiar manner, dove-tailed
into each other, which accounted for this. He told us how forlorn and
miserable he felt, without another human being in sight, believing that
his master was lost, uncertain as to our fate, and that he himself was
hurrying to destruction. More than once he felt inclined to drop off
the roof, but love of life, or rather a sense of the wickedness of so
doing, prevailed, and he clung on till the hut grounded where we found
it.

We were now in as secure a place as any we could find in the
neighbourhood, and so Sigenok proposed seeking some necessary rest
before continuing our search. We proposed going into the house to
sleep, but we found that our bed-places had been carried away, and so,
of course, had every particle of furniture, as the bottom of the hut had
literally come out. We therefore returned to the canoe to sleep. At
early dawn we once more paddled south. There was little current and a
perfect calm. The waters, too, were subsiding, for several slight
elevations, before submerged, were now visible. After paddling for many
hours, we reached the south-western hills I have before described.
Several settlers were there, but no one had seen our father. We crossed
back to the eastern hills before night-fall. There were no tidings of
him there. The flood subsided, and we, like others, set off to return
to the now desolate site of our fo