yards. How this was to be gained I
knew not; for it shelved out abruptly from the extreme summit,
overhanging the abyss, and presenting an appearance which I cannot more
properly render than by comparing it to the sounding-boards placed over
the pulpits of our English churches. Still I was resolved to persevere
to the close, and I but too unhappily succeeded." Again Wacousta
paused. A tear started to his eye, but this he impatiently brushed away
with his swarthy hand.

"It was evident to me," he again resumed, "that there must be some
opening through which the deer had effected his escape to the
precipitous height above; and I felt a wild and fearful triumph in
following him to his cover, over passes which it was my pleasure to
think none of the hardy mountaineers themselves would have dared to
venture upon with impunity. I paused not to consider of the difficulty
of bearing away my prize, even if I succeeded in overtaking it. At
every step my excitement and determination became stronger, and I felt
every fibre of my frame to dilate, as when, in my more boyish days, I
used to brave, in my gallant skiff, the mingled fury of the warring
elements of sea and storm. Suddenly, while my mind was intent only on
the dangers I used then to hold in such light estimation, I found my
further progress intercepted by a fissure in the crag. It was not the
width of this opening that disconcerted me, for it exceeded not ten
feet; but I came upon it so unadvisedly, that, in attempting to check
my forward motion, I had nearly lost my equipoise, and fallen into the
abyss that now yawned before and on either side of me. To pause upon
the danger, would, I felt, be to ensure it. Summoning all my dexterity
into a single bound, I cleared the chasm; and with one buskined foot
(for my hunting costume was strictly Highland) clung firmly to the
ledge, while I secured my balance with the other. At this point the
rock became gradually broader, so that I now trod the remainder of the
rude path in perfect security, until I at length found myself close to
the vast mass of which these ledges were merely ramifications or veins:
but still I could discover no outlet by which the wounded deer could
have escaped. While I lingered, thoughtfully, for a moment, half in
disappointment, half in anger, and with my back leaning against the
rock, I fancied I heard a rustling, as of the leaves and branches of
underwood, on that part which projected like a canopy, far a