suicide to stop as long as I could move, and the next
instant a low, murmuring, rushing sound reached my ears. I thought it
was fancy, but still I dragged on as fast as I could my weary steps.
The noise increased--it was that of a waterfall--I was certain of it. I
tried to hurry on my feet, and scarcely felt the pricks and cuts they
were receiving. I caught sight of the glittering spray through an
opening in the woods. I fancied that I felt the coolness of the air
passing over it. On I went. There was the water rushing, gurgling,
foaming away; but as I sprang on, forgetting my weakness, I found myself
on the top of a rock, over which I very nearly toppled into the
sought-for stream, twenty feet or more below me.

I looked about for a path to lead me down to it. I saw, a little way
higher up the stream, a part of the bank less steep than the rest. I
ran towards it. I slid down; but what was my dismay to find that I
could not stop myself, and into the water I plunged, with my rifle and
powder-flask at my back! I had now more of the element I had been so
eagerly desiring than was pleasant. My feet, however, touched the
bottom, and stooping down, I let the water run into my mouth and wash my
dried-up face. Oh, how delicious it was! It revived me and restored my
strength; and then I began to consider how I was again to get out of the
stream. The current was so strong that I dare not let go the bank, lest
I should be carried off my feet. I could not hope to climb up that down
which I had come, and those on each side were still steeper. The matter
was soon settled for me, for suddenly I felt myself taken off my feet,
and down the stream I drifted. I kept as close to the bank as I could,
grasping at the rocks as I passed, and endeavouring to climb up by them
out of the water. My anxiety was to ascertain whether or not I was
above the waterfall. If above it, I might be carried down, and fall
into the very danger I had before escaped. I tried to make out by the
sound, but could not tell, nor could I see the spray which I had before
observed. Still I hoped that I was below it. On I went, drifting down
the stream just as I have seen a dog carried along a river when he is
trying to climb up on a steep bank. Some bushes appeared. I caught at
them--several broke in my grasp. I caught eagerly at others. My
strength was failing me. At length I seized one which held. Close to
it I saw that there was a resting-