This faithful animal became much attached to me, from whom he invariably received his portion of food.  He never quitted me, nor followed any one else; and he was my companion when I went on this excursion.

We reached the summit of the first mountain, whence we saw the goats browsing on the second, and meant to go there in pursuit of the objects of our anxious search.  I was some yards in advance of my companions, and the dog a little distance before me, near the shelving part of a rock, terminating in a precipice.  The shelf I had to cross was about six or seven feet wide, and ten or twelve long, with a very little inclined plane towards the precipice, so that I thought it perfectly safe.  A small rill of water trickled down from the rock above it, and, losing itself among the moss and grass, fell over the precipice below, which indeed was of a frightful depth.

This causeway was to all appearance safe, compared with many which we had passed, and I was just going to step upon it, when my dog ran before me, jumped on the fatal pass—­his feet slipped from under him—­he fell, and disappeared over the precipice!  I started back—­I heard a heavy squelch and a howl; another fainter succeeded, and all was still.  I advanced with the utmost caution to the edge of the precipice, where I discovered that the rill of water had nourished a short moss, close and smooth as velvet, and so slippery as not to admit of the lightest footstep; this accounted for the sudden disappearance, and, as I concluded, the inevitable death of my dog.

My first thoughts were those of gratitude for my miraculous escape; my second unwillingly glanced at the fate of my poor men, too probably lying lifeless at the foot of this mountain.  I stated my fears to the two seamen who were with me, and who had just come up.  The whole bore too much the appearance of truth to admit of a doubt.  We descended the ruins by a circuitous and winding way; and, after an hour’s difficult and dangerous walk, we reached the spot, where all our fears were too fully confirmed.  There lay the two dead bodies of our companions, and that of my dog, all mangled in a shocking manner; both, it would appear, had attempted to cross the shelf in the same careless way which I was about to do, when Providence interposed the dog in my behalf.

This singular dispensation was not lost upon me; indeed, latterly, I had been in such perils, and seen such hair-breadth escapes, that I became quite an altered and reflecting character.  I returned to my men at the cove, thoughtful and melancholy; I told them of what had happened; and, having a Prayer-book with me in my trunk, I proposed to them that I should read the evening prayers, and a thanksgiving for our deliverance.