on that I once more renewed my pursuit.  As I continued to advance I found the ascent became more precipitous, and the difficulties opposed to my progress momentarily more multiplied.  Still, nothing daunted, I continued my course towards the main body of rock that now rose within a hundred 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 above the abyss.  I bent my eye eagerly and fixedly on the spot whence the sound proceeded, and presently could distinguish the blue sky appearing through an aperture, to which was, the instant afterwards, applied what I conceived to be a human face.  No sooner, however, was it seen than withdrawn; and then the rustling of leaves was heard again, and all was still as before.