Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1870-09-14
A Chase after an ELK.
BY A. D. VENTURE.

4 Chase after an ELK.
BY A. D. VENTURE.
The Grand hunter, with ten couples
of well-trained hounds, starting out
cheerily at the first flush of a beautiful
sunrise and plunging at once into a for
est or Jungle, where great numbers of
elk are roaming, would not be likely to
reach home at night without having
caused the death Of one or more Of them.
But the elk is a grand, strong creature,
and sometimes carries immense branch
ed horns that, with his hoOfs, are such
hard weapons to meet, that neither dogs
nor men are always able to conquer him
in battle.
'Hie, there! yn-O-i, come along here
shouted Sir Beker % his twenty hounds;
and away they all rushed into the
mOuntain-wOods, in search of deer.
There were plenty Of tracks there, and
presently the dogs found where the
broad hOOfs of noble elk had but lately
left their print in the moist earth, and
off they all went, with wild eyes in
search Of him.
There he was, not far away, down
the side Of the steep ridge, and
there were twenty Of his deadly enemies
sweeping toward him, with their cruel
Jaws ready to seize and drag him down
to his death. lie did not run at first
not he : but turned and stood gallantly
at bay, waiting for the attack. Perhaps
however, he saw Sir Boxer in the dis
tance, and feared him more than all the
rest, for he suddenly turned and swept,
swift as the wind, down the mountain
and towards the river, with the hounds
in full cry after him.
Now this Fort Mcdonald River is a
terrible stream to hunt on. You must
know it rises among some of the loftiest
mountains in the world. These noun
tains there are more than a thousand of
them, are in the central part of the is
land of Ceylon, which you remember is
south of Hindostan, in the Indian Ocean
and that it is a country where steady.
rains prevail for many weeks. But one
tall mountain called Hackgalla, stands
boldly up and breasts the clouds, as they
drive in from the sea, so that they pause
and hurl down their waters, or roll in
sinking masses of sunlit mists into the
gorge below. And there Fushes the FiY-
er Fort Mcdonald! Leaping from crag
to crag, rolling over heaped-up rocks,
edged by sharp cliffs and dark jungles
that can scarcely be entered, they are so
thick, dashing, whirling, falling, with
cOnst9nt roar, into deep gOrges where
the light can hardly follow-surely that
is not such a river as one would select to
hunt beside
No one knew better than that elk
what a wild place it was; but he was
strong, and swift and sUre-fOOted, and
meant to give his foes some hard work
to do and who blameS him? Sir Ba-
ker hurried on after his hounds, who ran
so fast that they were quite out of his
sight in a few minutes. The place was
so steep that he had to cling to the
tough saplings to keep himself from fall
ling far down upon the rocks; and he
would have lost all track of the dogs, if
some natives had rot told him which
way the hunt had turned.
After running a mile or so, he found
the track of the elk, and heard the
hounds tearing through the jungle in
search of it. Forward, ; he shouted, and
one and all, hearing his call rushed tow
ard him and on beyond straight to the
noble game.
What. a run Sir Baker had then no,
what a scramble! for no man could run
down such a steep rs that. He had but
half mile, though, to scramble and
roll and slide, before he heard the stag
at bay. Far beneath, he saw him, STAN
ding upon grassy platform, near the
river, with the whole pack around him.
Gallant fellow! As often as they drew
close together and charged upon him, so
often he lowered his stately head and
sent them spinning away, with those
mighty horns of his.
The hunter swung himself down from
tree to tree, and came out of the jungle
but a few yards from the scene Ofaction.
The elk turned from the pack, to see
who this new enemy might be; and
! turning, clambered down the steep prec-
/ ipice to the river, followed at a slow
/ walk by his foes.
Just here the river rolled down a fall
eighty feet deep, and few yards further
on, made grand plunge of full three
/ hundred feet, roaring so loudly that Sir
! Baker could not hear the voices of his
pack. The elk stood on the brink of the
! boiling waters, waiting to meet the
hounds. When they had reached him
/ he turned, as if defying them to follow
/ him, and leaped across the boiling rap
pids, springing from rock to rock above
the cataract, until he reached the other
side. Here his foot slipped, and he be-
gan sliding down toward the river.
I Was it not bad enough to be caught I'M
| the whiTl of those terrible waves, with
out being set upon by cruel-tOOthed crea-
lures and dragged by them towards the
fearful fall? Two of the dogs had been
bold enough to leap after him, and they
/ sprang upon him, and all three rolled
4 over and over in the boiling waves.
But the elk was very strong; he bTeas-
/ ted the waters and choosing the shall
/ lowest places, was fast reaching a spot
4 of safety. The two dogs were swept al
I most down to the edge of the fall, but
4 being thrown near the land managed to
f scramble out.
In rushed the whole pack at that, and
{. swan after the stag; but he sent them
whirling from him down toward the
4 cataract They ystruggled-oh, how they
4 struggled and all but one reached the
bank at last. ''Phrenzy,' spun around
in the rapids, until over she went, and
was never heard of afterWaTd.
But, there was the elk on the other
i side, where neither dog nor man could
reach him, walking off with stately step
and lifted head, looking like q king of
the forest and the flood No death for
him that day. and man and dogs were
welcome to toll back again, tired and
out of breath, all the hard miles they
had come-and served them right.
A man in Boston is SO snort that when
he is i'll he don't know whether he has
headache or cOTns.
Il go through work, said the needle to
the idle boy. But not until you are
hard pushed, said the idle boy to the
needle.
AN observer says:-Children are not
so well behaved since the mothers have
taken to wearing high-buttoned boots.
California is going it strong on the
chicken business. One hatcher has an
owen in which he matches 200 dozen eggs
at a sitting
A boarding house in Boston adveTtises
that -four Christian young men are
wanted, who neither chew, smoke, spit
nor swear
IT is stated that four Presidents of the
United States never visited New Eng
land-Madison, Harrison Taylor, and
Buchanan.
Tom THUMB is the largest Of a party