346 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



hollowed in the granite, similar to tliat "which confers 

 sanctity on Adam's Peak, the towering apex of which, 

 about forty miles distant, the pilgrims can discern from 

 Aetagalla. 



At times the heat at KornegaUe is extreme, in con- 

 sequence of the perpetual glow diffused from these 

 granite cliffs. The warmth they acqim^e duruig the 

 blaze of noon becomes ahnost intolerable towards 

 evening, and the sultiy night is too short to permit 

 them to cool between the settino; and the rising; of the 

 sun. The chstrict is also hable to occasional droughts 

 when the watercourses ftiil, and the tanks are dried 

 up ; one of these occurred about the period of my visit, 

 and such was the suffering of the wild animals that 

 numbers of alligators and bears made then- way into 

 the to^vn to drink at the wells. But the soil is prolific 

 in the extreme ; rice, cotton, and dry grain are culti- 

 vated largely in the valley. Every cottage is sur- 

 rounded by gardens of coco-nuts, arecas, jak-fruit and 

 coffee ; the slopes, which they till, are covered with 

 luxuriant vegetation, and, as far as the eye can reach 

 on every side, there are dense forests intersected by 

 streams, in the shade of which the deer and the elephant 

 abound. 



In 1847 arrangements were made for one of the 

 great elephant hunts for the supply of the Ci\'il 

 Engineer Department, and the spot fixed on by Mr. 

 Morris, the Government officer who conducted the corral, 

 was on the banks of the Kimbul river, about fifteen 

 miles from KornegaUe. The country over which we rode 

 to the scene of the capture showed traces of the recent 

 di'ought, the fields lay to a great extent untiUed owing 

 to the want of water, and the tanks, almost reduced to 

 dryness, were covered with the leaves of the rose-coloured 

 lotus. 



Our cavalcade was as oriental as the scenery through 

 which it moved ; the Governor and the officers of his 

 staff and household formed a long cortege, escorted by 



