78 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



he sudde'nly came running back to say that a rogue 

 elephant was bathing himself on the opposite shore, at 

 about two miles' distance. 



I immediately took my guns and went after him. 

 My path lay along the top of the great dam, which 

 formed a causeway covered with jungle. This cause- 

 way was about sixty feet in breadth and two miles in 

 length : the lake washed its base about twenty feet 

 below the summit. The opposite shore was a fine 

 plain, bordered by open forest, and the lake spread into 

 the grassy surface in wide 'and irregular bays. 



I continued my course along the causeway at a fast 

 walk, and on arriving at the extremity of the lake I 

 noticed that the ancient dam continued for a much 

 greater distance. This, together with the great height 

 of the masonry from the level of the water, proved 

 that the dimensions of the lake had formerly been of 

 much greater extent. 



Descending by the rugged stones which formed the 

 dam wall, I reached the plain, and, keeping close to 

 the water's edge, I rounded a large neck of land 

 covered with trees, which projected for some distance 

 into the lake. I knew, by the position of the elephant 

 when I first saw him, that he was not far beyond this 

 promontory, and I carefully advanced through the open 

 forest, hoping that I might meet him there on his exit 

 from his bath. In this I was mistaken, for on passing 

 through this little belt of trees I saw the elephant still 

 in the lake, belly deep, about three hundred paces from 

 me. He was full a hundred and twenty yards from the 

 shore, and I was puzzled how to act. He was an im- 

 mense brute, being a fine specimen of a tank " rogue." 

 This class are generally the worst description of rogue 



