134 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



the herd, and advancing a few paces from the bush, 

 they halted, and evidently winded me. I was screen- 

 ing myself behind a small tree, and the open ground 

 between me and the game precluded the possibility of 

 a nearer approach. It was a random distance for a 

 deer, but I took a rest against the stem of the tree and 

 fired at the buck as he stood with his broadside ex- 

 posed, being shoulder to shoulder with the doe. Away 

 went the herd, flying over the plain ; but, to my delight, 

 there were two white bellies struggling upon the ground. 

 I ran up to cut their throats ;* the two-ounce ball^ had 

 passed through the shoulders of both ; and I stepped 

 the distance to the tree from which I had fired, " two 

 hundred and thirteen paces." 



Shortly after this I got another shot, which, by a 

 chance, killed two deer. I was strolling through a 

 narrow glade with open jungles upon either side, when 

 I suddenly heard a quick double shot, and I heard the 

 rush of a large herd of deer coming through the jungle. 

 I immediately lay flat upon the ground, and presently 

 an immense herd of full a hundred deer passed across 

 the glade at full gallop, within seventy yards of me. 

 Jumping up, I fired at a doe, and, to my surprise, two 

 deer fell to the shot, one of which was a fawn : the ball 

 had passed through the shoulder of the mother, and 

 had broken the fawn's neck upon the opposite side. 

 I am astonished that this chance of killing two at one 

 shot does not more often happen when the dense body 

 of a herd of deer is exposed to a rifle-ball. 



Deer-stalking is one of the most exciting sports in 

 the world. I have often crept upon hands and knees 



* This is necessary to allow the blood to escape, otherwise they 

 would be unfit for food. 



