146 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



death from some unskillful wound. The best shot must 

 frequently miss by moonlight ; there is a silvery glare 

 which renders all objects indistinct and the shot very 

 doubtful ; thus two animals out of three fired at will 

 generally escape wounded. 



I was tired of watching by night, and I again re- 

 turned to the neighborhood of Yalle 1 . After a long 

 ride through a burning sun, I went down to the river to 

 bathe. The water was not more than three feet deep, 

 and was so clear that every pebble was plainly distin- 

 guishable at the bottom. 



I had waded hip-deep into the river when my servant, 

 who was on the bank, suddenly cried out, " Sar ! sar ! 

 come back, sar ! Mora ! mora ! " and he pointed to 

 some object a little higher up the stream. It was now 

 within ten or twelve yards of me, and I fancied that it 

 was a piece of drift timber, but I lost no time in reach- 

 ing the shore. Slowly the object sailed along with the 

 stream, but as it neared me, to my astonishment, a large 

 black fin protruded from the water, and the mystery 

 was at once cleared up. It was a large shark about 

 nine feet long. 



In some places the water was so shallow that his tail 

 and a portion of his back was now and then above the 

 surface. He was in search of gray mullet, with which 

 fish the river abounded ; and at this season sharks were 

 very numerous, as they followed the shoals for some dis- 

 tance up the river. My servant had been in a great 

 state of alarm, as he thought his master would have 

 been devoured in a few seconds ; but the natives of the 

 village quietly told me not to be afraid, but to bathe in 

 peace, "as sharks would not eat men at this season" 

 I was not disposed to put his epicurean scruples to the 



